Internationalization

Support of multiple languages, also known as the standard i18n ('i' + 18 letters in 'nternationalizatio' + 'n'), is a Servoy feature that enables developing solutions that:

Do not require additional forms or elements to display more than one default language.
Can display multiple languages based on locale references.

Solutions Using Multiple Languages

To enable a solution to support more than one language, the following actions need to be performed:

Select an i18n database server connection.
Assign or create an i18n table to store multiple language keys.
Create the i18n language keys that will be used or edit any of the language keys included in Servoy.

Selecting i18n Database Connection and i18n Table

The i18n table can be created/chosen from an existing server, or a separate server can be created for the table to be placed in.

The i18n server and table can be selected in:

The solution Properties view: i18nDataSource property - select an existing table in a server or create one in the Select i18n table dialog.
Solution Explorer under Resources - double click the I18N files node. If no i18n table has been defined for the active solution yet, a message dialog will prompt to define one right away.
The Internationalization preferences in the Servoy Developer Preferences dialog - go to Window > Preferences > Servoy > Internationalization. This preference will be applied to all solutions. doesn't work currently

TIP: Create a single i18n database server connection and i18n table when having a solution that contains one or modules - this allows to add and/or change i18n values and/or keys from either the solution or any of the added modules.

Definition

Inside Servoy Developer the message files are stored as property files in the workspace.

On the server these messages are loaded in an i18n table, the i18n table which can be specified in the solution settings, it needs to have the following columns:

tableName_id (primary key, integer)
message_key (i18n key, string)
message_language (i18n language, string)
message_value (i18n value, string)

Usage

On Servoy elements it is possible to use a text reference, which is a key linked to a message file. Which is replaced at runtime with the localized text from the message file.

An example of an element text reference is: i18n:hello_world

Which is looked up in the messages file and produces the text in a locale like 'hello world' or 'hola mundo' in Spanish