Configure languages for document creation and localization

The languages.xml file defines the list of languages managed in CCMS Desktop for both authoring and localization.

About this task

In the languages.xml file, you define the list of languages supported by IXIA CCMS for authoring and localization. You can specify languages used in the Authoring cycle and those used in the Localization cycle. You can also specify a default language from the languages used in the Authoring cycle.

The <languages> element is the root element into which all the languages are defined. Each language is specified individually using a <language> element nested in the root element. For each <language> element, you specify the following attributes:

• groups specifies the language group for the language, as defined in the ISO-639-5 standard. This attribute is used to group languages. For example, it is used in the Language Selection dialog for the Project Management view.
• name specifies the name of the language as it will appear in views and dialog boxes.
• authoring="true"specifies and enables the language as part of the Authoring cycle.
  Note: Languages with the authoring attribute set to "true" get included in the list of options for dialogs used during object creation.
• authoring="false" specifies and enables the language as part of the Localization cycle.

Within the <language> element, you can add a <code> element for each standard used for the language code and define its value, such as en-us for English used in the United States or fr-ca for Canadian French, based on ISO-639-1 or ISO-639-2 standards. The language code value is the value given to the xsl:lang attribute for source or target language objects. For each <code> element, you must also define a type attribute to specify the ISO standard used to determine the language code values.

For example:

<languages>
    <language groups="Indo-European" name="English" authoring="true">
		<code type="ISO-639-1">en-us</code>
		<code type="ISO-639-2/B">en-us</code>
    </language>
</languages>

Once you define the authoring languages, you can define the automatic default authoring language for dialogs used to create objects, such as the Create Topic dialog. Set the default authoring language as an attribute on the root element. For the <languages> element, add a default attribute with the value for one of the authoring languages, such as en-us.

Note: The following behaviors occur for unset attributes:

• If you do not set the default attribute on the root element, the IXIA CCMS automatically uses the first language in the list whose name contains the word "English" in its name.

• If you do not set the authoring attribute on the <language> element for each language, the CCMS handles each language as if its authoring attributes were set to "true".

Once you define the source and target languages and the IXIA CCMS Desktop instances are synchronized with the Content Store, all languages display in the Languages pane of the Search view, regardless of authoring attribute.

For example, the following languages.xml file makes English, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese available to users. The default attribute on the root element defines that English is the default source language. The authoring attribute defines only English and French as possible authoring or source languages.

<languages default="English">
	<language groups="Indo-European" name="English" authoring="true">
		<code type="ISO-639-1">en-us</code>
		<code type="ISO-639-2/B">en-us</code>
	</language>
	<language groups="Indo-European" name="French" authoring="true">
		<code type="ISO-639-1">fr-fr</code>
		<code type="ISO-639-2/B">fr-fr</code>
	</language>
	<language groups="Indo-European" name="German" authoring="false">
		<code type="ISO-639-1">de-de</code>
		<code type="ISO-639-2/B">de-de</code>
	</language>
	<language groups="Altaic" name="Japanese" authoring="false">
		<code type="ISO-639-1">ja-jp</code>
		<code type="ISO-639-2/B">ja-jp</code>
	</language>
	<language groups="Sino-Tibetan" name="Chinese (Simplified)" authoring="false">
		<code type="ISO-639-1">zh-cn</code>
		<code type="ISO-639-2/B">zh-cn</code>
	</language>
</languages>

Given this example, all dialog boxes used to create objects only offer US English and European French as options, rather than the entire language list, and US English is the default.

Important: Make configuration changes in a test environment and confirm they work before copying them to a production environment.

To configure languages for document creation and localization:

1. In the TEXTML Administration perspective, connect to your server.
2. Locate the languages.xml file in the repository's /system/conf collection.
3. Check out the file and open it for editing.
4. To add a language to the list, create a <language> element and set up its attributes and elements, as follows:

   <language groups="[language group]" name="[display name]" authoring="[true or false]">
      <code type="[standard]">[language code]</code>   
   </language>

   Attention: Do not use the underscore (_) character anywhere in the language code. Only use a hyphen.
   1. Specify the attribute values for the language element:

      Table 1. Language element attributes

      Attribute	Action
      groups	Replace [language group] with the language group name for the language, as defined in the ISO-639-5 standard.
      name	Replace [display name] with the name of the language as you want it to appear in the interface.
      authoring	Replace [true or false] with true if you intend to author the content in that language or false if you only intend to use the language for localization. Languages configured with the authoring attribute set to false will not appear in the list of options in the dialog boxes used to create objects. Important: If the authoring attribute is not set, it defaults to the value of true.

   2. Specify the values for the code element and the type attribute:
      • For the type attribute, replace [standard] with either the ISO-639-1 or ISO-639-2 standard.
      • Replace [language code] with the language code according to the chosen standard.

   For example:

   <language groups="Indo-European" name="French" authoring="false">
      <code type="ISO-639-1">fr-fr</code>
      <code type="ISO-639-2/B">fr-fr</code>
   </language>

5. In the root element languages set the default attribute to define the default language for dialogs used to create objects.
   Important: When you set the default attribute, confirm that you set the language with an authoring attribute to true.

   For example:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE languages PUBLIC "-//ixiasoft.com//cms//config//languages" "languages.dtd">
         <!-- defines the available language codes for a language name/group --> 
         <languages default="English">
                 <language groups="Indo-European" name="English" authoring="true">
                          <code type="ISO-639-1">en-us</code>
                          <code type="ISO-639-2/B">en-us</code>
                  </language>                
                   . . .      

6. Optional: Comment out or delete languages that you do not need.
   Important: Before you delete a <language> element, confirm that none of the files in the Content Store use that language.

   Tip: Comment out the unnecessary languages and perform a test to make sure that the CCMS still works as expected before you delete them.
7. Save, close, and check in the file.
8. Inform users of the changes.
   The changes are automatically applied once users close and then reopen their CCMS Desktop. Users can also apply the changes without restarting their CCMS Desktop by clicking IXIA CCMS > Synchronize Configuration. Additionally, refresh IXIA CCMS Web so that users see the change reflected there.