Text Dictionary
Description
The Text Dictionary is a powerful, convenient way to build multi-lingual mobile and web applications.
Discussion
Text Dictionary tags (<a5:t> .. </a5:t>) can be used to translate an application into multiple languages. The difference between Text Dictionary tags and Language tags is how the translations are defined. Text Dictionary tag definitions are stored in a database, rather than in the component itself. Text Dictionary tags are useful in applications with multiple components. They are also useful if you plan to distribute multiple applications that require multi-language support.
The location of the database that contains the translations used by Text Dictionary tags is defined for the project in the Web Project Properties (see Text Dictionary Table Settings.)
- Name
- Description
- Text Dictionary
The 'Text Dictionary' tag is a language tag that can be used to lookup up the tag definition in a SQL table - the 'Text Dictionary Table'. This makes it easy to internationalize your application.
- Using Text Dictionary Tags in .A5W Pages
When you create a standard .a5w page, you might want to use text dictionary tags in your pages. This can easily be done if you make a change to how your .a5w page is constructed.
Videos
How to Localize a Grid or UX Component
In this video we give a brief overview of how a Grid or UX component can be localized so that the same component can be used for different languages. This technique involves using either Language tags (<a5:r>) or Text Dictionary tags (<a5:t>) around strings that need to be localized.
For certain languages, the text flow direction is right-to-left (e.g. Hebrew, Arabic). In Part 2, we show how JavaScript can be used to change the text flow direction for an entire page. The JavaScript is added to the component's render complete event. It sets the text direction using the following code:
document.body.style.direction='rtl'