[Tip] i18n dual purpose — servoy magazine

Since version 2.1 the Servoy Team blessed their RAD tool with internationalization (i + 18 characters + n).

Because I work with Servoy since version 1.2 internationalization was/is completely new to me. But, I want to sell my solution internationally so this is a must for. Therefore I recently started to really convert all labels, dialogs etc into an i18n value.

My experience: the bigger the solution the more work. And when I say work I really mean WORK...

My advice therefore is short: When you consider or dream of selling your solution outside your language area you should work with i18n from the start. It will take a little time extra to start with but will be a huge timesaver later on.

But, there can be another reason. Let's assume your solution has 20 forms with 'OK' buttons. After a while your users ask you to change that text into 'Yes'. Without i18n this would mean that you have to search for all forms holding that button and change all individual button text properties. With a lot of forms this can take a lot of time. With i18n this will only take you seconds.

Sound like a great bonus huh..

Cheers

Comments (2)

David Workman 2004-10-04

Damn, the "OK" button example hadn't occurred to me. Another option for GUI abstraction. Good tip!

Bob Cusick 2004-10-05

Great tip! Here's another tip when using i18n: MAKE SURE you have set up a "default i18n server" and "default i18n table" in the "preferences" BEFORE you try to import i18n data. If you don't, you won't be able to import i18n data. That should save you about 10 hours of trial and error... :-)