This presentation walks through the Globalization, Localization and Internationalization of a software application.

1. Intro to Globalization
S.Kannan, Solution Architect
September 05, 2008

2. Introduction
 Internationalization – (i18n)
 Making the application world-ready
 Localization
 Deploying the application for a locale
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3. What is different?
 Formatting
 User Interface
 Text / Phrases
 time zone
 Currency
 …
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4. Text Lengths
 Length of text may vary
 In terms of number of characters
 In terms of pixels
 Impacts UI
 Unexpected text wraps
 Hidden / overlapping UI elements
 Width extending beyond page width / or
getting cropped
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5. Bitmaps & Images
 Symbolic images may at time be
understood differently in different
countries
 Some images may have adverse
political / cultural impact in some
countries
 Images containing text may not
represent the user’s language of
choice.
 Some images / colors may lead to
legal conflicts
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6. Access & Shortcut keys
 Variant keyboard layouts may result
in a specific access / shortcut key not
being supported
 Shortcut keys cannot consist of
characters from double-byte
character set
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7. Language Direction
 Few languages require
text to flow from Right to
Left.
 There are design / layout
related complexities which
need to be addressed in
case of such languages.
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8. Fonts
 Certain Language
specific fonts may
compound the
challenges
 Non availability of
language specific fonts
in the client PC may
lead to the content
being displayed as junk
characters
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9. Address Formats
 The following may differ per location
 Input fields
 Differing field layouts
 Dynamic visibility some of the screen
elements
 Differing validation rules
 Differing field formats
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10. Currency
 Differing currency symbols
 Currency symbol placement –
leading / trailing
 Negative amount display –
paranthesis or using a leading /
trailing hyphen.
 Some locales using multiple
currencies
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11. Date Formats
 Differing Long and Short date formats.
 Differing month names, day names.
 Date parsing, unless associated with a
locale / format, may lead to incorrect
identification of date value.
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12. Calendars
 Some cultures use
different calendar and
the localization should
also address this need
 Some cultures have
alternative calendars
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13. Numerals
 Differing thousands separator
 Differing decimal separator
 Negative numbers – parenthesis or
hyphens
 Differing Shapes – the font face of the
digit.
 Digit grouping – (123,456 Vs 1,23,456)
 Representation of percentage – Leading /
Trailing ‘%’ symbol.
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14. Phone Numbers
 Differentseparators and different grouping
schemes used in different countries.
 Grouping separators – hyphens or
parenthesis or space
 The length of the phone number also is
not standard across the world.
 ISO standard – 15 digits
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15. Time
 24 Hour clock
 Usage of AM / PM
 Separators – Some Asian languages
use idiographic characters as
separators. And some cultures
require a trailing ‘h’ or ‘s’
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16. Units of Measure
 Imperial vs Metric system of measure.
 Mile vs Kilo Meters
 Liter vs Gallon
 Pounds vs Kilo Grams
 Fahrenheit vs Celsius
 Letter vs A4
…
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17. Currency
 Currency differs by country and by
organizational units.
 Users may prefer to pay in different currency
than the currency of the country / org unit.
 Corporate head quarters may want various
reports in a common currency.
 Differences may arise on account of currency
conversion at various time periods – business
rules need to be defined to handle this.
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18. time zone
 Different entities in the organization hierarchy
may fall under different time zones.
 DateTime data type in SQL server 2005 does
not support time zone information.
 Time zone adjustments have to be made based
on user location and / or organization unit
location.
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19. Runtime string concatenation
 It is common in applications that strings are
generated in run time by concatenation, which
may lead to issues like:
 Word order issues
 Gender issues
 Translation issues
 String growth
 String sorting or comparison
 As such the translation should happen at phrase
level rather than at the word level.
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20. Resource files
 Every time a new locale is added to the
application, it is essential that a new
resource file is created with text in
respective language.
 Hard coded string values within the
application shall be completely avoided, so
that addition of a new locale will only
require addition of another resource file.
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21. String compare
 Itis common to compare string literals
or variables
 String contents on both side should
represent the same language
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22. Localized emails
 Localized email templates to be
created
 Position of variable place holders
within the template
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23. Database Challenges
 Unicode character columns
 Collation
 Can be defined at design time or
 Can be defined at run time
 Query filters – literals / user input values in
where clauses
 Indexing issues
 Time zone issues
 Text Transliteration
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24. Dependencies on External Systems
 Localization support from EasyDraft / GIRO or
such other fund processors.
 Localization support from CSS – the CSS
dependent brands may not opt for localization?
 Extent of localization supported by Oracle HR,
OID, Service Now and such other enterprise
applications in the enterprise
 Current or future needs for BI / reporting
services and the ability to collaborate such
localized data (local currencies, local time
zones, local languages, etc)
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25. Next Steps - Business decisions
 Need for translation services – Internal /
External
 Divergent language rules like the specific
punctuation, etc makes translation a
challenge.
 For the UI static content, the resource files
may be used at the presentation layer.
 Create & maintain a language translation
database
 Identify and contract with an external vendor
for translation services
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26. Next Steps - Business decisions
 Decide on which class of users will see localized
content.
 Ideally, the internal users always see the content in
English language and the customers see localized
content.
 Identify the data elements that needs localization
 Text data internally used by the application need not
be localized
 Text data used solely by the internal employees need
not be localized or localized to the base locale of the
brand / such other entity
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27. Next Steps - Business decisions
 Decide on the Database localization
 Localized at column / row / table / database schema
level
 Specify the business rules with respect to time
zone handling
 All udpates to database shall be based on UTC
 Time zone adjustment shall be done at App Tier
(Business Logic Layer) based on the requirements of
the specific interface / function, the user class and
user’s choice of time zone.
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28. Next Steps - Business decisions
 Specify the business rules with respect to
currency handling
 Base currencies at Provider / Brand and School level
 All transactions shall be recorded in the currency in
which it was carried out
 Currency conversion shall happen at the APP tier
based on the specific requirements of the interface /
function / report, user class and the user’s choice.
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29. Next Steps - Internationalization
 Expedite and make necessary business
decisions
 Identify the scope and timelines for
internationalization
 Implement design and code changes
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30. Localization
 Identify the specific localization need
 Country / Culture
 Language(s) to be supported
 Pages / Interfaces / data elements to be localized
 Translation
 Language experts for translation
 Localize content (text, graphics, etc)
 Build a translation database, if required
 Implement design & code changes that may
arise
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31. Thank You
 ????
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