Bruce, I have a client site that provides online learning internationally with clients from different countries and Languages such as Japanese, Arabic, French, Spanish and more. The same core model layer serves the international portal, US portal, and allows for translation of the entire site text into any language.
Here's some of the basics: On session start a setLanguage() function is run which does the following: 1) Sets the language locale variable which is cross referenced to the #server.coldfusion.supportedlocales#. This allows you to use Coldfusion internationalization for dates/currency formatting. 2) Sets a language prefix like "en" or "jp" based on the locale setting. This is used to serve different javascript or help files as necessary (i.e. - "/js/common.en.js" or "/js/common.jp.js"); 3) If the language isn't currently in use, it creates the cache structure to store the language data. I've used structures and arrays for the container in the Application scope which pulls the cached strings, but ultimately settled on a Query object and use QoQ to pull from the cache. The reason for the QoQ is case sensitivity. Even though there's a bit more overhead, if the site is any size, you will inevitably find yourself translating the same string in different ways for presentation purposes. A translate() function is scoped to the request which allows site- wide access the function. Translation content is pulled from the database (or XML) and the result is cached in the query object which is used on subsequent requests for the same string. Since this particular site has around 50 different international sites pointing to it, there is also a function which runs and clears the cached languages after an interval in case there are cached languages taking up memory which are not being actively used. Lastly, since the content is always changing, the translation function also creates a string in "draft" status when it encounters text that hasn't yet been translated. It then caches and returns the original string in order to skip evaluation for future requests. The client can then edit the draft translations at their convenience and flush the cache when they publish the string live. HTH, Jon On May 9, 2007, at 8:23 AM, Bruce Sorge wrote: > I have a new site I am working on that is going to be multi-lingual > (Spanish > and English). Has anyone done this before and if so, what are some > best > approaches? It is of course database driven, and it is a model (not > nude) > site. What are some of the challenges I may face? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Bruce ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create Web Applications With ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2. Build powerful, scalable RIAs. Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJS Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:277427 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
