Dear Alchemy Technology user,

My name is Cyril Vallin. I am the Product Support Manager at Alchemy Software Development.

This TechBytes Email is to share our experiences with our users so that we can all benefit and enhance our use of Alchemy technology. With writing in-depth features and processes articles I hope to promote advancement amongst all of you, Alchemists.

In this release, let's review the concepts behind localizing a web based application and the benefits of using CATALYST.

   
 

Localizing a web-based application

Alchemy CATALYST is a Visual Localization tool suited to localize web-based applications providing essential in-context information through WYSIWYG view, Screenshots and Memos.

Let's explore how a typical web-based application, also known as Webapp, works and is localized.

A web-based application is accessed over internet or local network using HTTP on a web browser. It is hosted on an internet server (e.g. Microsoft IIS, Apache) and its interface can be developed in various technologies like Java, JavaScript, DHTML, Silverlight etc...

A user can access the web-based application via a browser. On a request, the web-based application performs actions and generates an HTML page dynamically. To do so the application retrieves data from various resources, including web-services and database queries.

Webapps localizable strings (the text displayed to the user) can be included in HTML files but more often are externalized to resources files or databases. Common formats used are RESX files (Microsoft XML based), .Properties (Java), XML and databases.

 

To localize the application, with the exception of database sources, the resources are duplicated and translated for each language supported. The webapp can then be configured to use the appropriate language strings from the resources based on the location of the user, using the IP address.

 

Benefits of translating WebApps in CATALYST

All the localizable resources are supported in CATALYST. Again typically those are one of the following formats:

  • HTML files
  • RESX files
  • .properties files
  • XML files

For the first 3 formats (HTML, RESX and .properties files) there is no configuration needed in CATALYST in order to parse all the localizable strings. The syntax within is defined and CATALYST knows what to do. For XML files however, parsing rules will need to be created. A really simple task necessary to instruct CATALYST on identifying the localizable strings. This is because the element and attribute names within XML can be different with every file.

With HTML files, CATALYST users can work in Visual View. Seeing the file in WYSIWYG mode (What You See Is What You Get). This enables the Translator and Reviewer users to work on strings in-context, increasing significantly the quality of the translation.


CATALYST's Visual View, an HTML page is rendered in the central frame as it would in a browser.

With the resources files, this in-context visualization is not possible since the strings are retrieved by the webserver when a user makes a request. In other words when a user interacts with the webapp.
CATALYST however includes the option to add several meta-data to individual strings, guiding and empowering the Translator and Reviewers to input the most suitable translation.

Memo

A Memo is an annotation or note which can be applied to individual segments. Memos can be helpful in commenting or annotating items in a project and can be used to communicate between stakeholders in the project.

Context Link

Context Links are URLs or File Path to external files, such as images, audio, video and documentation formats (i.e. a PDF document).
The Reference Browser window displays context material pertaining to the current segment.  This information is displayed as the user selects that segment giving visual context, thus ensuring a better quality translation.

Maximum Size

This is used to define width and height limitations for a segment. It instructs the Translator as to the size restrictions for the translated string when it is retrieved by the Web Application at run-time. This is an especially useful property for localizing embedded-systems.

 

There are more meta-data available in CATALYST, with Locks, Keywords and flags, but the above are the ones which specifically support the linguists providing invaluable in-context information for the segments they need to translate outside of the live online application.

 

 
 

Thanks for taking the time to read this instalment of TechBytes. It has been fun to write and I hope you found some if not all of it beneficial.

I always welcome new article ideas, so if there is a feature you feel works really well and is worth mentioning, or indeed if clarification on a particular topic would help you, please let me know so together we can make TechBytes as useful as possible for everyone.

Remember all the previous released articles are available on our website, in the Support section. Use your Support Centre login to access all the past articles along with other resources available to our premium support members.

My best wishes
Cyril Vallin

 

Alchemy Software Development Ltd. | Block 2 | Harcourt Business Centre
Harcourt Street | Dublin 2 | D02 DX37 | Ireland