being a Navision beginner database administrator let me ask this question(s):
actually we run the german 2.60c navision database on sql server with several added programmed features. all in german. as we have a brother - company abroad we are very interested in running the multi-language feature attain seems to include.
What has to be done to get the multi-language functionality running ?
buy a new license / update the license
update the database server
convert the objects to new version
use new client software ?
someone needs to translate all the messages that should appear in the 2 languages. is this the job of a NSC or can it be done by our own, or is there a tool that migrates existing objects … is attain the version to go to? i read 2.65 has the same functionality ?
sorry for this lots of questions. but i think many users might have this type of questions.
Hi Joern, Below please find a clipping from Navision’s Multilanguage FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions - Multilanguage Question: How do customers running on Navision Financials 2.6x or earlier get access to Multilanguage functionality? Answer: Multilanguage functionality is developed only for Navision Attain 3.00. However – the development system has been prepared for Multilanguage functionality since version 2.01, which has enabled customers to Multilanguage enable their solution. We therefore recommend customers that want Multilanguage functionality to upgrade their solution to Navision Attain 3.00. If very special circumstances may cause that the customer will not upgrade their solution to Navision Attain 3.00 they have a second option, which is to Multilanguage enable their Navision Financials application. This is a costly process and demands a lot of resources and time. The cost for adding new languages to the application is high since the Language Module is not prepared for unique IDs in C/SIDE. It will therefore require a whole translation process when a language needs to be added to a customer solution. The missing IDs in pre-3.00 applications will also make it more complex to upgrade to Navision Attain 3.00 later on as the pre-3.00 captions cannot be reused for Navision Attain 3.00. In general: It will require a lot of work to Multilanguage enable a Navision Financials solution, and the work cannot be reused in the future when a customer might want to upgrade to Navision Attain 3.00. Therefore this is not a recommended solution when looking at future perspectives. Question: How do we get access to the Language modules? Answer: When the countries finish their localization process we will make these language modules available to you. You will receive more information about availability and where to find the language modules as soon as they are available. The Language module is free, but we charge for the language granule in C/CAPS. The language modules are created in the 4800 – 4999 granule range. Navision Attain’s language capabilities depend on the operating system’s capabilities. Since Microsoft does not support all languages covered by Navision Attain granules, not all languages are available yet. Question: What is a Language Module? Answer: A Language Module is the same as a subfolder + the language.flm file. The language.flm file contains the application strings that must be imported into the database. You can delete the language.flm file when you have imported the file. The other files in the subfolder must stay in the subfolder on the computer running the language. The Language Module consists of the following files: · Online Help files · Company Notes files · STX and ETX files Question: Will one language module cover local functionality from another country? Answer: When you take the language from one country-specific application and insert the strings into another country-specific application, you will not get everything translated into the new language because of differences in local functionality. This is usually referred to as a 95% language. The “95%” covers anything between 75% and 99% depending on how different the two applications are. It simply means that a language layer is transferred without anything further being done to that language in terms of local functionality. You can change the untranslated strings manually or you can translate some of them into the new language but usually you wouldn’t run such a 95 % language through a translation tool. Depending on the importance of that language to customers in your country, you might want to make the language a 100% language. Most of your customers might want to buy the license for that language and you therefore want to supply their application with as much of that language as possible. You even want your local functionality translated into that language (if possible). When this is the case, the fastest way is to run your local application through a translation tool against the new language database. If there are many leftovers - strings that are not translated automatically (using exact match and/or text match) – it is easier to translate the remaining strings in the translation tool. If the difference is small, it may be enough to translate the remaining strings in Navision Attain 3.XX (Multilanguage Editor). Lars Strøm Valsted Head of Project and Analysis Columbus IT Partner A/S www.columbusitpartner.com