Managing product data in multiple languages

Data for a product can be maintained, inquired on and searched for in multiple languages. For example, the name of a product can be captured in English, French and German.

Product data can be maintained in multiple languages for both soft attributes (that is, attributes defined within a spec) and hard attributes (that is, attributes defined within database tables).

Data for the system’s default language is maintained in the base table or object. Data for all other required languages are maintained within child tables or objects. For example, if the system’s default language is English, then the product database table contains the name and description of the product in English. The product_nls database table contains the name and description of the product in all other required languages and is keyed by language type.

The product data can be managed in multiple languages using services such as addProductInstance and updateProductInstance.

The following configuration option defines the system’s default language:

/IBM/DWLCommonServices/NLS/system_Default_Data_Locale

The default value is en for English.