The Eton system is built from start with localization in mind.
Translations
It is possible to translate nearly all texts displayed by the terminal and in the web UI. Languages can be added on the Translation page by selecting "Add" on the Translations page.
Texts that have not been translated to the current language will fall back on the english version of that text.
To get started with translations, navigate to the Translations page, select the language that you wish to create a new translation for, and press the Export button. An Excel spreadsheet will be generated, containing all currently translated texts as well as all the text that are possible to translate.
The columns in the Excel spreadsheet are as follows
- Translation key, which is in most cases the english version of that text. Hovering on this column will indicate where in the application the text is being used, which may help to understand the context.
- Translation for the target language.
- English default text for terminals. Gives a hint of what text need to be abbreviated for use on terminal, but this is not a complete list.
- Translated text for terminals. Display size of the terminal is limited to 3 rows with 16 characters on each row, so often these texts need to be abbreviated.
When the Excel file has been filled, it can be imported back into the system with the Import function. Make sure the correct language is selected before you begin import!
Some translation keys end with "_short". These are alternate column titles for use in grids and editors. No terminal translations are needed for these.
What Can Be Translated
Translation keys can come from many different places, for instance -
- Messages from API
- Messages to terminals
- Texts in web UI
- Criteria and certain other data tables
- Field names
Terminal Translations
The terminal uses the GB2312 character set, which cannot display most non latin characters. The non latin characters that it can show, will use double width and the terminal will in this case only be able to show 8 characters per line. Take this into consideration when using non latin characters.
Changing Language
The default language can be changed via a System Setting. This is the language that is used when there is no user logged in on the web UI or on a terminal.
Web UI users can change their language setting via the Account page and terminal operators can change their language via the command
Enters language selection
Date, Time and Number Formats
The Locale setting works much in the same way as the Language settings. This is also present as a global system setting Default Locale, and can be set per user. The locale setting controls how date, times and numbers are presented to conform with the local customs.
Note: The locale will also affect the number format used when entering numbers in the Production Wizard.