TRANSLATE - Translate Captions
What is TRANSLATE
This is the procedure for maintaining the different language descriptions for selective ITAS application labels, messages, data and text. The languages available are a controlled list e.g. Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Russian and Chinese.
There are many system/windows/database issues involved with the more exotic languages e.g. Chinese, Hebrew
ITAS does handle its entry/display of DATE in local/regional format e.g. Polish, Spanish, Italian, French. All that needs to be activated is the appropriate Windows setting for Regional/Language .
The main purpose for the language database (TRANSLATE) is to enable a company to have its own translation of the English Navigator labels and messages. This is a very large task to complete with continued maintenance needed when new items are included in ITAS releases or new codes are added by users.
Another feature is where DOCDES uses language translations of its codes. There is a DOCDES rule to apply e.g. *Trans#Spanish, *Trans#German, *Trans#Greek. *&Trans#SpanishMexico. This operates satisfactorily with Codes, because of their limited numbers/variations. There are several ITAS data sources (fixed list/drop-down box, see appendix A) that are made available for translation.
When one is chosen, the current list of relevant ENGLISH codes and texts will be listed ready for the user to maintain their language equivalent, e.g. if weight codes are selected all company weight code descriptions will be listed whereby the user enters their language equivalence in whatever case, syntax they care to use. For selected data sources (see Appendix B) that support text, a right-click on the relevant row will allow maintain translate text.
System Texts:
Hivedome need to be requested to activate these features, especially where specific Menu options are required for captions/labels/messages translation e.g. local operatives might need a Thai language form for STOCKS administration. If that was the case, when the first Thai / ITAS operator activates STOCKS, that will generate requests into the TRANSLATE database for all the labels, messages etc that would be needed to be translated. Where a menu option has been activated for TRANSLATE and there are missing translations, then the English label/message will be used.
Appendix A. List of Code tables that support translation of description
Cmy03(PHYSCODES/Commodities)
Cmy11(PHYSCODES/Weight codes)
Cmy12(PHYSCODES/Price codes)
Cmy14(PHYSCODES/Contract terms)
Cmy15(PHYSCODES/Payment terms)
Cmy16(PHYSCODES/Ports)
Cmy17(PHYSCODES/Quality Codes)
Cmy56(PHYSCODES/quality Options)
Cmy18(PHYSCODES/Period types)
Cmy19(PHYSCODES/Shipping weights)
Cmy21(PHYSCODES/Depot/Installation codes)
Cmy23(PHYSCODES/Pack codes)
Cmy26(PHYSCODES/Arbitration terms)
Cmy28(PHYSCODES/Shipping status)
Cmy36(PHYSCODES/Sample codes)
Cmy37(PHYSCODES/Analysis Codes)
Cmy55(PHYSCODES/Ferrous-end use)
Cmy104(CLICODES/Grid refs)
Cmy105(CLICODES/Province codes)
Cmy106(CLICODES/Region codes)
Cmy111(TEXT)
Cmy25(PHYSCODES/Cost Types)
Phystext(PHYSTEXT)
Cmy101(EXP)
Boec(COUNTRIES)
Fxr20(CDM)
Tcy20(TCCM)
Appendix B. List of Code tables that support translation of text.
Cmy03(PHYSCODES/Commodities)
Cmy14(PHYSCODES/Contract terms)
Cmy15(PHYSCODES/Payment terms)
Cmy16(PHYSCODES/Ports)
Cmy17(PHYSCODES/Quality Codes)
Cmy19(PHYSCODES/Shipping weights)
Cmy26(PHYSCODES/Arbitration terms)
Cmy36(PHYSCODES/Sample rates)
Cmy37(PHYSCODES/Analysis Codes)
Cmy111(TEXT)
These codes can also have their translation processes completed in PHYSCODES, CLICODES. In the respective grids, use mouse right-click to activate 'Load Translation Manager'
Chinese Environment
Setup
Windows Terminal Server 2003 lends itself effectively to the creation of an environment available to Chinese users, and one that can be shared with Western users. The setting up of this environment is controlled via the Regional Options; both personal and system settings are set here.
System Settings
The Languages tab controls the application of the East Asian Languages. Ticking this and applying will force the installation of the appropriate files which contain the fonts required to support the Chinese characterset:
Once rebooted the option to select Chinese (PRC) will be available from the combobox on the Advanced tab:
Once these steps have been taken and rebooted, Chinese characters will be viewable within ITAS and any document editor.
Personal Settings
In order to type Chinese characters it is necessary to install a Chinese keyboard. It is possible to install/maintain multiple keyboards thus allowing users to switch between Chinese and Western language:
It is also possible to use the regional options to setup a Chinese desktop (date/time format for example) but this is optional and has little impact within ITAS.
Using Chinese Text
There are various aspects to the language functionality that need to be considered when implementing a multi-language environment. Foremost it must be decided to what degree the language is to be applied. This ranges from applying translations to text in documentation, to providing a full multi-language desktop environment.
Data Entry
Text can be pasted/typed within the TRANSLATE application in GF company. There are various sections/groupings of items that can be translated including most codes (descriptions and texts where appropriate), general captions (labels, internal menu options, toolbars and so on) and messages.
To add/amend a Chinese translation of an item, choose the appropriate section/language and click OK. The grid will refresh with all available items and normal Edit/Save functionality will secure the translation(s).
Please note that when pasting text the Language Bar will need to be set to the Chinese keyboard otherwise the characters may be misinterpreted. It is also possible to use the Microsoft Chinese IME facility to type the text manually and instructions for using this can be found on the Microsoft website.
Translations in Documentation
To show translated text within system-generated documentation requires the DOCDES rules within the templates to identify the language to display. It should be noted at this point that the language is controlled by the template rules and not the user’s specific language of choice (either Windows Regional Settings or ITAS language).
Example: If it is required that the Chinese translation for the contract terms is shown on a Contract Advice.
The standard format would be [phys01_conterms] for the code, [phys01_conterms*descr] to show the description and [phys01_conterms*text] for the associated text (all maintained via Physcodes/Contract Terms).
To show the translations as maintained in TRANSLATE both the *descr and *text rules should have *trans#Chinese appended to them (case-sensitive).
Please note that when adding rules requiring translation, the font of such rules needs to be the Chinese font installed during setup. When editing the template in Word, switch to Chinese input (shift does this by default) and type [ to indicate to start of the rule, then switch back to English input and continue with the rule name. The font should be maintained for the whole rule but doing this will allow the English text to be typed to identify the DOCDES rule required.
The DocGen process will identify the translated texts and insert them in the template in place of the rules and so assuming the correct font is applied, the Chinese text will be secured.
Rolling Out a Chinese Desktop
In addition to documentation, ITAS supports a full multi-language desktop environment, allowing translations of labels, menus and messages. All of these items are managed via the TRANSLATE application and so the extent of the roll-out of any alternate language environment is controlled by the users.
The language of choice is maintained via User Preferences in Navigator or CMP, and the presence of a Non-English profile will automatically fill the language Database as applications are activated. This means that when ITAS incorporates new applications/enhancements to screens, bringing with it new text fields, menus and so on, as the new versions are activated for the first time, any missing items will be added and are immediately available to the TRANSLATE application for translation.
The following screenshot demonstrates limited translations applied to the TRADE application:
Alternative Counterparty Titles
It may be necessary to maintain variations of a counterparty title. This is not available in TRANSLATE as ITAS already allows the maintenance of an alternate counterparty name (and address) for documentation purposes – see CLI/Miscellaneous. This value will be available wherever the client static can be shown (i.e. filters, column selections), so it is possible to recall and/or display by both names.
Technical Notes
· INSERT/UPDATE Statements
An ITAS issue is the general usage of INSERT/UPDATE statements. There is a conflict between the INSERT/UPDATE statement and the usage of extended Chinese characters. This can result in incorrect characters and/or question marks being secured in the Database. This is avoided using a result set method but as this involves recalling a record, assigning the relevant values and then updating the result set, it is not widely used. The cause of the issue has been put down to the character set implemented when the Database is installed. For ORACLE installations AL32UTF8 would appear to be the best choice, whereas for MSSQL the collation Chinese_PRC_BIN is suggested.
· Data Storage
The ITAS Database tables contain CHAR and VARCHAR (MSSQL) / VARCHAR2 (ORACLE) text columns, the size of which refer to the number of bytes and not characters, for example CHAR(20) allows 20 bytes for storing character data. Using the existing character sets to store the extended Chinese characters means that unless we employ NCHAR and NVARCHAR / NVARCHAR2 data types, the correlation between column size and number of characters is lost. In other words, Chinese characters can consist of one or more bytes, depending on the specific multi-byte encoding scheme and whether shift-in/shift-out control codes are present, so the column sizes and, more importantly, the application logic for validating data entry length may be compromised.
To resolve this issue Hivedome can setup all Database tables using this principle but, due to the nature of the requirement, this will increase the Database storage space required. The preferred alternative is for S01 to nominate that the Company (Miscellaneous page) needs to operate national dataset and then specify in IDD (Field Type) that the specific character field(s) must have National characteristics applied in the ITAS tables clean/sweep process.
Database Settings Used For Testing
· ORACLE 10g (10.1.0.2.0); NLS_CHARACTERSET=WE8ISO8859P1; NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET=AL16UTF16
· MSSQL 2005 Express (9.0.3042); Database Collation=Chinese_PRC_BIN; Compatibility level=SQL Server 2005 (90)