Adding Multilingual Support to Process Central
You can create different language versions of Process Central as well as the forms and reports that are deployed to it. The Process Central application user interface can display in a Web browser's preferred language. There is also language and locale support for requests, tasks, and reports.
The basic approach for multilingual support is to externalize strings. For each supported language, you use an existing or create a new default properties file for externalized strings. Use additional properties files, one per language
For details on configuring multilingual support, see the following topics:
Displaying Process Central in a Web Browsers Preferred Language
If desired, you can display Process Central in the language of your choice. Each text string that displays in the Process Central application has been externalized to a file named avoscentral.properties.
This means you can provide a properties file with externalized strings for the wording of the login page, all command buttons, titles, error messages, and other wording.
http://www.activevos.com can provide the properties files for the languages you need. You can download a zip file and deploy the language BPRs to the Process Console, as provided in the instructions.html file in the zip archive. For details, go to the Software Development Kits (SDK) page of http://www.activevos.com and view the instructions in Process Central Language Pack.
For languages that http://www.activevos.com does not supply, you can provide the language values for externalized strings. The instructions for adding your own language file are included in the language pack archive.
To provide multilingual support for the Process Central user interface:
- 1. In a Web browser, go to http://www.activevos.com/developers/sdks.
- 2. Download Process Central Language Pack, Version 8 or later.
- 3. Unzip the file, and follow the instructions in instructions.html for modifying a language package.
Adding Multilingual Support for Forms and Tasks
Create a new properties file to add language values for process request or task form keys.
You can create request forms as well as task forms (for a People activity) that support different languages. To do so, you create a new form, plus a default properties file and additional properties files for each language supported. The properties file contains externalized strings for schema-based keyIdentifiers. The steps to accomplish this support for requests are described below.
For details on task forms, see Providing Multilingual Support for Task Forms in the Human Tasks topics elsewhere in this help.
Create a new request form and a default properties file:
- 1. Create a new request form, described in Creating a Process Central Process Form.
- 2. In the Create Form dialog, select the Advanced button.
- 3. Select the Externalize Strings check box.
- 4. Accept the default name and location for the properties file, or select the dialog button next to Property File to name and store your file. Do not use an underscore in the name.
When you externalize strings, the following events occur:
For each additional language you want to support, do the following:
- 1. Make a copy of the default properties file and paste it into the forms folder.
- 2. Name the copied file with the syntax described in Naming Conventions for .properties File. Basically, you must use the exact same name for each file, followed by an underscore, followed by an ISO 639 Code for the Representation of Names of Languages.
- 3. Open the file in a text editor and replace the existing values with another language.
To test your properties, specify a language when you login to Process Central. For example:
http://localhost:8080/activevos-central/login.jsp?lang=fr
Adding Multilingual Support for an .avcconfig File
You can provide externalized strings for the following attributes in an Process Central configuration file:
- •Category names for the folders you add to Tasks, Forms, and Reports. For example, a Forms category named Tutorial and Samples contains the Process Developer tutorial request and the samples request forms.
- •Descriptions for reports and forms. For example, the tutorial form contains a description that says, "Submit loan approval request (basic tutorial)."
- •Names for the TaskRole and Show picklists
To provide multilingual support:
- 1. Create a new avcconfig file, as described in Creating a Process Central Configuration File. Store it in your deploy folder. For example, tutorial.avcconfig.
- 2. For each name and description attribute in the file that you want to externalize, you must modify the place holder text to refer to a ${keyIdentifier}. For example:
<tns:requestCategoryDef id="education" name="${tutorial.and.samples}">
- 3. In a text editor, create a new .properties file that is the default externalized strings properties file for the .avcconfig file. For example, tutorialConfig.properties.
- 4. The avcconfig file must refer to this file, so you must add the following line, indicating multilingual support, in your avcconfig file:
<tns:i18n location="/path/to/tutorialConfig.properties" />
- 5. In the default properties file, add each ${keyIdentifier} and its English value. For example:
tutorial.and.samples=Tutorial and Samples
- 6. As you add other externalized strings, add additional lines to the properties file, such as:
tutorialRequest.description=Submit loan approval request (basic tutorial)
- 7. For each additional language, make a copy of the default properties file, and change the value of the keyIdentifier for that language.
tutorial.and.samples=Tutoriel et échantillons
- 8. Name each file with an underscore and language name. For example:
For example, tutorialConfig_fr.properties
- 9. Ensure the copy is UTF-8 encoded. By default Process Developer sets the encoding to ISO-8859-1.
After deployment, test your properties by specifying a language when you login to Process Central. For example:
http://localhost:8080/activevos-central/login.jsp?lang=fr
Example Configuration File Snippet:
Example default properties file;
tutorial.and.samples=Tutorial and Samples
tutorialRequest.description=Submit loan approval request (basic tutorial).
Adding Multilingual Support for Reports
Process Central displays reports created in the Business Intelligence Reporting Tools (BIRT) Designer. Within Process Central, the reports are displayed in the BIRT Viewer.
Process Central provides support for the following languages:
- •German
- •Spanish
- •French
- •Japanese
- •Korean
- •Simplified Chinese
If a browser's preferred language is set to one of the above, the BIRT Viewer automatically displays the report in that language.
To test for a language, provide a URL that specifies a language. For example:
http://localhost:8080/activevos-central/login.jsp?lang=zh_CN
To provide multilingual support for other languages, note the following considerations:
- •To create properties files for the report design, refer to http://www.birt-exchange.org/wiki/BIRT:Internationalization/.
- •To create properties for the BIRT Viewer text strings and error messages, for languages Process Central does not support, you must manually find and change several messages.properties files. The main file for the BIRT Viewer text strings is located in server\webapps\activevos\WEB-INF\lib\ae_birtviewer.jar.
Naming Conventions for .properties File
When you add multilingual support for Process Central configuration, forms and tasks, you create a properties file for each language you want to support. There is one default file and other files with language codes:
MyPropertiesFile.properties:
This is typically the default file for en-US.
MyPropertiesFile_ISO639Name.properties:
For each language, you must add an underscore and a ISO 639.2 code for the representation of names of languages. Add the _language code and optional country code to the default file name. Country codes are the upper-case, two-letter codes as defined by ISO-3166.
Examples:
- •requestFormOperation.properties
- •requestFormOperation_fr.properties
- •requestFormOperation_de.properties
- •MyConfigFile.properties
- •MyConfigFile_zh_CN.properties