The Localisation Process for AMS

The standard localisation process with AMS can be broken down into 4 basic steps:

1. Extract / Capture
2. Translate
3. Test / QA
4. Package / Deploy

Extract / Capture
The goal of the Extract / Capture step is to establish the list of texts to translate.
When the source code is available the list of texts to translate can be built by running one or several of the extractor components that come with AMS. A wide variety of formats and programming languages are supported. The extractor component will parse your source code and identify the strings that have to be translated.
Additionally, an included component called Database Manager permits to connect to any database through ODBC and retrieve the texts from any given column. Another included component called the XML Manager allows retrieving texts from XML files.
Alternatively, when the source code is not available, the texts displayed by the application can be retrieved through the Capture Mode of AMS Studio. In this mode each text displayed by the application while it’s running is captured and added to the list of texts to translate in AMS Studio.
Extracting from the source code is the preferred way to create the list of texts that have to be translated. The extractor components can be run automatically on large quantities of code whereas the Capture Mode is a manual activity that requires browsing all the screens of the applications.

Translate
This is the linguistic part of the work. Someone with the correct linguistic knowledge will have to enter the translations. The translations can be entered directly in AMS or using Excel and then imported in AMS Studio. No training is necessary here. The translation effort can be outsourced to professional translators, partners, subsidiaries and even clients.

Test / QA
Once the translations are completed, the resulting translated application can be tested. Typically during this step, the screens are reviewed to locate potential problems such as:

The time necessary for this step varies depending on the targeted quality of the localised application. Software vendors that will burn the resulting localized application to a CD / DVD will take the time necessary to be sure that the localised application meets their quality criteria. Whereas for companies where the localised application is used internally and updated frequently can spend less time on test / QA as any potential problems, such as a truncated text or a missing translation, can be fixed quickly with the next update.

Package / Deploy
The Package / Deploy step is generally straightforward. AMS is quite flexible and many options are available.
Software vendors can embed the AMS runtime inside their applications. A software development kit (SDK) is provided that lets the application control the behaviour of the AMS Engine. For instance it is possible for the application to retrieve the list of all available languages as found in the AMS Thesaurus and to set the language to use for the user interface.
Using AMS, it is possible to create one version of the application per language or have one localised version that contains all languages. Optionally, it is easy to give the ability to the end-users to change the current language or to lock them in a given language.

Learn more about Assima Multilingual Suite and its technology