IBM Maximo Asset Management © 2007 IBM Corporation Tivoli Technical Exchange Calls Aug 31, 2010 1...

IBM Maximo Asset Management

Tivoli Technical Exchange Calls Aug 31, 2010 © 2007 IBM Corporation

1

Maximo - Multi-Language Capabilities

Ritsuko BeuchertMaximo Globalization, Tivoli

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Background

Multi-Language prior to release 6

– Need to replicate screen changes in each language file.

– Redo screen changes in each language file while upgrading to the next version.

– Db admin should create views for each language

– Screens needs to be configured for data entry

– Maximo Server for each language

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Common approach to UI and Data

Languages stored in Database (supports Unicode)

Screen configurations are language independent

Easy to add more languages

One Maximo server

No Db admin

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Methodology

Upon installation a base language is identified.

The base language data is stored in the main table.

The non base language data is stored in a language table.

User can select the language before login

If Maximo does not find data in the user’s language it will display the data in the base language

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Single Database - Multi-languagesSingle Database - Multi-languages

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Database platforms

DB2 and Oracle databases supports UNICODE for Maximo

– Any language combination is supported (e.g. English as base language and Japanese and Arabic as secondary languages)

SQL Server does not support Maximo's implementation of UNICODE

– Limited language combination is supported (e.g. English as base language and French and German as secondary languages)

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Language table

Non-Base language data for the system tables (e.g. Maxlabels, synonymdomain etc.) will be created automatically when adding language.

Language table can be added in the Database Configuration.

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Language table (continued)

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Adding language table

Go to Database Configuration

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Enabling multi language in DBConfig

Turn on 'Multilanguage Use? Flag

– Only when 'ML Supported?' is checked!

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Adding more languagesAdding more languages

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Adding more languages

During install

– - Select a language to add in the launchpad.

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Enable multi-language Support

After install

– Run TDToolkit manually.

– From command prompt, go to {maximo_root}/tools/maximo

TDToolkit -addlanglang

*lang values can be found in LANGUAGE.MAXLANGCODE

TDToolkit_Overview.doc

– {install_dir}\tools\maximo\classes\psdi\xlate\TDToolkit_Overview.doc

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Supported Languages

German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish

Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese

Arabic, Hebrew,

Turkish, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Slovenian

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Language, Locale and Calendar settings

In Maximo, language, locale (number/date format) and calendar are independent. For example, a French user can have French language, Swedish locale and islamic calendar. The settings can be changed in the Profile.

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Login Page

User could select language at login

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Profile > Default Information

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Customizing translations

How can I customize and preserve the translation?

– It's possible your customized data are overwritten on upgrade or applying patches.

– You could create update scripts to customize data in database. After upgrade/update is done, run the scripts.

– Or update translations in xliff files. After upgrade/update is done, run TDToolkit to re-import them to overwrite default values.

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Adding unsupported language

For instance, I want to enter data in Thai....

– Even though there is no Thai GUI, you can enter Thai data as long as your database is Oracle/DB2 Unicode.

– Or have a local vendor or partner do the translation. Translatable strings are stored in XLIFF files. XLIFF is an XML file with specific tags for the translation process.

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Sharing Data in User's languageSharing Data in User's language

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Sharing Data in User's language

Same data can be shared in different languages

– Key values always stay in the base language

– Description can be in multiple languages

– Some of the system values such as domain values, messages, UI labels are multiple language enabled by default.

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Example 1

Data created by Base Lang user

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Example 1 (continued)

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Example 2

Data created by Secondary Lang user

– Key value is stored in the main table but the description goes to the language table (e.g. L_ITEM.DESCRIPTION).

– Base language user will see the itemnum with no description.

– Another different secondary language user will also see the blank description.

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Example 2 (continued)

Data created by Secondary Lang user

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Example 2 (continued)

Log in as a Base Lang user – description field is empty.

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Summary

Languages are all stored in database.

For system data, translations are provided out of the box. However, user data are language users responsibility to provide translations.

Plan carefully

– Once base language is set to non-English, switching the base language is difficult.

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References

Maximo Asset Management System Adminiatrator Guilde

– http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v3r1/topic/com.ibm.mam.doc_7.1/pdf/mam71_sys_admin_guide.pdf

TDToolkit Overview documantation

– {install_dir}\tools\maximo\classes\psdi\xlate\TDToolkit_Overview.doc

XLIFF specifications

– http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php