Multi-Language Interface
System administrators and individual users can select the language for the user interface. Language selection affects text in forms, messages, and help.
Culture Names and Folders
A language name is paired with a region or country name to form a culture name. For example:
| Language - Country | Culture |
|---|---|
| English - United States | en-US |
| Spanish - Argentina | es-AR |
| Japanese - Japan | ja-JP |
In this application, culture names are used as names of subfolders under the working directory's folder. Each subfolder contains language-specific resources (which include the toolset's menus, dialogs, and strings, translated into the designated language) and may contain help files translated into that language.
When the application starts, the toolset determines the current user-default settings, along with the settings in the Language IDs form, to display the user interface, help, and messages in the language based on the settings.
If the language-specific resources are not available for your user-default settings, the user interface and/or help displays in the application's base language (US English).
Language IDs
The Language IDs form defines the language-related IDs used in the application and links the IDs to resources. It specifies the strings table, language, and help subdirectories assigned to each language ID, as well as the application message language used with the language ID and the typographic font in which reports print when the language ID is in effect. In addition, the form defines the date format and numeric format to use in report output when the language ID is in effect. Language ID names correspond to .NET culture names.
Translated Strings
The application's forms database includes a set of "strings" tables, which contain translations of the text strings used in form titles, field labels, buttons, and so on. The default strings table, for US English, is named Strings. Other strings tables have names like JapaneseStrings, FrenchStrings, and so on.
The strings table used for each language ID is determined by the settings in the application's Language IDs form. In the Sites or Sites/Entities form, the Forms Database Name should point to the forms database that contains the strings tables you want a specific site to use.
Translated Messages
Application message strings are maintained in the ApplicationMessages table. The table includes default text strings in U.S. English and any translations of message strings.
The language used for messages in an application is determined by the Message Language setting in the Language IDs form.
Overriding Language Selections
The base language settings can be overridden by both individual users and system administrators.
Individual users can override the default language for an application in the User Preferences dialog box (). In the Language field, you can select from a list of language IDs (which are defined in the Language IDs form). For example, a user-default language may be set to French (France)[fr-FR] because the user who usually sits at the computer speaks French. However, another user who speaks only English can override the language setting and view the user interface and help in English by selecting, for example, English (United States)[en-US].
The language override information is saved and remains in effect the next time you log on to the application -- and until you reset the override. To reset the language to the user-default culture, select <User Default Language Setting> in the Language field in the User Preferences dialog box.
The system administrator can modify the language assignments on the Language IDs form to create a mixed-language user interface.
Limitations to Language Overrides
Whether you are a system user or system administrator, there are some limitations to setting language overrides:
- When you override the language, if you select a language ID for which language-specific resources are not available, the interface is displayed in the application's base language (US English).
- Drop-down calendars always display in the language of the user-default culture.
- Graphs which are drawn by a third-party application may display text in the language of the user-default culture.
- Date and number formats in the application's user interface can only be changed through the Windows regional settings on the computer where the application's client resides. If you are using a remote desktop connection to log on to the system, this affects all users connecting to the application through that client.