Re: localization

Hello,

while the other suggestions are good and will work i have another that 
works without any coding or patches with XForms itself. we've used this 
approach successfully in our projects.
it works like this:
- you write a xml-file with all the keys you want as xml element names 
and putting in the translation of your default language as value e.g.
<mydict>
  <foo>whatever foo translates to in your language</foo>
  ...
</mydict>

you create a similar file with the same structure for every language, 
naming them lang_en.xml, lang_it.xml, lang.de ... then in your xforms 
you load these files as instance-data which makes them available to 
label binds e.g.
...
<xf:label ref="instance('lang')/foo"/>
...

the instance tag might look like this:
<xf:instance src="lang.xml" id="lang"/>

but how can you switch between languages now? well, XForms comes to your 
 rescue and we can use it for 'copying' instances around.
to switch the language you'll need to write one submission for every 
language such as
<xf:submission id="load-lang" ref="instance('lang')" replace="instance" 
method="get" action="lang_en.xml"/>
if you now trigger the submission by a language selection button or 
select1, the current instance (whatever language may be loaded) will be 
replaced with the one referenced by the 'action' attribute.
if you want to persist the users choice so its available next time the 
form is started you can do an additional submit (method put) doing a 
normal save to file 'lang.xml' thus overwriting its original content.
this appraoch requires two things:
1. you'll a 'lang.xml' which redundantly mirrors one of your lang_xx.xml 
files and is deployed along with them. this is the default language 
shown when the form comes up. when one of the relevant submissions fire, 
this files' content is replace by the wanted language.
2. the number of languages must be known beforehand and you'll have to 
write one submission for every language you want to support. but i 
assume this should be the case anyway - how else should you have a 
translation at hand?
btw, as William mentioned it's convenient to have the i18n as instance 
data cause this give you a chance to also internationalize the labels of 
select/select1 lists.
Joern

Mihnea Galeteanu wrote:
> Hi,
> I was wondering how would I go about developing an internationalized 
> xform that used resource bundle to localize labels for example.
> Thanks,
>
> Mihnea (Mike) Galeteanu
> Software Developer
> FreeBalance - global leaders in e-Government software
> Tel: +1 613 236 5150 ext  339
> Fax: +1 613 236 7785
> mgaleteanu-Nc24Izxk5nwdH0auuBZGHA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> FreeBalance proudly welcomes Influatec to the FreeBalance family.
> You can find out more at www.FreeBalance.com.

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