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Introduction to Meridix resource/translation files

Meridix Studio Platform has support for multiple languages both for the user interface and for the report content (columns and descriptions). This article is meant to describe how the translation process for new languages can be handled for external translators.

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Name{.culture-code}.resx

Examples:

Example of culture codes are:

A full list of valid region codes can be found at http://azuliadesigns.com/culture-codes/

When creating the files its important that the specific languages resource files is located in the same folder as the base resource file, the structure of the files can not be changes since the system is dependent on the file paths to the base file.
Example of the folder structure in Meridix:

• ResourceSets
  • uitranslations
    
    • InformationResourcesInformationMessages.resx
    • InformationResourcesInformationMessages.sv.resx (Swedish)
    • InformationResourcesInformationMessages.da.resx (Danish)
    • .......
    system
    • ErrorMessages.resx
    • ErrorMessages.sv.resx
    • ErrorMessages.da.resx
    • ........
  • ......

Some of the translation contains numeric placeholders for numbers or other values, these placeholders must be included in the translated value as well. An example of a numeric placeholder is {0}   or {1}, these characters is replaced with a value at runtime and needs to should be present in the any new translations as well if the they exist in the base files value to get the correct behavior. Meridix has a custom built support for Custom placeholders as well, these placeholders has the syntax {=key:option} (See section below)

An example is:
Report has been running for {0} seconds

This text can now be displayed at runtime as:
Report has been running for 10 seconds
or
Rapporten har körts i 10 sekunder (Swedish)

Integrating translations into Meridix

By default Meridix translations are built into the system at build time and can not be altered at runtime. So when a translator is done with the translation for a language the files (resx or excel depending on the approach) needs to be sent back to Meridix which will integrate the translation into the build process.

Anchor
Custom placeholders Custom placeholders

Custom placeholders

Meridix has support for a placeholder syntax where commonly used words or sentences can be reused throughout the resource files. This makes is easy to replace the naming for specific actions/features in the system. The placeholder functionality is used by the default translations files to allow a easier editing of the translations since you only need to define a word or phrase once.

All the placeholder values is located in a file called Placeholders.{.culture}.resx where the systems tries to find a specific translations for the current language first and if not found it will fallback to the base placeholder value located in the base file (Placeholders.resx).

The syntax used for placeholders is {=key[:option]}. The simplest usage of a placeholder value is {=key } where no options is defined. This value will be replaced with the translated value for the key value from the placeholder file. To allow maximum reuse of a placeholder value several options can be defined that decides how the placeholder value should be displayed. A option value is a suffix to the key starting with a : (colon) followed by the option key (Se list below for available option keys and their usage)

Multiple option suffixes can be combined and the will be evaluated in the order they appear. E.g. key:lowercase:capitalizefirst:uppercase will make all characters in upper case since the last option (uppercase) will change the previous option results.

Placeholders can also be overridden just as any other resource. To override a resource define a package of the type package_translation_overrides (see next section) and the resource path should be defined as placeholders

Additional placeholder values can be added to the placeholder file and can then be used from any other resource file.

Custom translation overrides

There are a hook that allows a customer to override translations for a specific languages without altering the binary build. This feature is meant to allow a customer to enable a specific terminology to increase the user terminology recognition from other systems.
Custom text files can be created and uploaded as packages in Meridix containing lines in the format defined below, each of these files (packages) is then loaded and used as overrides to the built in (compiled) translations.

There are two types of formats that can be used.

Package format: CSV

Package type:
package_translation_overrides_text

Format:
"{langauge-code}";"{resourcepath}";"{key}";"{value}"

Example of file content:
"sv";"Login.aspx";"lbnLoginResource1.Text";"I want to log in"
"sv";"Login.aspx";"lbnLoginResource1.ToolTip";"I want to log in right now"

This would override the values for the Swedish translation for the login button on the login page.
Naming:
The packages of the type package_translation_overrides_text can be named to anything you prefer to keep the files structured. The package names is not used by the system.

Package format: RESX

Package type:
package_translation_overrides_rex

Format:
Default RESX XML (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ekyft91f%28v=vs.80%29.aspx)

Example of file content:
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  <data name="Login" xml:space="preserve">
    <value>Logga in</value>
  </data>
...
The example is only part of the full format.

Naming:
The naming of the package should be in the following format {resource_set_base_name}.{culture}.resx where the package name is used to identify the values and type of culture that the file contains translations for. To add a base/fallback resource set this way the "en" culture name should be used in the filename.

The file should be uploaded to the system as a package of the type package_translation_overrides_text or package_translation_overrides_resx depending on the package format.

Placeholder values can be overridden by specifying the resourcepath as placeholders

Working with the resource files

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Another open source (free) tool is SimpleResxEditor found at http://code.google.com/p/simpleresxeditor/ which also works with the RESX files directly. But this tool only allows the translator to work with only one resource set at a time.

Integrating translations into Meridix

By default Meridix translations are built into the system at build time and can not be altered at runtime. So when a translator is done with the translation for a language the files (resx or excel depending on the approach) needs to be sent back to Meridix which will integrate the translation into the build process.

Placeholders

Meridix has support for a placeholder syntax

Custom translations

There are a hook that allows a customer to override translations for a specific languages without altering the binary build. This feature is meant to allow a customer to enable a specific terminology to increase the user terminology recognition from other systems.
Custom text files can be created and uploaded as packages in Meridix containing lines in the format defined below, each of these files (packages) is then loaded and used as overrides to the build in (compiled) translations.

...

The file should be uploaded to the system as a package of the type package_translation_overrides

Report content (ex: column headers) are currently not overridable. This may change in upcoming releases.