Understanding Bidirectional Language Support
This chapter provides an overview of bidirectional language support and discusses how to:
Access bidirectional PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture pages.
Navigate in bidirectional PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture pages.
Customize PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture for bidirectionality.
Understanding Bidirectional Language Support
The PeopleSoft system provides bidirectional support that enables you to use right-to-left oriented languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew.
This section discusses:
Features
Translations provided
Platforms supported
Features
These features are included for bidirectional support in the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture:
Right-aligned menu navigation pane.
Right-aligned scroll bars.
Right-aligned field labels.
Right-to-left data entry.
Right-aligned display images.
Hijri (Umm al-Qura) calendar support.
Ability to designate images to display horizontally flipped.
Translations Provided
PeopleTools is delivered with Arabic and is supported on the following Unicode databases: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2 z/OS and DB2 Windows/Unix/Linux.
Accessing Bidirectional PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture Pages
As delivered, bidirectional PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture pages are enabled when you select Arabic as the sign-in language:
To sign in to the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture page in Arabic:
Access the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture.
Click Arabic from the list of sign-in languages.
A bidirectional sign-in page appears.
Enter a User ID and Password.
Click the Sign In button.
After signing in to the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture, the bidirectional PeopleSoft homepage appears in Arabic:
Navigating in Bidirectional PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture Pages
Once signed on as an Arabic or other bidirectional user, text, fields, scroll bars, and images are right-aligned. The following graphic shows the default functional area navigation (DFAN) page for the PeopleTools Security component with bidirectionality enabled:
Customizing PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture Pages for Bidirectionality
This section discusses how to:
Develop HTML areas.
Work with images.
Note. You can set bidirectionality explicitly for an object or inherit it from parent objects.
Developing HTML Areas
This table lists and describes the system and meta-HTML variables that are used to develop bidirectional PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture pages:
|
Directionality Variables |
Description |
|
%AlignStart |
Use this system or meta-HTML variable instead of hard-coded left to align page elements. |
|
%AlignEnd |
Use this system or meta-HTML variable instead of hard-coded right to align text. |
|
%AlignAmount |
Use this system or meta-HTML variable instead of hard-coded right for numeric amounts |
|
%Direction |
Use this system or meta-HTML variable instead of hard-coded ltr or rtl to set the directionality of elements, such as the <html> tag of an HTML document. |
Anywhere you normally use left, right, ltr, or rtl, use the appropriate directionality variable. For instance, instead of
<td align='right'>
use
<td align='%AlignEnd'>
This also applies to left and right keywords within HTML substrings. For instance:
%AlignStartmargin=10
Note. HTML elements inherit the directionality of the parent element, so setting dir='%Direction' on the HTML tag will take effect for all the elements within the HTML page, unless overridden. If no directionality is set on the HTML element, the default value is dir='ltr'.
Working with Images
When adding images to the image catalog, you must identify the images you want to flip horizontally when loaded.
The Use tab on the Image Properties dialog box features a Mirror this image in right-to-left contexts check box that enables you to specify that an image be flipped horizontally when loaded onto a page in a right-to-left context.
Note. The check box can only be changed when the user is logged into Application Designer as a base language user. If an image is marked to be mirrored, it cannot be translatable. Any translations for an image marked to be mirrored will be discarded.
As a general rule, set this option for any image that does not contain text and has a directional meaning, such as arrow icons that indicate next and previous actions.