Localizing the Portal

The SAS Information Delivery Portal can be localized to meet the language requirements of a particular country or region. To localize the portal, follow these steps:

1. If necessary, create a resource bundle for the needed language(s). The resource bundle is a file containing the fixed text that appears on the Portal's graphical user interface, including text for menus, buttons, field names, and messages. The portal application provides resource bundles in the following languages: U.S. English, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Polish.

2. Translate the portal's metadata. The metadata, which is stored in the enterprise directory, includes the text associated with Portal windows, subwindows, lists, and content items (such as link names, report names, channel names, etc.). The portal supports only one set of metadata per installation.

3. Customize the portal's appearance, if needed, to incorporate the appropriate colors, type style, etc.

Details for each step are provided below.

Note: The webAF JAR files shipped with the portal are translated into the following languages: Czech, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, and Turkish. Therefore, the portal's viewers for MDDBs and webEIS documents will display native text only in those languages.

Step 1: Create a Resource Bundle for the Needed Language(s)

The resource bundle is a file containing the fixed text that appears on the portal's graphical user interface, including text for menus, buttons, field names, and messages. The default (U.S. English) resource bundle provided with the portal is called Resources.properties. It can be found in the portal setup directory in the following path: Portal1.1\WEB-INF\classes\com\sas\edir\webapp\portal\res. This path also contains resource bundles for the following languages: Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Polish.

If necessary, you can create additional resource bundles to support your user base. To create a resource bundle in a different language:

1. Copy the Resources.properties file into a new file.

2. Name the new file to designate the appropriate language or language and country. For example:

   • A German-language resource bundle would be named Resources_de.properties.
   • A German-language resource bundle for the country of Germany would be named Resources_de_DE.properties.
   • A German-language resource bundle for the country of Austria would be named Resources_de_AT.properties.

   For a list of standard locale codes, refer to the Open Group Locale standards.

3. Translate the text strings in the new file into the desired language.

   Note:When translating the resource bundle into languages that use native-encoded characters (characters that are non-Latin 1 and non-Unicode), you must convert those characters into Unicode escape sequences. To perform the conversion, you can use a tool called native2ascii. For information about this tool, scroll to the bottom of the Java Internationalization page on the Sun Microsystems Web site.

4. Save the new file and place it in the same path as the original file.

Most browser software allows users to specify their language preferences. For example, users of Release 5 of Microsoft Internet Explorer can choose Tools -> Internet Options -> Languages and then select one or more languages in the order of preference. Windows users can also use the Internet Options icon on the Windows Control Panel to specify language preferences.

When a user accesses the portal, the portal application queries the user's browser software and operating system software to determine the user's preferred language. The portal then loads the resource bundle whose name matches the user's language specification. If the portal application does not have a resource bundle for the user's preferred language(s), the Resources.properties file is loaded.

The user's language preference affects only the portal's fixed text such as menus, buttons, field names and messages. The user-defined text that appears in the portal (including the names of portal windows, subwindows, lists, link names, report names, and channel names) is defined by metadata stored in in the enterprise directory. The portal supports only one set of metadata per installation, as described in Step 2. In addition, content that is supplied by a SAS server will be in the language specified for that SAS server.

Note: You will find properties for default locale and supported locales in the portal's Installation.properties and Portal.properties files. However, these properties are not used in Release 1.1 of the portal.

Step 2: Translate the Metadata

The metadata, which is stored in the enterprise directory, includes the text associated with Portal windows, subwindows, lists, and content items (such as link names, report names, channel names, etc.). The portal product includes a demonstration set of metadata in U.S. English. If your primary user base has a different language preference, you can translate the starting metadata into that language.

The portal supports only one set of metadata per installation. Therefore, the user's language preference does not affect the metadata that is displayed on portal screens.

Step 3: Customize the Portal's Appearance

To give the portal a look and feel appropriate to your locale, you can modify the portal's banner, background image, and company logo. For instructions, refer to the Illustrated Guide to Portal Graphics. In addition, you can modify the cascading style sheets that control the portal's text and background colors. For instructions, see the Illustrated Guide to Portal Styles. The customizations apply uniformly to all users of a given portal, regardless of their language preference.