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If a SpecView Configuration needs to be made available in more than one language, normally, this would involve many screens having to be duplicated in each different language, with the associated errors and inconsistencies that that may cause.

 

Since all occurrences of the same word on different GDWs are referenced only once, this procedure makes it easy to translate consistently and quickly without duplication.

 

In order to address this SpecView (from Version 2.5 Build 781 onwards) on entering Runtime mode, reads an TAB-separated spreadsheet from the file CONFIG.SVT.  Then, when a GDW is opened at Runtime, any strings on the screen are replaced with corresponding strings from the spreadsheet.

 

This makes it possible to have a Master Configuration in one language that can be displayed in a variety of other languages without editing GDWs or creating duplicate language-dependant configurations.

 

CONFIG.SVT is a TAB separated file, similar to a Comma Separated Value (.CSV) file, but using tabs to delimit the fields. This allows the text to contain commas.

 

NOTE: To create the CONFIG.SVT automatically there is a utility that extracts ALL text strings from ALL GDWs in the Configuration. Please contact SpecView for further information on this automatic text string extraction utility.

 

 

This spreadsheet has the following columns (shown here with examples for Cancel & Browse):

 

 

ENU                The source language text  (in this case ENU)

SubString        Substring - explained below

Comment        Any comment string, such as: Must have space at end of text

GDW                The GDW(s) that the string occurs on. This is just for reference to help find the context

DEU                The German translation   (these columns can be in any order)

FRA                The French translation

ITA                The Italian translation

NLD                The Dutch translation

 

If the CONFIG.SVT file does not exist then no substitution takes place at Runtime.

 

Similarly, if there is no translation available for a given row & column then no substitution takes place.

 

The Comment and GDW columns are not used in the translation, they serve only as a helpful guide to the Translator.

 

If a 'Y' or a 'y' exists in the SubString column then the text in Column1 (Source Language) is looked for as a SubString, this prevents a word from having to be repeated numerous times, for example:

 

Screen 1

Screen 2

Screen 3

Screen 4

...

Screen       Y

 

In the above example, the one occurrence of "Screen" is replaced in each of the "Screen 1", "Screen 2" etc strings, thus saving duplication.

 

However, it is worth noting that the substitution of SubStrings can take considerable CPU time, and so should only be used sparingly.

 

The matching process is both case-sensitive and whitespace-sensitive.

 

If the Source String is a multi-line string then the characters: '\r\n' represent the new-line. These characters must be left intact in the translated strings.

 

The CONFIG.SVT applies only to the specific configuration it is in. There is no 'global' file that translates across all Configurations. To implement a global file make a subset of all the common words as a template and include it into each CONFIG.SVT as required.

 

If a string has '=', '+' or '-' as its first character then put a single quote before it, otherwise spreadsheet programs such as Excel will interpret the string as a formula. As an alternative, change the column format to Text. But it is important to note that this information is not stored in the Tab Separated File format so will be lost when you re-open the sheet. To avoid this either:

1. Don't use '=', '+' or '-' as the first character of any string.

2. Save the worksheet as an XLS and use that as the Master for re-editing to preserve the column format.

 

A CONFIG.SVT file can be created manually by creating an Excel spreadsheet by hand in the format specified above. This MUST be saved as a TAB separated file unless it is in this format SpecView will be unable to read it.

 

To create the CONFIG.SVT automatically there is a utility that extracts ALL text strings from ALL GDWs in the Configuration. This takes some time to run. Please contact SpecView for further information on this automatic text string extraction utility.

 

 

Running a SpecView configuration in a different language:

 

So to run a SpecView configuration in one of the other languages….

First be sure SpecView is NOT running, then:

Edit C:\SV3\SV3.INI using Notepad

In the ‘[Settings]’ section add the line:

ForceForeignLanguageXlat=FRA

 

This just defines the column in the CONFIG.SVT file that is to be used.

So in this example the ‘FRA’ column will be used. But if there is nothing in that column then the first column (ENU) is used.