Translations

Whilst PreBilt is written and delivered in English as its standard language, it is possible to prepare the application for translation to another SAP supported language. The pre-requisite is that the language is loaded into SAP as a language pack.

There are three key areas to be considered for translations:

• The translation of the menus.

• The translation of the fields and labels within each transaction that you see on the screen of the device when using PreBilt.

• The translation of the messages that get displayed during the processing of the transactions.

Furthermore you may want to translate the domain values used in our configuration tables and /TCTM/ SAP transactions and this can be done as well.

Menu translations

Menu translations can be made just like for any other configuration table in SAP, by selecting the rows required for translation and choosing the "Goto > Translation" option from the pulldown menu. Enter the required language, add your translations and then "save" your changes on a transport.

Transaction translations

In order to translate the labels, hints, etc. on the screens in the app transactions, you must maintain the appropriate fields in the AMD with a TEXT element (or, if available, standard SAP DDIC element) rather than "free text" written directly in the AMD.

"Free text" is not translatable and so should be replaced with either a suitable TEXT or DDIC element, which can be performed with the report (as described below in Replace Text ID).

TCT delivers the core product with most, if not all, of the items that require translation ready to be translated with suitable TEXT or DDIC elements assigned in the AMD.

Checking translations in app transactions

Transaction /TCTM/WM_TEXTID_RPT (which runs report /TCTM/WM_TEXTID_REPORT) is primarily used to identify and prepare fields for any translation that a client requires. To check for translations from English to another language, enter the relevant language in the selection screen. Note however that the language must be loaded as a language pack in SAP.

The selection criteria allows for entry of a class (e.g. /TCTM/WM_APP_XXX) to return all text overrides defined for all transactions for that particular class. It is also possible to search for App Transaction Codes using wildcard searches if necessary.

Run the report firstly with "Target Language" in English to check for the transactions to see if all the labels, etc. have been setup with either a DDIC or TEXT element rather than "free text".

"Free text" (status 0) is not translatable and should be replaced with either a suitable DDIC or TEXT element, which can be performed with the report (as described below in Replace Text ID).

Once the transactions have been updated with suitable DDIC or TEXT elements then you can check on the status of the translations (i.e., are there translations available for them) by running the report with the "Target Language" set to what is required.

Note

As of release 5.4.0, all of the text IDs supplied in the core transactions are actually held against the text override in configuration for core transaction "_GLOBAL_DEFAULTS". This gives you one place to manage all the translations that the other app transactions reference.

Of interest in the report are the AMD value, the converted value and the current status.

The AMD value displays the currently held text override, DDIC entry or free text entry.

The 'Converted' value displays the text the user will see for each particular AMD entry. This is either referenced from the DDIC, global or app transaction text overrides or free text in the AMD Value field.

The status field refers to the status of the current AMD Value held for the transaction.

• 0 – Free text entry

• 1 – DDIC or Text Override

• 2 – The AMD Value is in an error state – an invalid DDIC or Text Override has been provided, or there is no translation available for those elements when the program is run with a language other than English.

AMD update methods

To update AMD values there are two main methods.

Download and upload

Using this method allows you to download a spreadsheet from this transaction (using the download icon), edit the spreadsheet and then subsequently upload the spreadsheet (using the upload icon) to perform a mass updated in the AMD.

Upon uploading, the tool will perform a sense check on the data provided. Once uploaded you must "save" the changes highlighted in order to update the AMD.

Replace Text ID

It is possible to select individual or multiple entries in the report for updating to a particular text or text ID.

Select one or more lines of data, press the 'Replace Text ID' button.

Tapping F4 Help will show search tools to allow you to select either DDIC entries or text override entries defined in WM_CFG, by selecting the appropriate tab in the search popup.

Once you have made the updates on the report screen you must "save" your changes to update the AMD.

Message translations

PreBilt uses either SAP standard messages within the apps or specific PreBilt messages in PreBilt message classes.

The standard SAP messages will not need translating as they are already translated by SAP. The PreBilt messages will need translating.

Download messages for the TCT Message Classes

Use SAP transaction SE16N (or equivalent) to download into an excel file, all the text IDs from table T100 for the particular message classes needed. e.g. /TCTM/*, to include all the core service classes as well as the app specific classes.

You can then make your translations of the messages and use that file to upload back into SAP - see the next section.

Note

Every time there is a PreBilt upgrade all the previously translated messages need to be downloaded prior to re-uploading as they will be wiped out by the new core transport which will NOT include the client specific translations.

Uploading translated messages

There is an upload program /TCTM/WM_MSG_UPLOAD_LANG that can be run to upload translated messages and it will also create the required transport as well.

The spreadsheet template requires, as shown below:

• Language

• Message ID/Class

• Message Number

• Text

Enter the file name and directory, a transport description and target system so that the appropriate transport can be created by the upload program.

Note

There is a 128-character length limit to the directory and file name including the file extension.

The program will analyse and provide feedback on the translations you have maintained in the spreadsheet.

Select translations that are not in an error state and press ‘Upload Translations’ to save translations and add them to a transport.

Individual translations using SE91

It is possible to edit the messages individually for a message class using SAP transaction SE91.

For example, in class /TCTM/WM_APP_500, the messages are displayed.

Selecting a message and then “Goto > Translations”. Enter the required Target language.

It is then possible to maintain that message in the chosen language.

Note

Text translations added in SE91 are not automatically added to a transport. You need to add them manually yourself using the SAP transaction SLXT.

Domain value translations

In transaction SE11 enter the domain you wish to translate, which can include the domains in the "/TCTM/" namespace. Existing PreBilt implementations that may have created some custom domains, for use within the apps with values defined, can translated those as well - see the example flow below.

Select ‘Display’.

Select the ‘Value Range’ tab to see the list of values if required.

From the pulldown menu "Goto > Translation” to initiate the translation input.

A pop-up box will appear and you enter the target language to continue.

You will then see a list of objects that are available for translation and can select a line – typically this will be the line that you want to add translations for.

You can then enter the translations for each item and save.

Then make sure that the domain is added into a transport for deployment through the SAP landscapes.