Localizing field values

You can localize fields of a record definition so that the end users of an application can view the application data in their locale during run time. An administrator must first add the locale information in the system and then define the fields of a record definition that are localizable. 

Supported languages

BMC Helix Innovation Studio supports the following languages for localizing the fields of a record definition:

• English—en
• French—fr
• German—de
• Italian—it
• Japanese—ja
• Korean—ko
• Portuguese (Brazil)—pt_BR
• Russian—ru
• Simplified Chinese—zh-CN
• Spanish—es
• Swedish—sv
• Dutch—nl
• Danish—da
• Norwegian—no

You can set the required language by changing your browser locale.

 To add a system locale

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab. 
2. Select Server settings > System locales.
   1. On the System locales page, click New.

3. In the Create New Locale pane, enter the locale name and the locale code.

   Important

   When entering locale values, ensure that you adhere to the browser's language naming convention, which is Language-Country Name. For example, en-US, en-UK, fr-FR and so on.

4. Click Save.

A new locale is added to the list of supported system locales.

To edit a system locale

1. On the System locales page, select the locale, and click Edit.
2. Edit the locale information as per your requirements.
3. Click Save.

Best practices for defining localizable fields

Consider the following recommendations when designing record definitions to include localizable fields:

• When you create localizable fields in a record definition, the server does extra computation work, which slows down transactions during run time. Therefore, choose only those fields for localized values that are a must-have.
• Localize fields that have prepopulated configuration data that does not change often; for example, organization name, department name, country name, and so on.
• Do not localize fields that hold transactional data during run time; for example, Issue Description.
• Do not localize a field that is used to store the localized configuration data; for example, a field such as Issue Type, whose values can get populated through a named list that holds different, localized issue type values.

Operations supported by a localizable field

A localizable field is of Localized Text data type and is similar to a Character field. The following table lists the operations supported by a localizable field.

Operation	Supported by a localizable field?
Create a named list with a localized text field as the data source
Attach a named list to a localized text field
Customize the localized text field
Create a join record definition
Inherit record definition with shared data
Inherit record definition without shared data
Create unique index
Create composite index

To define localizable fields

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio, navigate to the Workspace tab, and select the application.
2. Select a record definition or create a new record definition.
3. Click New Field to create a new field and select the data type as Localized Text.

4. Enter the field name and provide additional details for the field as described in the following table:

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter the name of the record field.
   Description	Provide the description for the record field.
   Required	Select to mark the field as required for the record definition.
   Allow anyone to submit	Select to allow any user to submit new requests.
   Change triggers audit	Select to create an audit record if there is any change in the field value.
   Include value in audit	Select to copy the field value to an audit record.
   (Optional) Field ID	Enter a numeric value. If the field ID is not entered, a field ID is automatically is assigned from the custom Field ID range. The Field ID range specifies the limit for values that you can assign (or are assigned automatically if you do not assign any value) to the Field ID. You can assign the value to Field ID within the Field ID range. The Field ID range for a field in a record definition is specified by an administrator. You cannot assign the lower limit value of the Field ID range to a field. For example, if the Field ID range is 1000:2000, the minimum value that you can assign to a Field ID is 1001.
   Length	Enter the field length in characters; enter 0 for an unlimited field length.  By default, field length is of 254 characters.
   Default value	Click the Localize link to select a locale as the default locale. The locale values are populated from the list of supported system locales. For information about adding a system locale, see Adding a field value locale.

5. Click Save.

To add record instances in the localizable record definition

1. Select the record definition in which you want to enter values.
2. Click Edit Data.
3. In the Data Editor, click New to enter a new record.
4. Enter values for all the record fields.
   To enter values in the localized text field:
   
   1. Click Localize.

   2. In the Localize value dialog box, enter the values against each locale that you need.

      Important

      The list of locales is populated from the list of supported system locales.

5. Click Save.
   

   When a user logs in, they can see the content for that field in their locale setting. If no locale is set, the value from the default locale is shown. If the default locale is not set, a NULL value is displayed for the locale.

Considerations when assigning a Localized Text field in a process or a rule

• During assignment of a Localized Text field to another Localized Text field in a process or a rule, the assignment is successful and the entire locale map is assigned to the new field.
• During assignment of a Localized Text field to a Character field, the current locale value is assigned to the Character field. If no locale is defined, the default system locale is assigned to the Character field.
• During assignment of a Character field to a Localized Text field, only the current locale value is assigned to the Localized Text field. Other locale values in the map will be NULL.

Fallback mechanism for displaying localized field values

BMC Helix Innovation Studio displays localized field values to the user according to the following order of preference:

1. User's current locale

2. Generic system locale
   For example, if the user's locale is de-AT German (Austria), then the fallback locale is de German.

   Important

   You cannot edit the value of the fallback locale.

3. Default locale as set in the system locale

The fallback mechanism applies when displaying values in the Record Editor, Record Grid, and View component.

Related topics

Localizing a Digital Service application

Creating a view for localized field values