Re: Multilanguage application & database

> An oft overlooked possibility is to use structures that only support a
> single language, and install different language versions into different
> schemas. Of course this has limited applications, so it really depends on
> the business case for multiple languages.

Nice suggestion!
However, it might be that e.g. an English user has to print a Spanish document, so that won't work for us...

> One thing about multi-lingual data that always throws me for a loop is how
> to get all of the languages created as the information is entered into the
> application. Unless you're lucky enough to have users that speak all of the
> languages, there are hoops to jump through in order to get it done. How do
> you manage this?

If you don't use schemes:
I use only 1 table with translations. All the tables that require translation refer to this one (so they consist of only 1 referential column).
Having to work with only 1 table is very simple: before implementation, just look for NULL-values in the language you want to translate to, and present those with all the other translations, as reference to the user who's doing the translation.

K Received on Mon Oct 25 2004 - 07:59:37 CDT