Multilingual metadata

When a data module supports multilingual metadata, users can view labels and descriptions of tables, columns, or calculations in different languages. Currently, data modules that support multilingual metadata can be used in Reporting only.

Reports that are based on data modules with multilingual metadata can be viewed without modifications in different languages.

Typically, before you enable support for multilingual metadata, the data should already be translated (localized). It does not make sense to use translated labels when the data is not translated. To enable users to view data in Cognos® Analytics, in their language, most often macros are used to look up the user's run locale, and return the data in the proper language.

The translation of metadata is driven by the localization requirements. Before you decide to translate metadata, you should know if your users need to see the names of report objects in their language. In some situations, the multilingual support is driven by statutory requirements. For example, in Canada a report that is provided by the federal government is by law required to be either in English or French, with both the data and metadata translated.

Multilingual metadata translation sources are external to the data module. They are stored in uploaded files or database tables. Updates and refinements to translations do not necessarily require editing of the data module.

The way you store the multilingual data and metadata can impact your database design.