Steps for application internationalization

In order to internationalize an existing application, follow this process:

1. Identify the current character set used in your sources and make sure the application locale (LANG/LC_ALL) is set correctly.
2. In .4gl sources, add a % prefix to the strings that must be localized (i.e. translated).
3. In .per sources LAYOUT section, replace hard-coded form elements like text labels by static LABEL form items and define the TEXT attributes with a % prefix in the ATTRIBUTES section.
4. Extract the strings from the .4gl sources with fglcomp -m and use fglform -m for .per sources.
5. Organize the generated .str source string files (identify duplicated strings and put them in a common file).
6. At this point, the string identifiers (on the left) are the same as the string texts (on the right). These localized strings could be used as is, but it's better to define a normalized identifier for each string, by using ASCII characters only. For example, replace:

   "Customer List" = "Customer List"

   with:

   "customer.list.title" = "Customer List"

7. In sources, replace the original string text with the new string identifiers. Strings to be replaced can be located by their % prefix. You can, for example, use a script with an utility like the sed UNIX™ command to read the .str files and apply the changes automatically.
8. Recompile the .4gl and .per sources (these should be ASCII now, so the locale should not matter).
9. Compile the .str files in the locale used by these files, and check whether the application displays the text properly.
10. Copy the existing .str files, and translate the string text into another language (making sure the locale is correct).
11. Compile the new .str files, and copy the .42s files into another distribution directory, defined with the FGLRESOURCEPATH environment variable.

    A set of .42s files using the same language and codeset is typically copied in a distribution directory with a name identifying the locale.

    For example:

    /opt/app/resource/strings/en_US.iso8859-1  
      -- English strings in iso8859-1 code-set
    /opt/app/resource/strings/fr_FR.iso8859-1  
      -- French strings in iso8859-1 code-set
    /opt/app/resource/strings/jp_JP.utf8       
      -- Japanese strings in utf-8 code-set

Future edits to the .per and .4gl source files should be done in the ASCII locale, and .str string files must be edited with their specific locale.