Localization (language support)

Owned by Angela Spinazzè (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 08, 2011 by Kirsten Vittrup (Unlicensed)Version comment
2 min read

Use Cases

Use Case: Statens Museum for Kunst

Language Support
HTML label fields
  • Initially all labels should appear in Danish (guidance labels, navigation, etc.)
  • User can change label language on the fly
  • User can save a preferred language
  • Reports can also reference label names, multi-language should be supported here too. 
HTML Text input
  • Text entered will usually be in Danish and doesn't require translation
  • For controlled lists where terms are entered in Danish and an English equivalent is also maintained, the English term is displayed in a search result set, may be used to display on the web and in other outputs such as reports, and is associated with the English-label-language (as above)
  • However, some fields have both an English and a Danish input. eg. "comments" is  two free text fields, one for a Danish text and one for an English text (which is required for display on the web). These fields could be implemented in a similar way to 'title' in CollectionSpace. Ie. make them repeatable with an associated language attribute.
Vocabulary input
  • Danish terms should be used as default
  • Many vocabularies support an English equivalent or synonym (or translation)
  • Some reports require English versions of vocabularies in the report
  • SMK web site 'search' feature uses English versions of vocabularies
Other Notes
  • Character set : Unicode can support both English and Danish.
  • HTTP level language negotiation  (Content-language) is not a requirement
  • HTML "lang" attribute support is not a requirement
  • Fallback: missing English texts can fallback to Danish
  • Assumption is that for Danish the same layout and styles (CSS) can be used as for English - this may not be a valid assumption for other languages ("right to left" languages for example).
  • Currently, localized terms are held in a single table called enumeration object.  This table contains a unique id for each term, a class (numeric), a shorthand code for the term, the Danish term, and the British English term. 
  • Agreement that a move towards the use of resource files + css style sheets is the preferred approach for handling synonyms in multiple languages.
  • Sample data has already been provided to illustrate language issues:  Please refer to the page Sample Collections Data.  An excel spreadsheet is provided for each field that currently uses a controlled list of terms for which an English language equivalent also exists.  Terms are entered into the current system in Danish, and the equivalents are used primarily but not exclusively for the web, in reports, and for wall labels. In addition, an Excel file is attached that contains sample data that can be used for testing purposes.