| Language Translation Support |  |
| Multibyte Introduction An eight-bit-wide character space is not large enough to fit most Asian character sets. Asian countries, such as Japan, China, and Korea, require at least 16 bits of character space to accommodate local characters. Therefore, a 32-bit wide character space has been implemented in ERP LN Tools to support all possible character sets. Be aware that a character is not necessarily the same as a byte and can take up more than one screen position. A character in the bshell occupies one or two screen positions at a size of 4 bytes. Triton Super Set The multibyte enabling has been implemented in ERP LN by means of the Triton Super Set (TSS), which is a collection of character sets. TSS accommodates all multibyte character sets in a single package. TSS includes both ASCII character sets and multibyte character sets, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Hebrew. To distinguish between, for example, Japanese and Chinese, TSS consists of planes, each of which holds a 64 KB-size character set, or 256 pages of 256 characters. Multi-language Most ERP LN implementations use several system languages simultaneously. In addition, various languages for user reports such as customer facing documents sometimes also require languages other than the local languages used. The Triton Super Set is a foundation that helps realize this concept. Previous ERP LN releases already support multiple languages, however, ERP LN 6.1 uses the Language Translation System (LTS). Language Translation Support (LTS) In earlier releases of ERP LN language-dependent software components, such as forms and reports, contain design specific information, for example, field positions, as well as translated labels. This implies that every system language requires a unique set of software components on development time, run time, and deployment time, which causes a huge footprint of every ERP LN installation. For example, a standard ERP LN system uses four European languages. ERP LN sessions will be stored in four versions. Each customized component generates its own instances on top of the standard configuration. ERP LN 6.1 uses LTS to both reduce the language-dependency of the ERP LN applications and to lower the costs of media creation. LTS Basic Concept LTS provides a mechanism to store translatable software components, such as labels, questions, and messages separate from language-independent software components, such as form and report designs. For example, a sales order entry form contains only an identifier to a referring label and will be used by all system languages. The translated labels will be added only to display the form. LTS Storage of translatable software Components In earlier ERP LN releases, labels were stored without any grouping on usage. In ERP LN 6.1, labels are stored based on their context. This reduces redundancy and prevents labels from being changed while being used in another context. The label contexts are: General use Session, table, or report description Enumerates Indices Charts Menus and menu fields Chart application options Business objects Sub-functions Form commands External use Cascading item on button Help topic label To translate labels, questions and messages Additional functionality is provided in ERP LN 6.1 to export the labels, questions, and messages from a development or translation system to be imported into other ERP LN 6.1 environments. Export and import of labels is carried out by means of XML-formatted files. Every XML file contains a selection of translatable components based on the user’s settings, for example: Labels based on label code Labels based on context Labels based on package Questions based on code Messages based on code To prepare an ERP LN environment After you import the translated software components into a ERP LN 6.1 environment, you must perform a conversion to an executable format. In the runtime data dictionary, labels are stored, per VRC, in label resource files in the ${BSE}/lib/labels directory. The Language Translation Support (LTS) sessions In ERP LN 6.1 you can use the following sessions to translate software components: Labels (ttadv1140m000) Message Descriptions (ttadv4150m000) Question Descriptions (ttadv4166m000) Export Language Dependent Data to XML - Wizard (ttadv8910m000) Import Language-Dependent Data from XML - Wizard (ttadv8920m000) Merge Tool for XML-files with Language Dependent Components (ttadv8930m000) Compile Labels (ttadv1243m000) |