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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:

^{Specify Product Number}

^{Key in Product Number and press Enter.}

^{Product Number . . . . . . . 64786}

^{Product Details}
^{Product Number . . . . . :  64786}
^{Description  . . . . . . . . . :  1 kg plastic bag of cane sugar}
^{Short Description  . . . :  SUGAR 1KG}
^{Price  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :  2.45}
^{Stock on Hand  . . . . . . :  7685}

Initially the RDML program could be coded like this:

     GROUP_BY NAME(#PANEL001) FIELDS(#PRODNO #PRODES #PROSDES #PRICE #STOCK)
     BEGIN_LOOP
     REQUEST FIELD((#PBINST01 *OUTPUT *NOID) #PRODNO)
     FETCH FIELDS(#PANEL001) FROM_FILE(PRODMST) WITH_KEY(#PRODNO)
             IF_STATUS IS_NOT(*OK)
             MESSAGE MSGTXT(*MTXT12347)
             ELSE
             DISPLAY FIELDS(#PANEL001)
             ENDIF
     END_LOOP

By setting up the correct multilingual attributes for this program you can instantly achieve the following variations in this program. Refer to Specifying a Field's Multilingual Attributes for details.

Execute the application in French

^{Specification du Numero de Produit}

^{Tapez le Numero de Produit puis faites Enter}

^{Numero de Produit . . . . . 64786}

^{Details du Produit}

^{Numero de Produit . . . : 64786}^{Description . . . . . . : 1 kg plastic bag of cane sugar}^{Description Abregee . . : SUGAR 1KG}^{Prix . . . . . . . . . . : 2.45}^{Stock Disponible . . . . : 7685}

Execute the application in German

^{Produkt Nummer Angeben}

^{Geben Sie die Produkt Nummer ein und drucken Sie Eingabe}

^{Produkt Nummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64786}

^{Produkt Detail}

^{Produkt Nummer . . . . . . : 64786}^{Seschreibung . . . . . . . . . . : 1 kg plastic bag of cane sugar}^{Kurzbeschreibung . . . . . . : SUGAR 1KG}^{Preis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.45}^{Verfugbare Menge . . . . . . : 7685}

Notice what's wrong?

The product description and short description shown are still in English.

This simple example illustrates a very important point.

LANSA can get all the details it knows about out on the screen in the correct language, but because this is intended to be a completely multilingual program, it should have stored the product details in two separate files:

One for the non-language dependent product details (like price and stock on hand);
The other for the language dependent product details (like the long and short descriptions).

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
     REQUEST FIELD((#PBINST01 *OUTPUT *NOID) #PRODNO)
     FETCH FIELDS(#PANEL001) FROM_FILE(PRODMST) WITH_KEY(#PRODNO)
     FETCH FIELDS(#PANEL001) FROM_FILE(PRODLNG) WITH_KEY(*LANGUAGE #PRODNO)
              IF_STATUS IS_NOT(*OK)
              MESSAGE MSGTXT(*MTXT12347)
              ELSE
              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.