Configure Cognos UI and Error String Customization Toolkit

You must configure IBM® Cognos® User Interface and Error String Customization Toolkit before you start using it.

Configuration involves specifying directories where the XML resource files can be obtained, processed, and placed after they are customized. It also involves specifying locale codes that define the source and target languages.

When you specify locale variables, such as Source_Locale and Target_Locale_List, ensure that the locale string always contains a valid ISO language code. It can also contain an optional ISO country code. The ISO language code is a lowercase, two-letter code defined by ISO-639. The ISO country code is a lowercase, two-letter code defined by ISO-3166. For example, ja (Japanese), it (Italian), ru (Russian), zh-cn (Simplified Chinese - China), and zh-tw (Traditional Chinese - Taiwan).

You specify the configuration variables in the LocalizationConfig.properties file located in the product installation directory named installation_location\bin.

You can customize either product locale files, content locale files, or both, by using the Localization_Filter variable. IBM Cognos Business Intelligence uses the product locale files to provide Web-based user interfaces, such as Event Studio, Report Studio, Analysis Studio, and Query Studio. Product locale files are already translated for all the product locales supported. You can translate the product locale files for a data locale supported but not translated by the IBM Cognos software, to allow users to use the studios in their locale.

Cognos BI uses the content locale to display data in reports and to provide the user interfaces associated with report consumption, such as IBM Cognos Connection and Report Viewer. Translated content locale files for most of the data locales supported are provided. You can translate the content locale files for a data locale that is supported but not translated by the IBM Cognos software, to allow users to view and run reports in their locale.

We recommend that you use the locales supported by your IBM Cognos product. Although you can use other locales, we cannot guarantee that the product will work properly with those locales.

To review an up-to-date list of data locales supported by IBM Cognos products and a list of product and content translations, visit the IBM Cognos Customer Center (http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/customercenter).

You enter values for the following variables. You must use a forward slash / when entering a directory location.

Source_Directory
Location of the directory in your workspace that will contain copies of the original resource files, such as C:/Translation/Src.
Source_Locale
Language code of the original resource files from which the text is customized.
Synchronization_Directory
Location of the directory in your workspace that will contain the resource files that you customize, such as C:/Translation/Sync.
Reference_Directory

Location of the directory in your workspace that will contain unchanged copies of the original resource files used in a given customization project. In a subsequent customization project, these files are used to determine which text was added, deleted, or updated.

You can create this directory as a subdirectory of the synchronization directory, such as C:/Translation/Sync/Ref.

Target_Directory
Location of the directory in your workspace that will contain the target resource files, such as C:/Translation/Target.
Target_Locale_List
One or more language codes, separated by a comma, into which the text will be translated, such as ru or pl.
ackage_File
Name and location of the compressed file (.zip) that will contain the packaged target resource files, such as C:/Translation/LocalizationOut.zip.
Log_File

Name and location of the log file that will contain processing information, such as C:/Translation/Localization.log.

Default: No log file

Component_Name_List

Names of the product components, separated by a comma, that represent the component element in the input resource files for which the messages are customized.

Default: All

VAR_Information
Text that VARs can embed in the customized files, such as Generated by company X. The default text is Generated by the IBM Cognos software.
Localization_Filter

Specifies whether to process files tagged for product locale, content locale, or both.

Possible values are:

  • Product Locale

    This is the Default. Only files tagged with the customization attribute Product Locale or without a customization attribute will be processed.

  • Content Locale

    Only files tagged with the customization attribute Content Locale will be processed.

  • none

    All message files regardless of the customization attribute will be processed.

Allow_Untranslated_Strings

Allows you to generate the target resource files while there are still some strings that are not translated. The translate attributes, which identify the strings to translate, remain in the file so that you can translate them later. This is useful for testing purposes.

Possible values are Yes or No. The default value is No.

You must have write permissions for the following directories and files:

On a UNIX computer, ensure that you have an environment variable named JAVA_HOME that points to the location of your JavaTM Runtime Environment. An example of the installation location of a Java Runtime Environment is java_directory/java/java_version/jre.