Patent Application
20080155502
IBM® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., U.S.A. Other names used herein may be registered trademarks, trademarks or product names of International Business Machines Corporation or other companies.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to software that manages user interactions for a script generation, and more particularly to providing a method, article, and system for handling the output and translation of text strings.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common programming task is known as scripting, or connecting diverse preexisting components to accomplish a new related task. Languages which are suited to scripting are typically called scripting languages. Scripting languages have common properties including rapid development over efficiency of execution, and are often implemented with interpreters rather than compilers. Scripts are strong at communicating with program components written in other languages.
Scripts act as “glue” that puts several components together; and thus they are widely used for creating graphical user interfaces or executing a series of commands that might otherwise have to be entered interactively through a keyboard at the command prompt. A typical computer operating system offers some type of scripting language by default, widely known as a shell script language. Scripts are typically stored only in their plain text form (as ASCII) and interpreted, or compiled each time prior to being invoked.
Scripts often output vital information indicating the progress of the script to the user. In addition, scripts often require interaction with the user at runtime. The scripting environment often translates the text strings displayed by a script into multiple languages to allow for globalization. Scripts with such translated strings can then present instructions and other information to the user in the language identified by their locale. Products are translated into multiple languages to accommodate clients from all across the world. However, translations often take a while to produce. It is common practice for software producers to release fixes and enhancements to their products. The additional functionality may require that extra information be conveyed to the user and as a result, more strings may be added in order to enhance the interaction between the user and the script. One of the benefits of using scripts is that they are easy to edit. However, it is not a trivial process to translate strings. Typically, the turnaround time for translating strings is greater than the time required to modify a script. Waiting for a translation to occur could postpone the release date of a script. When a new release contains product fixes, the additional time needed to wait for a translation to be completed is not in the customer's best interests. In addition, it is possible that not all scripts in a release will encounter un-translated strings. Therefore, it is not optimal to hold back on a release when the user may not even use scripts that contain the newest un-translated strings.
However, the current industry practice with regards to new software releases for multiple language markets is to postpone shipping modified scripts, to revert to the primary language (typically English, but not limited thereto) for the entire script, to present the user with previously translated strings in combination with new strings in the primary language, or to provide machine translations for the new strings. In general, these options are not acceptable. Software support requires timely release of script updates. Users may prefer a partial or best-effort translation to format entirely in the primary language for consistency. In addition, having some strings un-translated may leave the user with a perception that there are defects in the software. Finally, the user should be warned that machine translation is not always accurate.
The present invention is directed to addressing, or at least reducing, the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above, by providing a method, article, and system for utilizing the new strings in the primary language during the period where strings are still in the translation process. The method of the present invention allows users to choose among three different options:
Embodiments of the present invention comprise a method for managing translation and presentation of text strings associated with scripts. The method comprises selecting a first script using a user interface, with the first script being selected from one or more scripts each containing a set of one or more keys that reference text strings comprised of characters that form words relating to a spoken language; and determining if the selected first script contains keys that reference text strings from the set of one or more text strings that have not been translated into the spoken language; wherein based on the determination, presenting a user with options relating to script translation and presentation via the user interface.
The determination if the script contains keys that reference text strings that have not been translated into the spoken language comprises analyzing targets containing keys that have the potential of being executed by the one or more scripts, and creating an index of the keys in the targets, if the index did not already exist, or if the one or more scripts has been modified prior to selecting a first script. The method of determining further comprises analyzing if the target containing the keys has undergone a change based on a last modified date of the target containing the keys, as well as if the index contains a key for a text string not in the one or more scripts, and concluding that the one or more scripts contains a key for a text string that has not been translated into the spoken language.
The method of determination of the present invention also involves maintaining a first and a second list. The first list indicates instances where all text strings referenced by keys in the selected first script have been translated into the spoken language; and the second list indicates instances where the user has to be warned in response to not all of the text strings referenced by keys in the selected first script having been translated into the spoken language. The determining further comprises referring to the first and second lists to decide if the selected script should be run as is, or if the user should be presented with the options on the user interface on how to manage the script translation and presentation. The first and second lists are cleared in response to the one or more scripts being modified. The determination process is only run if the one or more scripts have never been run for the locale of the user.
Based on the determination of the method of the present invention, the user is warned via the user interface that each of the one or more scripts may display to the user a text string that has not been translated into the user's spoken language. In addition, based on the determination, the user is presented with the following options: continuing with the first script for the user's locale and advising the user that certain text strings may be in a language that is different from the spoken language; using the spoken language with machine translation from the primary language to the spoken language for the one or more text strings that have not been formally translated; or presenting the user with the option of allowing all text strings in the first script to be in the primary language.
A system for implementing the method of the present invention, as well as, an article comprising one or more machine-readable storage media containing instructions that when executed enable a processor to carry out the method, are also provided.
Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention. For a better understanding of the invention with advantages and features, refer to the description and to the drawings.
The subject matter that is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for integrating newly added, un-translated text strings with previously translated text strings. The scripting environment of the present invention can detect when the user may encounter text strings that have yet to be translated into the end-user's native language. Before executing the first target, the scripting environment can warn the user of the language discrepancy. Users may elect to interact with the scripts with text strings (1) in a combination of their native language and the primary language (typically English, but not limited thereto), entirely (2) in their native language using machine translation to translate some text strings, or (3) in the primary language only.
The present invention provides the user with the following advantages and benefits. Translations take time and scripts change relatively quickly, however the present invention allows the user to have access to the latest script changes without having to wait for additional text strings to be translated. The method provides the user the choice of which language option is most comfortable for them. In addition, translations of additional text strings can be added slowly over time and detected at runtime. During runtime, the script engine can determine if the text strings encountered are translated into a certain language.
Detecting whether the translation file has been modified is determined by examining the last modified date of the file (104). With regards to the targets, an assumption is made that when the XML document containing the target changes, it is possible that the target may have also changed. Changes to the index result when either the last modified date of the translation files or of the XML documents containing the targets in the script have a later date than the last modified date of the index. The engine can determine if any of the strings in the index are not in the translation file (108). If any text string in the index cannot be found in the file, the script contains a string that is not translated (116). This means that the script must warn (120) the user that they may encounter a text string that has yet to be translated into their native language. The lookup is only performed if a user has never run the script in the locale.
To reduce the overhead of performing the lookup each time, two persistent lists are maintained (110), which are called ok_to_run and warn_user. The list, ok_to_run, indicates the locales where all text strings referenced by the selected script are translated and the persistent list, warn_user, indicates the locales where the user has to be warned since not all text strings referenced by the selected script are translated into the native language. When a script is run, the user's locale is added to one of two lists: ok_to_run (128) if all text strings are translated in that locale and warn_user (118) if a text string is not translated into the native language. For subsequent runs, the script engine can refer to these two properties to determine if the user should be warned (until the index is no longer up-to-date). If the user's locale is on the ok_to_run list (112) the script is executed (114), or if there are no un-translated strings in the selected script (116), the script is added to the ok_to_run list (128) and the script is executed (130). When the index is updated, the two persistent lists, ok_to_run and warn_user, are cleared.
When it is determined that a script may display an un-translated string (116), the scripting environment outputs a message (120) to the user indicating that the script chosen has text enhancements. The scripting environment can indicate to the user that it is possible that the user may encounter text strings that have not been formally translated. Based on the user's input, certain execution paths may not be executed and it is possible that the user may not encounter a text string that has not been translated into their native language. Since this cannot be determined ahead of time, the user must be warned anyway. The user is presented (120) with three options to choose from: (1) continue with the script in the user's locale and certain text strings may be in a different language (122), (2) use the native language with machine translation from the primary language to the native language for text strings that have not been formally translated (124), or (3) allow all text strings in the script to be in the primary language (126). The user can choose what they feel most comfortable with and the script can continue displaying text strings (132) according to the user's choice.
The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention.
While the preferred embodiments to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
