Internationalization &

Localization ?

Internationalization  I + 18 Chars + N  I18N

Your Application can accept, store, manipulate, retrieve and display text in the user’s native language

Internationalization(i18n), depicts the practice of designing & developing an application, product or document in a way that makes
it easily localizable for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.

I18N aims at separating Core application code from dynamic content containing Culture specific data, such as text strings on the UI.

Following i18N in software development ensures that minimal changes are required while modifying for different languages, writing
systems, regions. In nutshell internationalization can be seen as an architectural issue.

Localization  L + 10 Chars + N  L10N

Your application looks as if it was designed for the locale it is being used in

Localization(L10N) is the actual adaptation to meet the language, cultural & other requirements for specific target audience.

Together these two concepts makes it possible to develop a localized version of a software product.

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 CHALLENGES

 Missing files, setup failures  Accessibility key issues

Build scripts Non-ASCII key mnemonics

 Sentence composition
 Untranslated text
Concatenated/dynamic strings
Hard-coded strings
 Truncated text/buffer overflow
Strings from external sources
Hard-coded string buffer size
 Functionality problems Button text in string table
String dependencies User drawn menus/controls
Over translation Hard-coded style layout in CSS

 Character corruption  Text string expansion

Hard-coded font  Character sets and encoding
Not Unicode enabled  Bidirectional text and vertical display
Incorrect meta char set tag  Keyboard character Layout, shortcuts
 User interface issue  Fonts
Dynamic controls  Sorting Order
Absolute coordinates  Placeholders
Overlapping controls (string truncation)  Abbreviations

Registry keys used to display text  Terminology

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 SCOPE OF TESTING

 Translatable Product Components

 Textual Objects
 Fixed Textual Objects
 Messages
 Non – Textual Objects
 Icons, Images and Colors
 Graphical User Interface Objects
 Sounds
 Cultural Formatting and Processing
 Cultural  Negotiations, Defaults and Selection
 Abstract Objects  Time Date and Calendar  Numeric Monetary and Metric
 Structured Text  Ordered List, Personal Name, Addresses and Other Formatting and Layout
 Language Processing  Lexical, Grammatical, Phonology and sound to Text

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 TEST APPROACH

 Localization functional Testing

 Localization UI Testing
 Translation Verification Testing
 GUI Testing
 User Assistance Testing
 Internationalization Testing

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 LIST OF REUSABLE TEST CASES

 Text  a wide selection of characters, punctuation, and symbols which appear in the language

 Graphics  Have icons, banners, backgrounds, pictures, and all other images as part of the test suites for the UI

 Truncation  Truncation is a frequent occurrence, especially in localized or pseudo-localized UI elements

 Rendering  products do not do their own rendering, they often do specify fonts and point sizes which can drastically affect the
appearance of characters

 Line wrap  Different languages have different line wrap rules

 Search  Different people have different preferences for how data is matched

 Numeric  Dates and times should be part of the test, along with currency, telephone numbers, and units of measure

 Number groupings  amount per group, separator, good for locale

 Decimal point  correct character & number of digits after for locale

 Date/time  order of day, month, year & separator, short & long form, abbreviations of day & month names

 Currency  symbol, 3-letter id, positioning, no. of digits after decimal

 Telephone numbers  There is an international standard for telephone numbers, but most folks are unaccustomed to seeing
their local phone numbers in the international format

 Names/Addresses  generic address lines, state/province optional, postal code, country field

 Images  internationally appropriate, no imbedded text, sizing

 Colors  no implied meaning by color, consistency in use

 Screen  positioning, resolution, window layering

 Sound  non-culture specific, switch off capability