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.These bundles may be simple text files or Java classes.In the previous example, a text file was used for eachlocale.The text file IntlRes.resource contains the URL for the English version (or whatever your defaultversion will be).In our example here it contained the one line: page=SOB_Home_Page_English.html.Thetext file IntlRes_fr.resource would contain the base French version, here:page=SOB_Home_Page_French_Translator.html, IntlRes_es.resource would contain the base Spanishversion, here: page=SOB_Home_Page_Spanish_Translator.html.and so on using the ISO 3166 codes.Thesetext files (containing the URLs) can be specialized to a second level for dialects.Instead of maintaining the URLs in the bundles (text files here), the actual phrases, codes, image filenames,video file names, etc.can be stored in the bundles.Then using Java server programming, dynamic HTML canbe produced (under program control) on the fly to generate the native pages.The biggest and most costlyproblem is having to re-create Web sites from scratch because the original was programmed with Englishtext embedded in the code (DiSabatino, 2000).Appendix Listing 4 shows how this is done conceptually witha simple Java Applet that displays three messages in the foreign language of the workstations regional setting.For dynamic HTML, this is typically done with a Java Servlet running on the server.Although technicallymore challenging, there are several advantages.First, the HTML is generated dynamically and can be afunction of time, date, or anything else as well as locale.Second, when some information has to be changed,you do not have to open up and modify every language page; only the object that is being changed (phrase,image, etc.).Another key advantage is that the bundles can be classes, and as such an inheritance hierarchycan be set up.Dialects would be subclasses of the language and would inherit the properties of the language.In the subclasses, only those dialect properties that were different would have to be maintained.There are products that facilitate this task of producing resource bundles or the like.Products such as SunsInternationalization and Localization Toolkit (JILT), Multilizer Java Edition, or Catalyst Enterprise (Apicella,2000) will capture all the textual references in a computer program (such as Java, C++, or PERL) and let youbuild a dictionary of translations in different languages.JILT Uses resource bundles, and the other productstake different approaches.This is a great aid in modern dynamic HTML, Java Applet, or Java Servlet-basedWeb sites.Then there is the enormous problem of version and configuration control with Web pages, just as there is inany software-based system.Maintaining many language and or country/locale versions of a companys Website will be a major task in the future.Over time, the English text changes as products, their features, andpolicies are changed.There must be a method to keep everything in synchronization.There are some contentmanagement products such as Idioms WorldServer or BroadVisions Web-Publishing System that have someof those needed localization capabilities.For example, each text item, logo, graphic, and other items aretagged with a rule to indicate how it is to be handled in different languages and/or regions (Robb, 2000).Some Web sites that provide aid in all these technical areas include: Unicode (www.unicode.org),International Technical Issues (www.w3.org/International), Basis Technology (www.basistech.com), and theMicrosoft Internationalization Whitepaper(http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/management/intl/locprocess.asp).33 General RecommendationsGeneral RecommendationsIs globalization right for an organization ? It can be very costly to build and maintain a foreign presence.Afull business plan must be set up: market analysis (product demand, pricing, and competition), total entrycosts, then ROI must be considered (Tapper, 2000).Without doubt it is more expensive and time consumingto design and build an effective global Web presence than just a domestic site
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