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Some important design considerations apply to developing truly multilingual applications. Consider the following simple sequence of screen panels representing a product inquiry:
| Panel |
|---|
Specify Product Number Key in Product Number and press Enter. Product Number . . . . . . . 64786 |
| Panel |
|---|
Product Details |
Initially the RDML program could be coded like this:
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Execute the application in French
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| Panel |
|---|
Specification du Numero de Produit Tapez le Numero de Produit puis faites Enter Numero de Produit . . . . . |
...
64786 |
...
...
| Panel |
|---|
|
...
Details du Produit |
Numero de Produit . . . : 64786 |
...
7685 |
Execute the application in German
| Panel |
|---|
...
Produkt Nummer Angeben
Geben Sie die Produkt Nummer ein und drucken Sie Eingabe
Produkt Nummer . . . . . . . 64786
Produkt Nummer Angeben Geben Sie die Produkt Nummer ein und drucken Sie Eingabe Produkt Nummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64786 |
| Panel |
|---|
Produkt Detail Produkt Nummer . . . . . . : 64786 |
...
. : 2.45 |
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Verfugbare Menge . . . |
...
. |
...
. |
...
. |
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: 7685 |
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Notice what's wrong?
The product description and short description shown are still in English.
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If the program was coded like this (making use of the system variable *LANGUAGE to determine the language):
GROUP_BY NAME(#PANEL001) FIELDS(#PRODNO #PRODES #PROSDES #PRICE #STOCK)
BEGIN_LOOP
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REQUEST FIELD((
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#PBINST01 *
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OUTPUT *NOID)
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#PRODNO)
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FETCH FIELDS(#PANEL001)
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FROM_FILE(PRODMST)
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WITH_KEY(#PRODNO)
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FETCH FIELDS(#PANEL001)
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FROM_FILE(PRODLNG)
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WITH_KEY(*
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LANGUAGE #PRODNO)
IF_
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STATUS IS_NOT(*OK)
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MESSAGE MSGTXT(*MTXT12347)
ELSE
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DISPLAY FIELDS(#PANEL001)
ENDIF
END_LOOP
...
The result would be a true multilingual system where side by side users could be running the same program in completely different languages.
Execute the application in French
...
| Panel |
|---|
Specification du Numero de Produit |
...
Tapez le Numero de Produit puis faites Enter |
...
Numero de Produit . . . . . |
...
64786 |
| Panel |
|---|
...
Details du Produit |
...
Numero de Produit . . . : 64786 |
...
7685 |
Execute the application in German
| Panel |
|---|
...
Produkt Nummer Angeben Geben Sie die Produkt Nummer ein und drucken Sie Eingabe Produkt Nummer . . . . . . . |
...
64786 |
...
| Panel |
|---|
Produkt Detail |
...
Produkt Nummer . . . . . : 64786 |
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Seschreibung . . . |
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. |
...
. |
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. |
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. |
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. : |
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1 kg Plastiksack mit Rohzucker |
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ZUCKER 1KG |
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.45 |
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7685 |