WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, Version 6.0.x     Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows

Identifying localizable text

Steps for this task

  1. Determine which elements of the application need translating. Good candidates for localization include the following:
    • Graphical user interfaces: window titles, menus and menu items, buttons, on-screen instructions
    • Prompts in command-line interfaces
    • Application output: messages and logs
  2. Assign a unique key to each element for use in message catalogs for the application. The key provides a language-neutral link between the application and language-specific strings in the message catalogs. Establishing a naming convention for keys before creating the catalogs can make writing code with these keys much more intuitive for interface programmers.

Example

Suppose you are localizing the GUI for a banking system, and the first window contains a pull-down list to use for selecting a type of account.
picture of pull-down list and its contents

The labels for the list and the account types in the list are good choices for localization. Three elements require keys: the list and two items in the list.

What to do next

Create message catalogs for the language-specific strings.



Related concepts
Internationalization

Task topic    

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Last updated: Mar 17, 2005 4:28:29 AM CST
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