Server Administration Application – Configuring Languages
See also: Server Administration Application Home Page, Internationalization Support
Introduction
The Languages page of the Server Administration web application is used for two purposes:
- Languages Tab: creation and configuration of languages on the server
- Language Options Tab: system-wide language options including how a form’s runtime language is established
See also Internationalization Support for a more general description of internationalization topics.
Languages Tab
Languages are created and maintained on the server using the Server Administration web application. They are saved in file languages.xml in the ebaseConf folder of the web application e.g. userdata/apps/<webappname>/ebaseConf/languages.xml. This file can be copied between servers if required.
A language must be created before it can be used i.e. before a form can be executed in that language.
The default language is shown on a yellow background. The meaning of the various columns is explained in the next section.
- Click
the
icon to create a new language - Click
the
icon to refresh the display - Click
the
icon to delete a language. This will not delete any texts created in
this language. - Click on a language name to display or edit its properties
- Click the Make Default Language link to set a language as the default language
- Click Help on the menu at the top of the panel to display this help page
Language Properties
Language properties can be edited when either creating a new
language using the icon or clicking on the name of an existing
language.
Language Panel:
|
Language Code |
For new languages select a language from the list. It is also possible to create your own non-standard language code. When editing a language, the language code is read only. The system uses
RFC 3066 language codes. This language code is split into sub tags, where a
'_' character delimits each sub tag.
Normally, the first sub tag represents a language from ISO 639. Second
or subsequent sub tags are optional, and further identify the language. Often
the second sub tag is a two character country code (ISO 3166). Full detail of this standard is available here. In this way,
primary languages (such as French and English) may be used several times,
each time with different sub tags. For example, the languages 'en' (English),
'en_gb' (British English) and 'en_us' (American English) may coexist. The system uses RFC 3066 language codes. This language code is split into sub tags, where a '_' character takes advantage of this language hierarchy both when identifying the user's runtime language and when selecting the language of a text item. So, for example, the user may be identified as American (en_us) but, where a particular American text item does not exist, it can be safely shown as an English (en) text item. This gives the system user the ability to handle subtle differences between similar languages with a minimum of typing. This is explained further here. |
|
Description |
Description of the language |
|
Enabled |
A language must be enabled before it can be used |
Format Panel:
|
Formatting language |
This specifies how numbers and dates should be displayed to users who are using this language. Select a language from the list. When a new
language is added, the formatting language is initially set to the same value
as the Language Code, but a different formatting language can be specified if
required. For example, a French division of an international company might
require that all numeric and date formatting be done using American
conventions. In this case, the language
code could be set to 'fr', and the formatting
language set to 'en_us'. More info on language formatting. |
|
Integer format etc. |
This panel shows you how numbers and dates will be presented using the selected formatting language |
Character Encoding Panel:
This panel provides the option of specifying the encoding to be used with this language. Any encoding specified here will be ignored if an encoding is also specified for all languages (see next section). Entering characters in the encoding field will display a selectable list of available encodings containing these characters e.g. entering “ISO” displays all encodings beginning with this string. Note that you can also specify an encoding to be used for all languages using the Language Options tab (following section); in a multi-lingual system, specifying UTF-8 here is a quick way to resolve encoding issues. More info.
Language Options Tab
How form runtime
language is selected
See Determining user’s runtime language.
Character Encoding
This provides the option of setting the encoding for all languages, which will override any encoding set for individual language; UTF-8 is recommended as it supports all characters in all languages. Entering characters in the encoding field will display a selectable list of available encodings containing these characters e.g. entering “ISO” displays all encodings beginning with this string. You can also specify an encoding to be used for each language. More info.