JP2007328428A - Computer system, mutilingualization/localization method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To materialize mutilingualization/localization at low cost. <P>SOLUTION: For management of character strings for screen display, countries/regions are used in addition to languages. A default language, country, and region are set. A default country/region is defined for a language. If a character string for a language, country, or region desired to be displayed is present in a database, the character string is displayed, and if absent, a character string for the default language, country, or region is displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for realizing multilingualization / localization of a computer system.

  Conventionally, a method of mastering a character string and displaying / outputting a character string corresponding to a language is generally used. In particular, there are many ways to prepare a file that defines the character strings to be used for each language, and to determine the display character string for each language used. Either all values must be set, or existing settings are copied and only necessary parts are changed.

  When copying and changing, it is necessary to reflect the change for each language when the system is modified, and problems such as work omissions are likely to occur. Especially in languages with few users, even if the situation is fatal, it is difficult to detect the problem, and there is a high possibility that the response will be delayed.

  Currently, when realizing a system / software that supports multiple languages, in many cases, a method of using a display / output character string as an external resource and switching it for each language is used. With this method, the only translation required for multilingual support is a resource file for each language, which is very useful for multilingualization.

Here, when a display to the user occurs, the type of the acquired display language information is determined, mapping information corresponding to the display language to be used is selected from the display language information, and each display corresponding to the display country language By searching the display language resource corresponding to the selected mapping information from the library including the language resource, and extracting the library that matches the display language to be used, without correcting the program code part of the software program, There has been proposed a technique capable of easily switching and displaying a plurality of display languages with a single software program (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-142600 A

  However, the conventional example described above has the following problems.

  There are cases where language-specific correspondence is insufficient. In other words, there are cases where the appropriate expression / word is different if the country or region used in the same language is different.

  In addition, if the translation is not completed, it is not possible to provide in that language, and it is difficult to take a form such as translating only the minimum necessary part and starting operation.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. The purpose is to use “country / region” in addition to “language” for management of character strings for display / output. As a result, more appropriate localization is possible, and even when the same French is used in France and when used in Belgium, different character strings can be displayed / output.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention uses a country / region in addition to a language for managing character strings for screen display, sets a default language, a country, and a region, and sets a default country / region for the language. Provides a computer system that displays the character strings of the language, country, and region that you want to define and display in the database if they exist in the database, and displays the default language, country, and region if they do not exist To do.

  The present invention also uses a country / region in addition to a language for screen display character string management, sets a default language, a country, and a region, and defines and displays a default country / region for the language. Provides a multilingual / localization method that displays language, country, and region strings when they exist in the database, and displays default language, country, and region strings when they do not exist .

  According to the present invention, multilingualization and localization can be realized at low cost.

  Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  In FIG. 1, the computer system according to the present embodiment prepares master data defining output items as shown in FIG. 2 in order to perform display according to the language and country / region of the user as shown in FIG. To do.

  The output item has a unique ID for each item displayed on the screen / form, and a character string for each language or country / region is defined for the ID.

  When the system outputs a character string to the screen, etc., it outputs all based on this master data, but it is fatal to use the system even if the data preparation for any language, country / region is not completed Provide a function to refer to the default language and the character string of the country / region so that no serious problems occur.

  By referring to the definition of the default language and country / region when there is no registration for the user's language and country / region, the screen in the example of FIG. 2: SR0001, item: COL001, language: en, country / region : There is no need to register a record for the UK, and since it is not a copy of the US record, it is automatically changed even when the default US character string is changed.

  In order for this mechanism to function effectively, it is necessary to define the default country / region for the default language for all items, but registration is not required for other language, country / region information. Absent. For items that are not registered, only the default character string is displayed and there is no fatal effect on the operation.

  Next, an exemplary operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  The logic for obtaining a character string to be output on a screen or a form is as shown in FIG. The screen to be displayed to the user is determined, and the items to be displayed on the screen are acquired after executing the necessary business logic. For each item on the screen to be displayed, get the character string defined in the following order.

1. 1. Character strings defined for the user's language and country / region 2. The user's language and the character string defined for the default country / region of that language. Default language, character string defined for default country / region of default language For example, for users who use American English, screen: SR0001 item: “Color” is adopted as the item displayed on COL007 However, in the case of a Japanese user (using Japanese), "color" is displayed at the same place. In addition, even if the user uses English, “Color” is displayed for a British person. Screen: SR0001, Item: COL001 in the English expression, no character string is registered in the case of the UK, but in such a case, the definition of the country / region registered as the English default region (in this case, the US) “File” is displayed.

  In this way, a character string that is more effective for the user is employed as much as possible. However, even if there is no definition for the language used, display using the default definition is possible, and there is no fatal effect on the operation. In addition, it is possible to gradually increase the degree of completion of multilingualization / localization after system operation by preferentially translating and registering the master part with priority on the part that is frequently used or the part where the user's demand is particularly strong. .

  For example, if Japanese text strings are not maintained, the text displayed in the system will be in English, but especially those that are often used by people who do not understand English are prioritized. Adjustments can also be made.

  Summarizing the above operations, it is possible to construct a system that performs the operations as shown in FIG. What is important is that even if the target language, country, or region changes, the logic processed by the system does not need to be changed at all, and even if translation data cannot be prepared sufficiently, a method of gradually improving it can be adopted. It becomes. In addition, after starting operation, it is easy to make changes such as adding a new language or corresponding to expressions specific to the country or region. It is also possible to realize finer localization such as for example.

  In the above embodiment, the concept of default language / default country / region is used in order to minimize the work for translation / localization. For example, when the English language character string is defined with the default language set to English, the English character string is used even if the translated character string is not defined for another language. The translation is performed in units of display / output items, and it is only necessary to translate / localize only the items necessary for the current operation without translating all display / output items used in the system. In this case, the character string of the untranslated part does not hold a copy of the default language (= English). If there is no character string for the language used, the method of using the character string of the default language is used, so that unnecessary information does not need to be retained and revision at the time of maintenance is automatically performed. This method is effective especially in the case where it is desired to change only a part of character strings depending on the difference in country / region in the same language, and the time / cost for translation can be expected to be reduced.

  Multilingualization and localization can be realized at low cost. The reason is that the display / output character string is mastered and it is not always necessary to wait for the start of operation until the complete maintenance of the master data is completed by adopting “default”.

  In addition, it is possible to efficiently store data for display / output character strings in multilingualization / localization. The reason is that many character strings can be shared with the default particularly in the case of localization or the like, and it is not necessary to register the same character string repeatedly.

  Next, the configuration of the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

  Although there are many cases where the output character string as shown in FIG. 2 can be directly embedded in terms of system construction, there are cases where this alone cannot be dealt with correctly. For example, general date formats differ depending on the country or region.

  In Japan, a format such as “2006/3/1” is often used. In the United States and the like, formats such as “Mar 1 2006” and “3-1-2006” are preferred. Since these character strings change from day to day, it is necessary to determine which format to use depending on the country and region (in some cases, the language) after defining the format.

  Even in such a case, the basic concept and logic can be handled in the same way as a general character string.

  Each of the above-described embodiments is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, processing for realizing the functions of the apparatus may be performed by causing the apparatus to read and execute a program for realizing the functions of the computer system. Further, the program is transmitted to another computer system by a transmission wave via a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a magneto-optical disk, or via a transmission medium such as the Internet or a telephone line. Also good.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the configuration in which the computer system is realized as one system has been described. However, the configuration in which the devices are separately connected and the configuration in which a plurality of devices are added for each function are also described. Of course, it is applicable.

  The present invention is particularly effective in a Web system that is accessed from various languages / countries / regions, and the effect increases as the number of languages, countries / regions to be handled increases. The case where one system is used by many users / languages at the same time is the most suitable. However, even if the target user uses a single language, what is built in Japan is the US, France, Spain,・ Even if it is deployed, etc., development is done in the Japanese version and only the master setting needs to be made, so it is suitable for application.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the computer system in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the definition of the output item in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the processing operation in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows operation | movement of the system which can be constructed | assembled in the 1st Embodiment of this invention.

Claims (6)

  Use country / region in addition to language for screen display string management, set default language, country, region, define default country / region for language, and display language / country / region A computer system characterized in that if a character string exists in the database, the character string is displayed, and if not, a character string in the default language, country, and region is displayed.   2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein a date display format is defined in correspondence with a language, a country, and a region.   Use country / region in addition to language for screen display string management, set default language, country, region, define default country / region for language, and display language / country / region A multilingual / localization method characterized in that if a character string exists in the database, the character string is displayed, and if not, a character string of a default language, country, and region is displayed.   4. The multilingual / localizing method according to claim 3, wherein a date display format is defined in correspondence with a language, a country, and a region.   A program for causing a computer to realize the function according to claim 1.   A program for causing a computer to realize the function according to claim 2.

Images