fix: use preserveOrder parser for correct inline element extraction

The preserveOrder:false XMLParser merges all same-named elements into
a single property and concatenates text nodes, losing the position of
inline elements like <x id="PH"/> relative to surrounding text. This
caused placeholders to appear at wrong positions in extracted source.

Switch to a preserveOrder:true ordered parser for source/target
extraction, which correctly preserves element ordering. The existing
{{marker}} + XliffPlaceholder metadata approach is kept — only the
parser that feeds it is fixed.

Author: cport1

__tests__/fixtures/xliff-1.2/messages-with-placeholders.xliff

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<xliff version="1.2" xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2">
+  <file source-language="en" target-language="de" datatype="plaintext" original="messages">
+    <body>
+      <trans-unit id="simple_ph">
+        <source>Click <x id="PH"/> to continue</source>
+        <target></target>
+        <note>Simple placeholder test</note>
+      </trans-unit>
+      <trans-unit id="interpolation">
+        <source>Hello <x id="INTERPOLATION"/>, welcome!</source>
+        <target></target>
+      </trans-unit>
+      <trans-unit id="multiple_ph">
+        <source><x id="START_TAG_SPAN"/>Click here<x id="CLOSE_TAG_SPAN"/> or <x id="START_TAG_SPAN"/>there<x id="CLOSE_TAG_SPAN"/></source>
+        <target></target>
+      </trans-unit>
+      <trans-unit id="no_placeholders">
+        <source>Simple text without placeholders</source>
+        <target></target>
+      </trans-unit>
+      <trans-unit id="with_existing_target">
+        <source>Update <x id="PH"/> now</source>
+        <target>Aktualisiere <x id="PH"/> jetzt</target>
+      </trans-unit>
+    </body>
+  </file>
+</xliff>

__tests__/unit/extractors/xliff.test.ts

@@ -95,6 +95,90 @@ describe('XliffExtractor', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('extract XLIFF 1.2 with inline elements', () => {
+    it('should extract <x> inline elements as {{marker}} placeholders', () => {
+      const fixturePath = path.join(
+        __dirname,
+        '../../fixtures/xliff-1.2/messages-with-placeholders.xliff'
+      );
+      const content = fs.readFileSync(fixturePath, 'utf-8');
+
+      const result = extractor.extract(fixturePath, content, 'de');
+
+      const simplePh = result.units.find(u => u.id === 'simple_ph');
+      expect(simplePh).toBeDefined();
+      expect(simplePh?.source).toBe('Click {{PH}} to continue');
+      expect(simplePh?.metadata.placeholders).toBeDefined();
+      expect(simplePh?.metadata.placeholders).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(simplePh?.metadata.placeholders![0].marker).toBe('{{PH}}');
+      expect(simplePh?.metadata.placeholders![0].tagName).toBe('x');
+      expect(simplePh?.metadata.placeholders![0].attributes.id).toBe('PH');
+    });
+
+    it('should extract INTERPOLATION placeholder with metadata', () => {
+      const fixturePath = path.join(
+        __dirname,
+        '../../fixtures/xliff-1.2/messages-with-placeholders.xliff'
+      );
+      const content = fs.readFileSync(fixturePath, 'utf-8');
+
+      const result = extractor.extract(fixturePath, content, 'de');
+
+      const interpUnit = result.units.find(u => u.id === 'interpolation');
+      expect(interpUnit).toBeDefined();
+      expect(interpUnit?.source).toBe('Hello {{INTERPOLATION}}, welcome!');
+      expect(interpUnit?.metadata.placeholders).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(interpUnit?.metadata.placeholders![0].tagName).toBe('x');
+    });
+
+    it('should extract multiple inline elements as separate placeholders', () => {
+      const fixturePath = path.join(
+        __dirname,
+        '../../fixtures/xliff-1.2/messages-with-placeholders.xliff'
+      );
+      const content = fs.readFileSync(fixturePath, 'utf-8');
+
+      const result = extractor.extract(fixturePath, content, 'de');
+
+      const multiUnit = result.units.find(u => u.id === 'multiple_ph');
+      expect(multiUnit).toBeDefined();
+      expect(multiUnit?.source).toContain('{{START_TAG_SPAN}}');
+      expect(multiUnit?.source).toContain('{{CLOSE_TAG_SPAN}}');
+      expect(multiUnit?.metadata.placeholders).toBeDefined();
+      expect(multiUnit?.metadata.placeholders!.length).toBe(4);
+    });
+
+    it('should handle units without inline elements normally', () => {
+      const fixturePath = path.join(
+        __dirname,
+        '../../fixtures/xliff-1.2/messages-with-placeholders.xliff'
+      );
+      const content = fs.readFileSync(fixturePath, 'utf-8');
+
+      const result = extractor.extract(fixturePath, content, 'de');
+
+      const plainUnit = result.units.find(u => u.id === 'no_placeholders');
+      expect(plainUnit).toBeDefined();
+      expect(plainUnit?.source).toBe('Simple text without placeholders');
+      expect(plainUnit?.metadata.placeholders).toBeUndefined();
+    });
+
+    it('should extract placeholders from existing targets', () => {
+      const fixturePath = path.join(
+        __dirname,
+        '../../fixtures/xliff-1.2/messages-with-placeholders.xliff'
+      );
+      const content = fs.readFileSync(fixturePath, 'utf-8');
+
+      const result = extractor.extract(fixturePath, content, 'de');
+
+      const targetUnit = result.units.find(u => u.id === 'with_existing_target');
+      expect(targetUnit).toBeDefined();
+      expect(targetUnit?.target).toContain('{{PH}}');
+      expect(targetUnit?.source).toBe('Update {{PH}} now');
+    });
+  });
+
   describe('supported formats', () => {
     it('should support xliff-1.2 format', () => {
       expect(extractor.supportsFormat('xliff-1.2')).toBe(true);

dist/extractors/xliff.d.ts

@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ export declare class XliffExtractor extends BaseExtractor {
     readonly supportedFormats: FormatInfo['format'][];
     readonly fileExtensions: string[];
     private parser;
+    /**
+     * Ordered parser preserves element position relative to text nodes.
+     * Required for correct extraction of inline elements like <x id="PH"/>
+     * interspersed with text content.
+     */
+    private orderedParser;
     /**
      * Detect XLIFF version from content
      */
@@ -38,26 +44,31 @@ export declare class XliffExtractor extends BaseExtractor {
     /** XLIFF inline element tag names that should be treated as placeholders */
     private static readonly PLACEHOLDER_TAGS;
     /**
-     * Context object for extracting text with placeholders
+     * Extract text content from element (plain text, no placeholder tracking).
+     * Used for notes, context, and other non-inline-element fields.
+     */
+    private extractTextContent;
+    /**
+     * Build a map from unit ID to ordered (preserveOrder: true) children of source/target.
+     * This preserves the position of inline XML elements relative to text nodes.
      */
-    private createPlaceholderContext;
+    private buildOrderedSourceMap;
     /**
-     * Extract text content from element, preserving placeholders as markers
-     * Returns the text with placeholder markers (e.g., {{PH}}, {{0}})
+     * Get an attribute from a preserveOrder node's ':@' entry.
      */
-    private extractTextContent;
+    private getOrderedAttr;
     /**
-     * Extract text and placeholders from element
-     * Returns text with markers, and populates the placeholders array
+     * Find the children array of a named element within a preserveOrder children array.
      */
-    private extractTextWithPlaceholders;
+    private getOrderedElementChildren;
     /**
-     * Extract a placeholder element and create its marker
+     * Walk ordered (preserveOrder: true) children and extract text with {{marker}} placeholders.
+     * Correctly preserves the position of inline elements relative to text.
      */
-    private extractPlaceholder;
+    private extractOrderedContent;
     /**
-     * Extract text content and placeholders from a source/target element
-     * Returns both the text (with placeholder markers) and the placeholder array
+     * Extract text content and placeholders from ordered children.
+     * Returns both the text (with placeholder markers) and the placeholder array.
      */
     extractContentWithPlaceholders(element: unknown): {
         text: string;