Localization
Localizing your application helps users work in their preferred language, which improves their experience and facilitates a better understanding of the product. By localizing an application, you can expand your operations to new markets regardless of language barriers.
Localization adapts your application for a specific language or region by:
- translating the text
- converting locale-specific components, such as currency symbols and calendar settings
- if relevant, adapting your user interface to accommodate the right-to-left (RTL) text direction
The following video explains the concept of localization. The example uses an international company application.
Video transcript
Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text. For example, if a company is multinational, it likely maintains offices in multiple countries.
In this example, the TGB company maintains locations in Boston in the US, Edmonton in Canada, Acapulco in Mexico, Florence in Italy, Istanbul in Turkey, and Tokyo in Japan. Therefore, the company Portal must support at least six languages:
English: Hello
French: Bonjour
Spanish: Hola
Italian: Ciao
Turkish: Merhaba
and Japanese: こんにちは
However, language is not the only difference that must be accommodated for local users of TGB's website. Currency conventions also vary based on region; not only the currency, but how the amount is written. For example, in the US six dollars and fifty cents is written as USD6.50, while in Italy the same amount is written as USD6,50 or, converting to Euro, EUR5,98.
But there are more differences between regions. The format for date also varies according to culture. In the US the date is customarily written in middle-endian format: month/day/year, for example: 5/13/2017. However, much of the world writes the date using little-endian format: day/month/year, for example: 13/5/2017. And countries in the Far East such as China, Japan, Taiwan and the Koreas use big-endian format: year/month/day, for example: 2017/5/14.
Finally, TGB's website must support users across multiple time zones. The time format also varies depending on the region. In the US, Mexico, and Canada, a 12-hour clock is the norm. Elsewhere, time is based on a 24-hour clock.
Localization must accommodate all these differences by customizing the appearance of an application for users in multiple locales. Pega includes features and wizards to facilitate localization.
Locale
The user locale determines the language settings for that user's application. Pega Platform™ determines the initial locale of the operator by first looking at the locale selected in the current browser. If the operator's profile specifies a locale other than the locale set for the browser, Pega Platform uses the operator profile locale. You can override the locale setting. If the application does not contain a Ruleset for the locale that you select, the UI displays the default language, English.
Pega Platform uses the Unicode standards for date and time patterns. Implementation of daylight saving time support depends on the Java Virtual Machine version that supports your system. Pega Platform and the PegaRuleS database support the UTF-8 or UTF-16 Unicode character sets. After you install a UTF-8 system, you cannot enable UTF-16.
Pega Platform supports the Microsoft Windows Input Method Editor (IME), which helps users enter characters in four different East Asian languages (simplified and traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) by using the standard keyboard.
Note: For information on translating your application for right-to-left languages, see Converting your UI for right-to-left languages.
Language packs
A Language Pack, also called a translation pack, is a collection of language-specific Rulesets provided by Pega to support the localization of an application. A language pack provides field value Rules that localize the buttons, prompts, and labels for the application Portals. By creating a translation package, you bundle all the text in your application into a single JSON or Microsoft Excel file, which translators can then process more conveniently.
Additionally, if your application has generative AI capabilities, you can also pre-process the text in your application with machine translation. AI-generated translation helps you include localization early in your design process, and provides a valuable glimpse into the look and feel of your product in a different language.
Note: For more information on using GenAI to localize applications, see Pre-translating your application with GenAI in Constellation.
Create multiple language versions of your application by localizing translation packages and then importing the packages into your application. You can upload a newly translated package on the Localization landing page, which offers a convenient way to manage the language versions of your application. In addition, you can use the Localization page to import Pega language packs, which provide a translated Ruleset with values of fields that typically appear in every application, such as button labels or prompts.
Tip: Ensure that your language pack is the same version and UI architecture as your application. For example, Constellation applications built on Pega Platform version 8.8 do not support language packs for version 8.6, or for Section-based 8.8 applications.
Localization Process
Pega Platform applications are designed to support multiple language versions and provide a user-friendly localization process that uses language packs, existing browser settings, and standard Pega Platform Rulesets. The process of localizing an application includes creating a language pack, importing the pack into the application, and ensuring that no element of your interface remains untranslated.
App Studio and user Portals that you generate in the application all support localization. However, Dev Studio does not support full localization and might display untranslated content.
The Settings menu in App Studio includes a Localization landing page, which you can use to manage the language versions of your application, as shown in the following image:
Verifying your localization
To verify localization, you can update the default locale for your current operator record in Dev Studio.
Tip: You may need to log out and log back into the application for the locale change to take effect.
Set the Locale setting to the target language and run your application to verify that all labels, notes, instructions, messages, and emails are successfully localized. If any are missing, check the appropriate translation pack, add the missing translations, import the updated translation pack, and verify again. Once Rulesets for all languages are imported and tested, Pega Platform automatically uses the appropriate Ruleset based on the locale of the user. No further work is required to localize the application.
Localization limitations
During the localization process, the text in your application is translated into the target language and imported back into Pega Platform. Text that you can localize includes labels, captions, tooltips, and instructions that appear in user-facing components, such as Views and Portals.
In Constellation applications, you cannot localize the following Rules:
- Decision tables and decision trees.
- Case Statuses.
- Radio buttons and drop-down controls in a table.
Note: For more information on localization limits in Constellation, see Localization prerequisites and limitations.
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