What is a Termbase?

A termbase is a database containing terminology and related information. Most termbases are multilingual and contain terminology data in a range of different languages.

Termbase Entries

Terminology data is organised into termbase entries: each entry contains at least one term. A typical termbase entry might contain a term, term translations in several languages and descriptive information about the entry as a whole and about the individual terms. Termbase entries may be classified and each category of entries is known as an entry class.

Source and Target Languages

Each time you open a termbase, you can specify which languages you wish to use as the source and target languages. MultiTerm uses the source language terms as a search index. Because the source language is used in this way, it is often referred to as the source language index; languages in general are also referred to as indexes. Source and target language data is prioritised in the display of entries.

Termbase Fields

Terminology data in each entry is organised into termbase fields. The different types of field are as follows:

Index fields - contain the terms for each entry. Each index corresponds to one of the termbase languages.
Descriptive fields - contain descriptive information about the entry as a whole and about the individual terms. Each descriptive field has a defined data type. Types of data include text, picklist, number, date, Boolean and multimedia file.
System fields - contain general information about the entry such as the entry number and when the entry or field was last modified. System fields are maintained by the system.
Entry class field - specifies the category of entries to which the entry belongs.

Termbase Definition and the Structure of Entries

All termbase entries are structured in the following way:

Entry level – contains system fields, and any descriptive fields that apply to the entry as a whole.
Index level – contains index (or language) fields with terms as content, and any descriptive fields that apply to all terms in a given language.
Term level – contains any descriptive fields that apply to a given term.

The termbase definition for a given termbase specifies the number and type of fields that a termbase entry may contain and the entry structure that entries must conform to. The entry structure specifies:

The number and type of fields that may exist at each level in the entry.
The hierarchical structure of fields within each level, that is, whether fields are nested or not.
Whether fields are mandatory or multiple at a given level of the entry.

Note: MultiTerm supports unlimited nesting of descriptive fields.

Termbase Files

The file type refers to how the information is stored if it is saved on the system.

Part	File Type	Content
Termbase definition	XDT	Contains the termbase structure.
Termbase objects	XDI, XDL, XDM, XDF, XDX	Used to manipulate termbase data.
Termbase data	XML	Contains the terminology information.

Upgrading MultiTerm '95 Plus or MultiTerm 5 Termbases

If you have termbases created in previous versions of MultiTerm, you can base your termbase definition on these termbases. Use the MultiTerm Migration tool to migrate the termbases, and base your new termbase definition on the resulting termbase definition file.