Internationalization Concepts for a Web Dynpro Project 

Internationalization is the process by which the language-specific parts of a program are separated from the other parts. A central aspect of internationalization (I18N) is the translation of texts that are used, for example, to label user interface elements or display messages on user interfaces. The internationalization of a Web Dynpro project is based on the resource bundle concept in which the Web application accesses the resource bundle for the user’s appropriate language at runtime.

To separate the language-specific text elements from the source code, the Java programming language provides the classes java.util.ResourceBundle and java.text.format, which are also used within the Web Dynpro for the internationalization of a Web Dynpro application and are included in the WDResourceHandler class. The Java class PropertyResourceBundle, which is derived from the ResourceBundle class, is used to isolate the language-specific resources (text elements) and store the contents in properties files.

The creation of a resource bundle or properties file is supported by both the Web Dynpro framework and the Web Dynpro tools Message Editor und S2X Document Editor.

When you store metadata in the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, all the declarative texts are transmitted into the properties file of a Web Dynpro component through the support of the Web Dynpro framework.

You can create other texts, such as error messages, with the Web Dynpro tool Message Editor. These are subsequently added to the resource bundle of a Web Dynpro component.

At runtime, the relevant properties file can be loaded dynamically, depending on the language ID of the current user. However, this requires user authentication because the language key is determined through user authentication. If the Web Dynpro application does not require user authentication, the language key of the used browser is used for the selection of the properties file. For more information on searching for the required properties file, refer to Search Process for Determining the Required Resource Bundle.

For information about translation management in the translation backend, refer to the SAP Library under ® SAP NetWeaver ® Application Platform (SAP Web Application Server) ®ABAP-Technology ® Documentations and Translation Tools.