Translating Resource Files

To translate resource files into a new language, copy the source code for the English translations provided by the PeopleSoft system and use this as a starting point for the new language. Alternatively, if you are only making minor modifications to an existing translation provided by the PeopleSoft system (such as to change terminology), you can use any of the languages provided by the PeopleSoft system as a starting point. This section assumes that you are using the English translations as your start, and that you’re adding a new translation.

Note: The PeopleSoft system provides pre-translated PeopleTools alternate language DLLs for many languages. You must follow these steps only if you want to translate PeopleTools into a language that is not provided by the PeopleSoft system or if you want to modify one of the provided translations.

To translate resource files:

  1. Determine the three-letter designation of the new language.

    In this example, QUE is the designation for Quechua. For consistency in referring to languages throughout the system, use one of the standard code values stored in the Translate table for the LANGUAGE_CD field. The PeopleSoft system does not use standard ISO codes for languages, but three-letter codes instead. You can decide the appropriate three-letter code for your language, but you should ensure that it is consistently used across PeopleTools whenever you use this language.

    See Understanding the Addition of New Language Definitions.

  2. Copy the contents of \SRC\RES\ENG to the target resource directory.

    For Quechua, the target resource directory is \SRC\RES\QUE.

  3. Use Microsoft Developer Studio to convert the English resources to the alternate language.

    A text editor is adequate to change string resources contained in the *.RCX files, however when modifying *.RC files that contain Microsoft Windows dialog boxes and other graphical elements, you should use the resource editor provided in Microsoft Developer Studio bundled with Microsoft Visual C++. The resource editor enables you to size and position elements in dialog boxes and to edit bitmaps, cursors, and other graphic components of the resource files.

  4. Set up the environment variables.

    Before compiling your translated resource files, you must set the appropriate environment variables for the C++ resource compiler. Typically, Microsoft Visual C++ provides a batch file, VCVARS32.BAT, which sets the variables for you. In addition to the variables set in this batch file, set the environment variable TOOLBIN to the PS_HOME\BIN\CLIENT\WINX86 directory of your file server, and append the PS_HOME\SRC\RES\ENG\INC directory to the environment variable INCLUDE.

  5. Compile alternate language DLLs using MAKEALTL.BAT.

  6. (Microsoft Windows application servers only) Copy the resultant alternate language DLLs to the BIN\SERVER\WINX86 directory of your Microsoft Windows application server.

  7. (Unix/Linux application servers only) Compile Unix/Linux application server resources and transfer to the Unix/Linux application server.

    If you are using a Unix/Linux application server, you must run MAKEUNIX.BAT to compile the resource files into a format that is readable by the Unix/Linux application server.

Note: If you have changed any menu item text, update the Security settings to give users access to the menu items.

The MAKEALTL.BAT file calls the Microsoft Visual C++ Resource Compiler and Linker to compile translated resources into a Windows DLL. Before running MAKEALTL.BAT, ensure that the environment variables required by the Resource Compiler and Linker are set correctly in your current DOS window. This table describes and shows an example of these environment variables:

Environment Variable

Description

Example

%path%

Must include the Microsoft Visual C++ executables directory.

C:\MSDEV\BIN

%include%

Must include the Microsoft Visual C++ INC directory and the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) BIN directory. It must also include a copy of the PeopleTools resource include directory.

C:\MSDEV\INC C:\MSDEV\MFC\INC C:\PT850\SRC\RES\ENG\INC

%lib%

Must include the Microsoft Visual C++ library directory.

C:\MSDEV\LIB

%toolbin%

Must point to the directory containing the PeopleTools executables.

C:\PT850\BIN\CLIENT\WINX86

For customer builds, the PS_HOME variable must be set. For internal builds, the PSVER variable must be set.

For customer builds, another option is to SET CUSTOMER_BUILD=NO and set the PSVER variable.

Once you have verified that the variables in the table above are correct, you can run MAKEALTL.BAT.

To run MAKEALTL.BAT:

  1. In a DOS window, go to the SRC\RES directory.

  2. Run the MAKEALTL batch file with language and PeopleTools_module parameters.

    This process compiles the resources into language-specific DLLs and copies the files to your PeopleTools executables directory.

    The syntax of the command is as follows:

    MAKEALTL language PeopleTools_module

  • language is the three-letter code for the language that you are compiling (such as QUE).

  • PeopleTools_module is the name of the directory that contains the resource files that you have translated (such as PSSYS).

    Pass ALL in place of the directory name to compile all PeopleTools modules in the language that you specified.

MAKEUNIX.BAT compiles the translated resources into a single file that is readable by the PeopleSoft Unix/Linux application servers. It reads the same translated resources as MAKEALTL.BAT, but instead of producing a separate DLL for each language/module combination, MAKEUNIX.BAT produces a single indexed resource file called PSAPPSRV.RES.

To run MAKEUNIX.BAT, you must also have the Microsoft Visual C++ development environment installed on your workstation. MAKEUNIX.BAT calls the C++ compiler to parse the resource files from all languages and to create PSAPPSRV.RES. In addition to the environment variables that are required to run MAKEALTL.BAT, MAKEUNIX.BAT requires that you set the %PSVER% environment variable. Set this variable to the base directory in which you installed PeopleTools.

If you have added any new languages as part of your PeopleTools translations, you must edit MAKEUNIX.BAT to include the new languages so that they are included in the PSAPPSRV.RES file.

To run MAKEUNIX.BAT:

  1. Open a DOS command prompt window.

  2. Change the directory to your \PT850\RES directory.

  3. Run the MAKEUNIX batch file.

    MAKEUNIX doesn’t require that you pass the module or language name arguments; it compiles the Unix/Linux application server resources for all languages and modules in one pass.

    The output from MAKEUNIX.BAT, and PSAPPSRV.RES is placed in PS_HOME\APPSERV\UNIX. You must transfer PSAPPSRV.RES to the BIN directory of your Unix/Linux application server using a network file transfer utility, such as FTP.