Hello,

we are using WebFocus some 4 years now. Al our reports are built by coding (we don't use the WF Development Tool).

Until now we only had reports in Dutch (labels etc).

The question has risen how to make the reports multi-language.

The easiest way would be to introduce a global variable &&LANG and use this in decode statements to set &variables for all the different labels.

Something like:

-SET &LABEL1 = DECODE &&LANG ( DL 'Verursacher'
- EN 'Cause,problem'
- NL 'Veroorzaker' ) ;

All the items would in a central include-file.

Question: how many & variables can we use (WF 7.6.2) in one session?

I've read a topic on this forum, but it is inconclusive.
Somebody says that there is no limit; an other one has used 100K vars (gives bad performance)


If we need thousands, is that possible?


Maybe there is a different way to make our reports mult-language?


Antony

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

There is no definitive number, it relies on your environment and session.

I have had thousands, it also depends on the size of the contents of the variables.

In the new features overview for release 761 it is clearly stated:

quote:

An unlimited number of Dialogue Manager variables can be used in a procedure.

I expect Canadian People to give good advice about International Messages. (A Lasry, if you hear me ...)
I am not fond of so many Decodes, and, as a Colbertist Centraliser, prefer a Central Data Base of Messages + a very performant tool to access those Messages.
But, as an old craftsman, I perhaps miss new efficient tools and keep clutched to old ideas.

TonyB,

There are many ways to do this.

The easiest would probably be to decode a Dialogue Manager Include statement:

-DEFAULT &&LANG = 'FR';

-SET &INC1 = '-INCLUDE INC_LABEL_' || &⟨

&INC1.EVAL

TABLE FILE CAR
SUM SALES AS '&LABEL1'
BY COUNTRY AS '&LABEL2'
END
-RUN

inc_label_en.fex:

-SET &LABEL1 = 'Country';
-SET &LABEL2 = 'Sales';

inc_label_fr.fex:

-SET &LABEL1 = 'Pays';
-SET &LABEL2 = 'Ventes';

Claude's idea of storing the language-based text in a table is another idea...


Claude, Albert can be reached via Skype.

Antony,

We have the same problem here in Israel, compounded with the fact that Hebrew is written right-to-left.

When we have to develop a multi-language application, we use only &variables for everything: titles, texts, headings etc. Then our application is developed using our in-house system where all the the forms and all the objects are stored in a central database in many languages. Similarly, we store the values of the &variables in the same central database, also in many languages.

When the application is run, the language is set by ONE variable and automatically all the &variables, forms and objects are given the appropriate values from the central repository.

Adding an extra language becomes very simple and the procedures are invariant.

If you are using 76x, then multi-language can be applied at the master level. Use the meta-data for all of the column title language values. If you place your defines and computes in the master as well, then you could use the same method. That would save you a lot of trouble.

The only thing you should have to use the ampher variables for is report based defines and computes, and page headings/footings.