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I do the same for forms (2 lists: code for doing @member to get position, translation list for getting translation using []). I let the (power)user enter the translations, 1 doc for each translation. And save the lists (code + 1 field for each language) in a profile doc, for faster access on a form. I use the same profile info for looking up translations for e.g. scripts/agents, outlines, action buttons, ....

View titles remains a pain. I (and I'm not alone) have been begging for years, at each LS to make view titles computed (like action buttons). To no avail. My customers usually agreed to settle for a 'common' language (e.g. English) for the view titles. Annoying !

A tip for form translations: I use e.g. a computed for display field called 'xPhone', and use @thisname to create a label based on the fieldname after 'x'. This way, you can create labels using the same formula everywhere. You just need to change the name for the field.

Looking forward for your follow-up article.

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Multi-lingual forms are really great, but they only got me so far. There are still messageboxes, errors, status values, etc. I've found good luck with having all LotusScript being language independent except for a "Language-Dependent Globals" script library per language containing:

• A function libfstrTranslateErrNum that's just a huge case statement converting custom error numbers into language-specific text
• Other functions that convert statuses (stored as integers) into text
• all other strings constants
• Const libcstrStringSeparator = "|"

So, let's say we're using my English script library, and calling libfstrTranslateErrNum(ciErrConfigDbNotOpen) returns "Could not find the configuration database. (Expected at | - |)"

In that case the following code... (and please excuse the inconsistent method naming standards...)

Public Function GetConfigDb(dbThis as NotesDatabase) As NotesDatabase
	Dim astrPath(1) As String

	astrPath(0) = dbThis.Server
	astrPath(1) = "myapp/config.nsf"
	Set GetConfigDb = New NotesDatabase(astrPath(0), astrPath(1))
	If Not GetConfigDb.IsOpen Then Call ThrowCustomError(ciErrConfigDbNotOpen, astrPath)
End Function

Public Sub ThrowCustomError(iError As Integer, vArgs)
	Error iError, libfstrMixIn(libfstrTranslateErrNum(iError), vArgs) 
End Sub

Public Function libfstrMixin(str1 As String, astr2) As String
%REM
Performs equivalent of @Implode(astr1 + astr2; "") if astr1 and astr2 are arrays with the same number of elements
%END REM
	Dim astr1 As Variant
	Dim i As Integer
	Dim u1 As Integer
	Dim u2 As Integer
	
	astr1 = Split(str1, libcstrStringSeparator)
	If Ubound(astr1) = 0 Then
		libfstrMixin = str1
	Elseif Isarray(astr2) Then
		u1 = Ubound(astr1)
		u2 = Ubound(astr2)
		
		If u2 >= u1 Then
			For i = 0 To u1
				libfstrMixin = libfstrMixin + astr1(i) + astr2(i)
			Next
		Else
			For i = 0 To u2
				libfstrMixin = libfstrMixin + astr1(i) + astr2(i)
			Next
			For i = u2 + 1 To u1
				libfstrMixin = libfstrMixin + astr1(i)
			Next
		End If
	Else
		libfstrMixin = astr1(0) & astr2
		For i = 1 To Ubound(astr1)
			libfstrMixin = libfstrMixin + astr1(i)
		Next
	End If
End Function

If the config db wasn't where it was expected, GetConfigDb would throw an error where Error$ is Could not find the configuration database. (Expected at Server1/Org - myapp/config.nsf)

But with someone in Japan, they'd have loaded the "Language-Dependent Globals" that's tagged as Japanese and so the message would be in their language.

Using the same libfstrMixin function, I have an activity log at the bottom of documents that is, internally, all numbers and context arguments (i.e. who, when, etc) but is converted and displayed into the user's language at PostOpen.

The really nasty part is keeping it all straight because now you've got several strings you can't forget at design time. 98% of my "Language-Dependent Globals" libraries' code is generated using a spreadsheet containing all of my constants and strings in a central location. I have a column for the constant name, numeric value, strings for each language, and then other columns that have concatenated it into LotusScript code that I can cut & paste into the appropriate script library. If I need to translate into another language, I just need to spin up another few columns and add the language strings and I'm already more than halfway done.

I also use the event binding techniques Tim Tripcony recently blogged about so that I have one script library per form and each language's form's PostOpen is like "Set oForm = New MainDocumentFormCode(Source)" and then let the class constructor bind itself to the other form events.

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Does anyone use Global Workbench for translating and generating multilingual databases?

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Did any of you ever tried setting a database as a 'Multilingual Database' and creating multilingual design elements? I think that could solve the view column titles problem but it means you must have a set of views for every language.

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I anxiously await a solution. My biggest area of concern are input validation formulas. Thanks.

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