Localizing the product – PB Docs 2022

PowerBuilder provides resources for international developers that
include localized runtime files and the Translation Toolkit. The localized
files become available after the general release of a new version of
PowerBuilder.

Localized runtime files

Localized runtime files are provided for French, German, Italian,
Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. You can install localized
runtime files in the development environment or on the user’s machine. If
you install them on the development machine, you can use them for testing
purposes.

The localized PowerBuilder runtime files handle language-specific
data at runtime. They are required to display standard dialog boxes and
user interface elements, such as day and month names in spin controls, in
the local language. They also provide the following features:

Localized PFC libraries

The PFC is now available at
https://github.com/OpenSourcePFCLibraries.

In order to convert an English language PFC-based application to
another language such as Spanish, you need multiple components. You need
to test the application on a computer running the localized version of the
operating system with appropriate regional settings. You must also obtain
or build localized PFC libraries and install the localized PowerBuilder
runtime files. When you deploy the application, you must deploy it to a
computer running a localized version of the operating system, and you must
deploy the localized runtime files.

You can translate the PFC libraries with the Translation Toolkit.
Localized PFC libraries are the same as the original PFC libraries except
that strings that occur in windows, menus, DataWindow objects, dialog
boxes, and other user interface elements, and in runtime error messages,
are translated into the local language. These include, for example, day
and month names in the Calendar service. All services remain otherwise the
same. In a Spanish PFC application, error messages displayed by the PFC
are in Spanish, month names in the Calendar service are in Spanish, column
headers in DataWindow objects and Menu items are in Spanish, and so
on.

The Translation Toolkit adds a string in the format %LANGUAGE% to
the comment associated with every object that contains a translated
string. For example, if you look at a PFC library that has been translated
into Spanish in the List view in the Library painter, you will notice the
string %SPANISH% at the beginning of the comment for many objects.

The dictionaries used to translate the PFC libraries into each
language are provided with the Translation Toolkit. You can use the
dictionaries to translate the rest of your application into a local
language using the Translation Toolkit, and you can view the dictionary in
a text editor to see which strings have been translated.

The localized PFC libraries work in coordination with the localized
runtime files, regional settings, and the localized operating
system.

Regional settings

PowerBuilder always uses the system’s regional settings, set in the
Windows Control Panel, to determine formats for the Date and Year
functions, as well as date formats to be used by the SaveAs function. The
use of these regional settings is independent of the use of PowerBuilder
localized runtime files or PFC libraries.

The regional settings are also used to determine behavior when using
Format and Edit masks. For more information, see the section called “Defining display formats” in Users Guide.

Localized operating system

The localized operating system is required for references to System
objects, such as icons and buttons, that are referenced using enumerated
types in PowerBuilder, such as OKCancel!, YesNo!, Information!, and
Error!. These enumerated types rely on API calls to the local operating
system, which passes back the appropriate button, icon or symbol for the
local language. For example, if you use the OKCancel! argument in a
MessageBox function, the buttons that display on the message box are
labeled OK and Cancel if the application is not running on a localized
operating system.