Re: [ebxml-dev] Multi Language XML Invoices

["William J. Kammerer" <wkammerer@novannet.com>]

Even uni-language people like Americans and the British probably
wouldn't be thrown off too much by "Telefoon" and "Belgie."  But,
nevertheless, I see your point.

Aside from identifying the language the data value uses (employing
xml:lang as Joseph Chiusano suggests), the biggest problem remains
generating the "translation."  Leave proper place names alone (say, in
the Delivery Address);  there's no need to translate "Belgie."  Use
standard codes whenever possible (e.g.,  ISO 3166 country codes) to
augment the addresses, instead.

The critical parts to translate are product and service descriptions in
invoice line items, for reconciliation purposes by a non-Dutch speaking
analyst.  There are probably far too many of these to keep hard-coded
and synchronized in XSLT.  Instead, the alternative translations should
be in the original source: your (electronic) catalog.  Just pick the
description (in the appropriate language) when generating the invoice.
And *never* translate Units of measure; even Americans know what meters
and liters are.

Size and bloat considerations mitigate against including all possible
languages.

William J. Kammerer
Novannet
Columbus, OH 43221-3859 . USA
+1 (614) 487-0320

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kees Duvekot" <Kees.Duvekot@versatel.com>
To: <ebxml-dev@lists.ebxml.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 25 May, 2005 08:46 AM
Subject: [ebxml-dev] Multi Language XML Invoices


All,

I have a question about how to handle multi langues XML invoices.

We sometimes get the request to send a customer an invoice in an other
language than the language he recieved (he recieved a dutch invoice, but
wants a english invoice)
Example's are product names (Telefoon vs Telephone), destinations
(Belgie vs
Belgium) etc

Where should this logic be?
Should I regenerate the XML in a different language?
have the translations in the XSLT?
have all possible languages in the XML?

Or am I totaly on the wrong path here?


Thanks,

Kees Duvekot
Business Analist

-----------------------------
Versatel Nederland B.V.
+31 20 750 1671 - phone
+31 20 750 2196 - fax
kees.duvekot@versatel.com