Translating your model

IBM® Cognos® TM1® provides a mechanism to display objects on your TM1 server in other languages, so that users can view object names in their language without requiring any configuration.

Translation in Cognos TM1 is accomplished through the Caption attribute, which lets you assign translated names to any cube, dimension, member, or member attribute on the TM1 server. You can assign Caption attribute values for all language locales supported in TM1, which correspond to the members in the }Cultures control dimension.

When a user starts any of the TM1 clients that support translation, object names display the Caption attribute value for the language associated with the user's current locale, without requiring any configuration. If you have added translated values to the cube, translated attribute values are also displayed in the filter dialog box.

The following TM1 clients support translation:

  • IBM Cognos TM1 Web
  • IBM Cognos TM1 Application Web
  • IBM Cognos Insight
  • IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel

TM1 Web and TM1 Application Web use the current browser language setting to determine the language to display.

IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel uses the Windows Location setting to determine the language to display.

Cognos Insight uses the Windows Location setting to determine the language to display when opened from the Windows Start menu. When Cognos Insight is opened from the TM1 Application Web workflow screen, it uses the Content Language defined in the portal user preferences.

Note: IBM Cognos Performance Modeler can optionally display translated names or invariant names for objects on the TM1 server. An invariant name is the name assigned to an object upon original creation. To display translated names, right-click the root on the Model Design pane, then click Show Captions. To display invariant names, right-click the root on the Model Design pane, then click Show Invariant Names.

The Caption attribute

The Caption attribute can be set up as an Alias type or as a Text type. When the Caption attribute is an Alias type, the attribute values are used to display translated object names. Additionally, TM1 enforces the uniqueness of its Caption attribute values, and you can use the Caption value to search for the associated dimension, cube or member, or to use as arguments to functions that retrieve or send data to the TM1 server.

When the Caption attribute is a Text type, the attribute values are used solely to display translated object names. Uniqueness is not enforced, so you can use the same value for multiple attributes if desired.

Note: When defining the Caption attribute for use in TM1 Web, TM1 Application Web or IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel, define the Caption attribute as an Alias type. In TM1 Web and TM1 Application Web, cube view dimensions can be set to display only an alias. In addition, when defining a SUBNM for display in a web sheet, it can take only an alias as an argument. Similarly, in IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel, SUBNM takes an alias as an argument.

Language locale codes and behavior of the Caption attribute

TM1 uses international language codes defined by ISO 639-1 to identify major languages and IETF language tags to identify specific locales. For example, fr identifies French, while fr-CA identifies French (Canada).

You can assign Caption attribute values for major language codes, such as fr, as well as any associated specific locales, such as fr-FR or fr-CA.

If a Caption attribute value does not exist for a given specific locale, TM1 automatically retrieves the value of the associated major language code. For example, if a Caption attribute value does not exist for pt-BR, TM1 retrieves the value for pt.

If no values are found for a Caption attribute, the base default attribute value is returned.

Review the list of elements in the }Cultures control dimension to familiarize yourself with the ISO 639-1/IETF combinations supported in TM1.