Translation of user interface using a table

[nanoyow]

I am new to FM and a novice with relational databases and can't figure out how to do this. I have a DB I need to translate and allow users to switch the language (user interface) on the fly. My thinking was to do the following:

1- build a "Dictionnary" table with: LabelID, Labelname, French, English, Spanish

2- On existing DB, create "text_items" (using labelnames) using for displaying titles, field labels, etc...

3- Have a global store the language in use

4- When the user clicks a button (or drop down), change the all the user interface "text_items" by using the "Dictionnary table" and the global variable

Here are my questions:

A- Is that the best way to do it? What else?

B- How do I implement my approach? I have tried mergefield, relationship, calculations, but cannot get around to do what I need...

Thanks for the help,

[Razumovsky]

Greetings Nanoyow.

I think you are trying to have field labels and static interface text switch languages with a selection in a drop down list?

You could have a table "LanguageLabels" that would have text fields

Language

Name

Phone

Label3

Label4...

Each record would have all the labels for an individual language.

Then, in your main table, create a globaltext field (formatted as a drop down list)"gLanguage" and relate it to LanguageLabels::Language

you can then just use merge fields from the related LanguageLabel::Label on your UI.

HTH

-Raz

[nanoyow]

Wow... It seems so easy put this way. I was trying to store info by LabelName (row) and language (column), but now understands it is the other way around. That now makes the relationship straightforward.

I will definitely try that!

Thanks Raz,