[AccessD] Conversion

Rocky & Others,

How do you think of stuff like this? I never would have come
up with a solution like this.



Joe Hecht
jmhecht at earthlink.net
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Rocky Smolin - Beach Access Software
Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 8:31 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Conversion

Doris:

When I converted E-Z-MRP (www.e-z-mrp.com) to Access from a
DOS 
platform, I anticipated having foreign language versions and
so I put 
all of the text - command button captions, labels, error
messages into 
tables.  The first column of the table (after the autonumber
key, of 
course) is the form name; the second field is the control
name; third 
field is the English.  To make another language then, I just
add a field 
to the record.  In the case of Chinese, I had to add two
fields - one 
for traditional the other for simplified Chinese.  I then
sent the 
tables (one table for controls, one for messages) to my
Chinese 
distributor who simply entered the translation in the
appropriate 
column.  I recently added a column for French and a dealer
in France has 
just made the translations.

In a Preferences form of the application front end, the user
can specify 
the language they want to see.  The preference is stored int
he front 
end so that one user can be looking at the app in one
language, another 
user can see the same data but in a different language.  Of
course, any 
back end data they enter, such a part description, appears
only in the 
language they entered it in originally.

At form or report load time I call one of several translate
routines 
which go to the tables, find the control in questions and
replace the 
caption or whatever with the field from the record is
specified by the 
user's language preference.  To do Asian languages I had
only to load 
the Eastern Asian Language support in Windows and, walla!,
up it came in 
Chinese. (Of course I have no earthly idea what it says, I
have to trust 
the translator.)  The translate routine did need to
accommodate Unicode, 
because I guess that's what Chinese characters are stored
in.  I think 
it's a double word for each character.

But you don't have to use the table approach if you want to
have just a 
hard coded front end in a different language.  Turns out to
be quite 
easy, but then you have two or more versions to support.
With the table 
approach, you have only one version.

That's just the Cliff notes version.  Let me know what
further questions 
this generates.

Best,

Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
858-259-4334
www.e-z-mrp.com





DorisH3 at aol.com wrote:
>  
> Hi Rocky,
>  
> I understand you have been through a conversion to another
language other 
> than English...can an Access database using VB  modules be
converted to Japanese 
> or Chinese?  If it can be what is the  process?
>  
> I appreciate any light that you can throw my way...I have
a client who is  
> dealing with clients in Japan and China and they want to
be able to use the same 
>  Access database.
>  
> Doris
>
>   

-- 
Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
858-259-4334
www.e-z-mrp.com

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