Translating custom strings

You can add a custom string, such as a page name, a label, or help text, to a page or a properties view. This custom string is not translated automatically. Instead, you must use a localized resource file to display the translated string for the custom string in Case Client.

Before you begin

Deploy the solution before you translate the customized string. When you deploy the solution, the nls/Resources.js file is created or modified in the IBM® Business Automation Workflow/Solutions/solution_name folder in the design object store or staging object store.

You can maintain and update custom translated string resources in the design object store or the staging object store depending on your organization's processes for making translated strings available to your users:
Testing, adding, and updating translated strings in a production environment only
If you test your translated strings only in a production environment and you add or update the translated custom strings for a particular language when available directly into a production environment for quick turnaround and availability. Then you can put them directly into the stage object store of the production environment with the procedure described below.
Testing, adding, and updating translated strings in a development environment first

The recommended best practice is to treat all translated custom string resources like other solution assets. Those assets should be tested and maintained in a design object store in the development environment first. Then, you move those assets to a production environment, which means that all available translated custom string resources are moved to the staging object store in the test environment. Finally, you move the complete translated solution to a production environment, which uses the design object store.

Although this procedure takes longer for the translated strings to be available in a production environment, it is the best way to maintain the solution definition, the generated default language resources, and any other manually translated custom string resources.

About this task

Default strings in pages and views are automatically translated to supported languages. The custom strings are not translated automatically, so you must add the translations for the custom strings in pages and views. Custom strings that can be translated include the following strings:
  • Page titles
  • Action labels and menu labels in widgets
  • Title for the tabbed layout, title for the titled layout, custom property label, and property hint in views.
The translated resources are displayed based on the browser locale or the application language value in the Change Language and Locale Settings window that you use for Case Client.

Procedure

To translate a custom string:

  1. Using IBM Content Navigator, browse to the design_or_staging_object_store_name/IBM Business Automation Workflow/Solutions/solution_name/nls folder.
  2. Download the Resources.js file.
  3. Create your target locale directory in the original directory.
    For example, if your target locale is French, create the following directory: design_or_staging_object_store_name/IBM Business Automation Workflow/Solutions/solution_name/nls/fr.
    The locale values are case sensitive. Use hyphen separators instead of underscores in the locale values. For example, specify en-us instead of en_us. If your solution locale is French and you want to translate the solution to English, use locale en.

  4. Edit the downloaded Resources.js file. Change the value for the custom string to the translated value for your locale.
    For example, change the English value for a customized page title: "New Work": "New Work" to a localized title: "New Work":"Nouveau Travail"
    Attention: The encoding of the Resources.js file must be set to UTF-8 or UTF-8 without BOM.
  5. Make the same changes for any other customized strings that you want to translate.
  6. Add the translated Resources.js file to the design_or_staging_object_store_name/IBM Business Automation Workflow/Solutions/solution_name/nls/fr folder as a document of Document class and as a major version. The document title must be Resources.js.
  7. Repeat these steps for each language you want to translate to.
  8. Redeploy the solution.

Results

When users open Case Client, the translated values of customized resources display based on the browser locale or the application language value in the Change Language and Locale Settings window that you use for Case Client.