Supporting other locales

You may have a global community of users who want to view the service catalog in their preferred language. Service Request Catalog provides complete out-of-box localization for multiple languages. You must complete tasks to configure support for your selected languages.

Service Request Catalog also supports the currency code and symbol for each of these languages. Complete the following tasks to enable more than one locale. The only constraint is that each locale must be supported by Service Manager. Complete the first three tasks with a Service Manager client that connects to your Service Manager server.

Review Out-of-box Supported Languages

Language Language Code
Arabic ar_SA
English en_US
French fr_FR
German de_DE
Italian it_IT
Japanese ja_JP
Russian ru_RU
Simplified Chinese zh_CN
Spanish es_ES

Task 1: Configure the language in Service Manager

The first task is to make the selected language available when the user logs in to Service Request Catalog. Some languages may already be enabled on the Service Manager side. Others may not be enabled. To verify whether your target language is enabled, or to enable your target language, follow these steps:

  1. From the Service Manager client, expand the left navigation and click Tailoring > Database Manager.
  2. From the Table field, type or select language.
  3. Click the Search icon.

    Service Manager returns a list of Service Manager language files.

  4. Double-click the desired language file.
  5. From the Language Identification dialog, click the Search icon.

    A list of available languages appears. If the language you want has an active flag set to true, the language is enabled, and your task is complete. If the flag is false, proceed to the next step.

  6. Select the language that you want to enable.
  7. Check the empty Active for logins check box.
  8. Click Save to update the language record.
  9. Click OK.
  10. Repeat step 1 through step 9 to add more languages.
  11. Click Back to exit this task.
  12. Restart the Service Manager client to verify your changes.

Task 2: Configure the user profile

The second task is to associate a default language with the individual user in their Service Manager user profile. For users in a multi-lingual environment, one might prefer to search the catalog in French, while another user would be more comfortable with Spanish.

Note If the user does not exist in the Service Manager system, you can follow these steps to navigate to the Operator Record dialog, but you must create the user before you complete the language association task.

  1. Verify the target language is configured in Service Manager by reviewing Task 1 in the Support Other Locales section.
  2. In the System Navigator pane, click System Administration > Ongoing Maintenance > Operators to edit the user’s operator record.
  3. Click Search.
  4. Select the user from the Login Name or Full Name column.
  5. Click the Login Profile tab.
  6. Click the Language drop-down list to select the default language for that user.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Repeat step 2 through step 8 if you have more than one operator record to configure.
  10. Click Back to exit this task.

Task 3: Localize the item record

  1. To display any item in the user’s preferred language, you must add the specific language attribute to the item record. If you skip this step, the item appears in the default language.
  2. In the System Navigator pane, click Service Catalog > Administration > Manage Items to locate the record to be localized.
  3. Click Search. Service Manager displays a list of the item records in the catalog.
  4. Scroll to find the target record in the list.
  5. Click the record in the list to display all the record information in the Category Definition form.
  6. When Service Manager displays the record, right-click anywhere in the form and select Localize this record from the context menu.
  7. Service Manager displays the Create Localized Data wizard.
  8. Choose the language from the drop-down list. Example: select German.
  9. Replace the English Name, Short Description, and Long Description with equivalent values in the language you selected in step 6.
  10. Click Finish. Service Manager displays a confirmation message above the Category Definition form.
  11. Repeat step 3 through step 8 to create localized versions of each catalog record.
  12. When you are finished, click OK.
  13. Click Back to exit the task.

Task 4: Configure the currency

All currencies related to supported locales are available in the Service Request Catalog application. Currency values can appear with a symbol, such as the dollar symbol ($), or a code, such as USD (United States Dollars). The default display for the English locale is the currency symbol. The default display for non-English locales is the currency code.

Change a currency code or symbol

You can change the way currency displays, or you can add a new code or symbol.

Example: You would like to display using a different currency code or symbol, or even add a new currency.

Change the default currency symbol for Service Request Catalog

The Service Manager server normally provides localized item descriptions and converts the item cost to your locale currency symbol and value without intervention. You can override the currency display by overriding the default value.

  1. On the server where you deploy the Service Request Catalog, navigate to the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services dialog.
  2. Navigate to this folder:

    Windows: C:\...\src-9.60\resources\client\
    Unix: /opt/..../src-9.60/resources/client/

    All localization sub-folders contain translated text for the application.

  3. Open the folder for your locale.

    Example: Hungarian translations are in this folder:

    Windows: C:\...\src-9.60\resources\client\hu\
    Unix: /opt/..../src-9.60/resources/client/hu/
  4. Open the CurrencySymbol_hu.properties file.
  5. Locate the currency code and symbol that you want to display and remove the comment character from that entry.
  6. Save and close the file.

Add a new currency to Service Manager

If you want to display items in the new locale by using the correct currency value and symbol, browse the Service Manager documentation to locate “Displaying currency in the Service Catalog.” Follow the recommendations in this and related topics to make sure that:

  • Display currency field is set correctly in the affected operator records.
  • Currency table contains the correct currency definition record.
  • Currency conversion rate, established by the daily currency exchange rate, appears in the currency conversion table.

Add a New Code and Symbol to Service Request Catalog

In this example, we want to add the Korean code and symbol.

Follow these steps on the server where you deploy the Service Request Catalog.war file.

  1. On the server where you deploy the Service Request Catalog, navigate to the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services dialog.
  2. Navigate to the following folder:

    Windows: C:\...\src-9.60\resources\client\
    Unix: /opt/..../src-9.60/resources/client/

    All localization sub-folders contain translated text for the application.

  3. The /ko folder contains all property files for the Korean locale. Open this file with a text editor:

    Windows: C:\...\src-9.60\resources\client\ko\CurrencySymbol_ko.properties
    Unix:/opt/..../src-9.60/resources/client/ko/CurrencySymbol_ko.properties
  4. Add the correct currency code and currency symbol to this file.

    Example: To add the Korean currency, add this value:

    KRW=\u20a9
  5. Save and close the file.

Task 5: Display the currency for a user

To activate the target currency, follow these steps:

  1. In the Service Manager Windows client, navigate to System Administration -> Base system Configuration -> Currencies.
  2. Enter the target currency name (for example, CNY) and then click Search.
  3. Check the Active? checkbox and click then click OK.

To add conversion rates, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to System Administration-> Base system Configuration -> Conversion Rates.
  2. Search for the target currency Conversion Rates. Add one if it does not exist. Generally, the Root Currency Code should be USD.

To add the currency to the user profile, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to Service Manager and then enter operator in command line.
  2. Input a valid Service Request Catalog username and then click Search to open the user profile.
  3. Click the Login Profiles tab and change the Display Currency value to the target one.
  4. Click Ok.
  5. Log in to Service Request Catalog by using the username from step 2 and set the language to one which is consistent with the currency.  For example, to test Chinese Yuan, set the language to Chinese.
  6. Open the catalog item that has a specified cost in Service Manager and verify that the correct currency symbols, converted price, and currency format are correct.

Task 6: Configure the browser for a locale

To view Service Request Catalog in a preferred language, users should configure their browser settings. The following general guidelines are for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. If you use an unsupported browser, consult the browser documentation.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

  1. Click Tools > Internet Options.
  2. Click the General tab.
  3. Click Languages.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Choose a supported language and then click OK.
  6. Select that language and move it to the top of the preference list.
  7. Click OK.

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Click Tools > Options.
  2. Click Content.
  3. In the Languages section, click Choose.
  4. Click Select a language to add.
  5. Choose a supported language and then click Add.
  6. Select that language and move it to the top of the preference list.
  7. Click OK.