Creating Applications in Different Languages

Aware IM supports applications in different languages – you can configure your application to be in any language you like. Not only that, but you can also change the language dynamically or choose different languages for different users. By default Aware IM uses English. To define a different language you need to configure a locale.

This is how Aware IM works with different locales:

1. If you do not define your own locale an implicit “system” locale will be used. This locale will use strings defined in your configuration (attribute labels, description etc) as is. You can define your configuration strings in any language as long as your keyboard allows you to type them in. However, there are also “system” strings – the strings that are used in the application but not defined in the configuration (standard error messages, standard prompts etc). These strings will be in English.
2. When you define your own locale you can provide translation to all strings in the application – both system strings and configuration strings. Aware IM will automatically collect all strings used in the configuration and add predefined system strings, so that you can translate them all.
3. You can configure multiple locales – one for each language. You can also designate that a particular locale should be used “by default” – that is, the application will always start in this locale and all users will be assigned this locale by default. If you just need to run the application in one non-English language, this is all you need to do – define a non-English locale (or maybe a variation of the English locale) and mark it as the default locale.
4. If you configure multiple locales the user will be able to switch between locales at run-time if you include the "Locale Editing" menu command in your menu. You will also be able to assign different locales to different users by rules. Any member of the SystemUser business object group includes the Locale attribute that you can use in rules, for example:

IF RegularUser.Country = 'Germany' THEN
   RegularUser.Locale = 'German' 

Aware IM will automatically use the locale with the name “German” when a user from Germany logs into the system.

The following section describes how to work with the editor of locales when adding a new locale or editing the existing one.

The editor of locales can be started as described in the Working with Configuration Elements section. The working area of the locale editor contains a table of stings used in the application. When a locale is created for the first time Aware IM automatically extracts all strings used in the configuration and adds to them the system strings. You can provide translation to both configuration and system strings by clicking on the “Translation” column in the table. Initially the translation is set to “use the original string”, which means that if you do not provide a translation the original string will be used. Strings that have not been translated are displayed in pink. Translated system strings are displayed in green and translated configuration strings are displayed in white.

You can also click on the following buttons:

This allows you to import system strings from a file. System strings for some locales are already provided. You can use those as an example for creating your own files for other locales.

This allows you to export locale strings into a file

If the configuration has been changed since you defined the locale you can refresh the strings – Aware IM will re-extract all configuration strings defined in the application and add the new ones to the table, so that you can provide translation to the newly added strings or delete those that are no longer used.

This allows you to delete strings that are no longer used in the application

The following properties of the locale be specified in the Element Properties window:

Specify the name of the locale uniquely identifying it within the business space version.

Tick this box if you want the locale to be used in the application by default – the application will start in this locale and all users will be assigned this locale unless changed by rules (see the Creating Applications in Different Languages section).

Select the date format of the locale. This format will be used for those attributes of the “Date” type that have “Take from locale” value set as their format (see Adding/Editing Date Attributes)

Select the timestamp format of the locale. This format will be used for those attributes of the “Timestamp” type that have “Take from locale” value set as their format (see Adding/Editing Date Attributes)

Some system messages (such as month names used in the calendar control, for example) have already been translated. You don’t need to provide translation for these messages, just select the language from the list of languages

Culture defines default formatting of numbers and dates. For example, in some cultures decimal point is represented by a dot, whereas in other cultures it is represented by a comma.