Localization of publications

You can configure Alfabet to translate strings displayed on the user interface and property of objects defined by the Alfabet user community. The user can switch to a different culture via the Language button in the upper-right corner of the Alfabet interface.

If multi-language support is available for your Alfabet user community, then the publications should also be available in the supported languages. A separate publication must be configured for each language for which you want to provide a translated publication.

The following procedure is recommended to generate a language version for a publication configuration:

1. Create a copy of the Word template(s) assigned to the original publication definition and translate all static content to the target language.
2. Open Alfabet Expand and go to the Publications tab.
3. Right-click the original publication and select Copy.
4. Right-click the new Publications root node and select Paste. A copy of the original publication is added to the explorer tree with the name <source publication name> - 1.
5. If the State attribute of the new publication is not set to Plan , right-click the new publication and select Set State to Plan.
6. Define the following attributes of the new publication:
   • Name: Enter a technical name for the publication. The name should reflect that the publication is a language version of the original publication (for example, by defining <source publication name>-<language code>).

     Rules for defining technical names

     Technical names should be unique and should not contain white spaces and special characters except underscore and hyphen. They are used to identify configuration objects unambiguously in technical processes.

   • Caption: Enter a caption for the publication. The caption is displayed in the Alfabet user interface in the drop-down list available for the Publication field. The Name attribute will be displayed if no caption is defined. It is recommended that you define a name that allows the publication to be identified as a language version of the source publication (for example, 'Publication X (German)'). The caption can be defined in the base language of the meta-model. It can later be translated to other languages via the Translation Editor available in Alfabet Expand.
   • Comments: Optionally enter a description for the publication. The description can be defined in the base language of the meta-model. It will later be translated to other languages via the translation editor Translation Editor of Alfabet Expand.
   • Data Culture: Select the culture for the publication in the drop-down list. If no culture is selected, the default language English will be used for the publication. The Data Culture attribute is only required if instance translation has been activated for the Support Data Translation attribute of the relevant culture. If instance translation is activated for a culture, object class property values defined as translatable can be translated to the language associated with the currently selected culture. Translated strings are stored in the database table of the object class in a separate column. During publication, values will be read from the language column of the selected culture.
   • Group: You can optionally structure and organize publications in publication group folders. To create a publication group, enter a name for the publication group in the Group field and press ENTER. The publication group appears as a folder ascendant to the publication. If other publications are already structured in publication groups, existing publication groups can be selected from a drop-down list in the Group attribute. If an existing publication group is selected, the publication is added to the selected publication group folder.
7. Expand the new publication node in the explorer and expand the Templates node.
8. Right-click a Word template and select Reload template.
9. In the explorer that opens, select the translated version of the Word template. The Word template is substituted with the language version.
10. If the publication shall be triggered via a configured report, go to the Reports section of the explorer and select the configured report that triggers the publication in the user interface.
11. Right-click the Publications sub-folder of the report node and select Add Publication. Select the newly created language version of the publication and click OK. The language version of the publication is now available for selection in the report.
12. In the Translation Editor available in Alfabet Expand, translate the caption and description of the original and the language version of the publication to the language of the translated publication..