Literal editor

Literals are the text used for things like Labels and Descriptions, Tooltips and JavaScript popups, and informational text in RefTracker screens. You can use this Literals editor to provide translations, and to provide customisations of text within an existing language (for example, you may want to change the examples that are provided in the information text at the top of the Client interface Knowledge base search screen).

Some text is controlled by system code tables or text files, where they can be edited. So, if you cannot find the text you want to change in this literals editor, you will need to look for it in the code tables (Probably in one of the System>Application function code table) or the 4) Text parameters (generally these provide large blocks of text).

You can change the literals used in RefTracker (yes, even the English ones) using the Literal editor at System>Utilities>Administration utilities>Literal editor. RefTracker provides Default text for each language (once the language has been initially set up), and the ability for you to specify your own user defined text for each literal by providing alternative text in the “Local text” field. If a literal is changed by a software upgrade, only the default text will be changed. In this way, any local customisations that you have made by providing “Local text” are protected from software upgrades.

The Literals editor page lists all the literals used in RefTracker and provides a Search tool that allows you to find the one you are after. 

Code is the code used for this literal in the RefTracker programs.

Page description will advise if a literal is used only on a specific page (which will mean you can find it by specifying Literal type “Page specific” and selecting the appropriate page.

Type specifies whether the literal is only used by the Server, or the Client (the browser)

Text is the distribution value for this literal and can be searched for using the Text box in this screen.

Local text is any alternative text that has been provided for this literal using this Literal editor and is the current text in use for that literal.

To use this screen:

Enter a word or consecutive words from the literal that you want to change in the Text Search Box and click the Search Button.  In effect, this search is adding wild cards before and after the characters that you type so it will find those consecutive characters anywhere in any literal, even if HTML or special characters occur immediately before or after those characters.  A handy trick to find the specific literal you are after, if a lot of literals have been returned by your search, is to click the Text column heading which will change the sort order to alphabetical by the Text.  Literals that start with HTML will file first.

Alternatively you can choose Literal type “Page specific” or “Not pages specific” and click Search and the page will redisplay with the first page of literals of that type. If you choose “Page specific” a new box will appear that allows you to choose a specific page – choose the page, then click Search to see the literals specific to that page (note that the page may contain some literals that are not page specific).

After an upgrade you can use the “Affected by Version” drop down to select the upgrade that has just occurred and see just those literals changed or added by the upgrade, so that you can adjust/translate just those entries!

To edit a literal click the pen icon, make your change in the edit box, and click the tick to confirm your change (or click the x to not have the change saved). 
Changes made should take effect immediately.

Where a literal contains text in {curlyBrackets}, do not translate the curly brackets or the text that they surround, as this is a RefTracker variable that is substituted by an appropriate value at run time.

To delete the Local text that you have created for a literal, click the pen icon and delete all the characters in the Local text box, then click the tick.

Beware – if you use more than one language, you will have to make this change for each language that you want it to be effective in.

Many literals can be effectively removed from RefTracker screens by creating a Local text value that consists of just one space. Beware – if you have done this, the space will not be “visible” in the Local text column, so it will not be clear that you have done this. If a literal is missing from your screens, try editing it and removing all the characters in the Local text – this will reinstate the literal if it has been replaced by a space.

If you use more than one language, any new Local text that you create will be copied into that same literal for all languages that you have enabled, however in the other languages it will be suffixed by the code for your current language, in round brackets, e.g. “(En)” for English, in order to indicate that it is a default setting. You will need to remember to make the same change for all languages that you use – the bracketed language code suffixes should act as a reminder to you that the entry still needs to be translated.

To make an equivalent change for a different language, note the code for the literal that you just changed (Additionalinfo1 in the example screen print above), click the language name in the line above the footer immediately after you make the change, and you will be presented with a page of literals from the language that you just choose that includes the same literal – you will have to pick it out by its code. Make the equivalent change to the literal in that language that has the same code.

A good way to do the literals translation is to have RefTracker running in two browsers. In the first bring up the literal editor. In the second (it must be in a different browser) bring up the page that you want to change the literals for. Review the page you want to translate in a language with a complete translation (such as English), then review it in the new language that you want to create by changing languages at the bottom of the screen. Then in the browser running the Literals editor change to Page specific at the top of the page, and click Search, then choose the specific page you want to translate and click search. Translate all the literals shown for that page. If you are unsure of the context of any literal, go the other browser where you have that page showing, and swap between the language you are translating from, to the language you are translating to, see the literal in context. As you provide new literal translations you will be able to see them start appearing for that language in your second browser.

There is more information about translating RefTracker in the Language localisation section (under “Customising your RefTracker” of this manual. Literals are only one part of the translation process.

Variations of English

Although RefTracker supports translation and even terminology adjustment of the English used, it does not automatically support the different English cultures (English US, English UK, English AUS).  Very few of the words used in RefTracker are spelled differently in different variations of English but colour/color is an obvious one!
RefTracker provides a hard coded spelling map that maps “colour” to “color” and “organise” to “organize” when text is retrieved from the literals table, where the user’s browser specifies a culture of English US.  Other words can be added to this map if they appear in RefTracker, but this is not meant to be a full solution to variations of English.