Localization Overview

Related Topics

There are two levels of localization:  the first level is the delivered system editor functions and the second level is the ability to localize your in-house developed .irpt Web pages.

All system configuration and administration functions support localization.  The system includes both English and German language support.  The default system language is set under System Properties.  With authentication, each user can have their language of choice set through the Users page function.  Additional language support for the system editor functions can be provided without a software upgrade by adding a localized properties file with the correct language name extension.  For additional information, please contact your technical support representative.

Localization in SAP xMII and Security Manager configuration editors uses Java resource bundle technology. Resource bundles use a naming convention to distinguish numerous versions of the same bundle. Each bundle name consists of a base name and an optional locale identifier. Together, these two pieces uniquely identify a bundle in a package.

SAP xMII and Security Manager editors use property resource bundles. A property resource bundle is simply a text file with a properties extension. Each line in the file is a comment (#), blank line, or a <key>=<value> entry.

A degradation algorithm is used to search resource bundles in an attempt to find the closest match to a bundle in cases where the specified bundle cannot be found or does not exist. In the following search each element of the search name is separated with an underscore character. The algorithm searches for bundle names in the following order:
<baseclass>_<specific language>_<specific country>_<specific variant>
<baseclass>_<specific language>_<specific country>
<baseclass>_<specific language>
<baseclass>_<default language>_<default country>_<default variant>
<baseclass>_<default language>_<default country>
<baseclass>_<default language>
<baseclass>

For example, suppose the default locale determined by the operating system is en_US (U.S. English). The requested locale is fr_CA (Canadian French). The resource bundles are searched in the following order until a match for the requested resource key is found:
MyResource_fr_CA.properties
MyResource_fr.properties
MyResource_en_US.properties
MyResource_en.properties
MyResource.properties

Performance while using resource bundles is fast because the Java resource bundle APIs cache bundles as they are needed. However, resource bundles may not be dynamically updated. The application server must be restarted for bundle updates to take effect.

SAP xMII

SAP xMII uses two types of localization. It uses the standard resource bundle localization and a custom localization for dynamic user localization.

There are two resource bundle packages used in SAP xMII for localizing items. These bundles are located in the classes directory of the SAP xMII Web application.

Dynamic user localization is performed in a similar manner as Java resource bundles but uses custom code. User localization changes are dynamic and take effect immediately. These files are located in the Properties directory. Unlike Java resource bundles, the language is used to identify the various files only, rather than the full locale information.

User resource bundles are searched using the following algorithm:
UserStringResources_<specific language>
UserStringResources_<system language>
UserStringResources_xx.properties

The default system language is specified on the System Administration page that is accessible from System Management | System Administration. The default translations are stored in the file ending with ‘xx’ as the language.

Security Manager

Security Manager uses four resource bundle packages for localizing items. These bundles are located in the classes directory of the security Web application.