I am a newbie to localization. Is there a way to dynamically translate input from the user from a foreign language to English, so that the English words are stored in the database? i.e. user adds new contact to contact management application. the new contact
was added using french language. the contact information needs to be stored in a common language (English) to allow searches to be performed against the contact database around the world.
There are a number of ways to do this, you could use machine translation (like the service offered by Babelfish) - I believe you can do this using XML Web Services, or you could connect to the Web Services of a Translation Services Provider who will get a human
translator to translate the text for you and then return it using the Web Services. The company I work for (http://www.thebigword,com) offer that
solution and can turn around human translations in specialist fields such as investment banking in less than 45 minutes where a service agreement stands. If you decide to go for the machine translation
route, then Systra Software offer a good selection of products. Wouldn't the only translatable material in a contact card relate to free text notes fields alongside the contact? Stéphanie would still be called Stéphanie
in other languages. The only problem would be with accented characters and Japanese, Korean and Chinese alphabets etc. and English spellings of foreign name can vary...
Thank you. Yes, you are correct, we are only looking at translating free text notes and related entries. The proper nouns would be left as is. Does Systra offer XML Web Services? Ideally I would like to make an xml web service call to translate the text before
storing it. Do you have any experience with Systra?
I believe that Systra do offer a Web Service. I've never had a problem with their service (although the company I work for never uses machine translation due to it's poor quality). Systra power Babelfish, so that gives you an idea of their reliability.
sbalusek
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Dynamically translate user input
Sep 29, 2004 07:23 PM|LINK
AdrianHesket...
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Re: Dynamically translate user input
Sep 30, 2004 02:43 PM|LINK
sbalusek
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Re: Dynamically translate user input
Oct 04, 2004 01:37 PM|LINK
AdrianHesket...
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154 Points
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Re: Dynamically translate user input
Oct 14, 2004 10:32 AM|LINK