We recently created and rolled out the Geocortex Localization Portal. This web site makes translation easy for our resellers and partners who are translating Geocortex products into other languages (currently Arabic, Dutch, French, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, and Spanish).
Translators can visit http://translation.geocortex.com/ and log in using their Support Center account.
The site is a nice example of business process automation. Previously, translating a version of Geocortex Essentials followed a workflow similar to this:
Previous Business Workflow
| Step # | Workflow Step Description | Actor |
| 1 | Publish resources in languages requiring translation from a released version of Essentials. | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 2 | Distribute language resource “kit” to translator (via Support Center) | Latitude Geographics Support Staff |
| 3 | Translate English values to language-specific values. | Translator |
| 4 | Package and deliver translated resources to Latitude Geographics (via email) | Translator |
| 5 | Include translated resources in Essentials product | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 6 | Fix errors caused by translation in Essentials | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 7 | Publish language-specific version of Essentials release containing translation to web for review. | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 8 | Review translation on published web site. | Translator |
| 9 | Send feedback of changes required in translation (via email). | Translator |
| 10 | Apply changes requested by translator to translation. | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 11 | Re-include updated translated resources in Essentials product | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 12 | Re-publish language-specific version for review. | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 13 | Repeat steps 8-12 as necessary (usually 2-3 times, over 5-8 business days) | Latitude Geographics Products Staff / Translator |
| 14 | “Sign-off” on translation following review. | Translator |
| 15 | Package production version of Geocortex Essentials containing the language specific resources | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 16 | Deliver production version of Essentials to translator | Latitude Geographics Support Staff |
This onerous process usually took a couple of weeks following a release of Geocortex Essentials, which meant that our translators would have to wait until they could use Essentials in their language. We didn’t want to begin the process using pre-releases or beta versions since there are sometimes changes between beta and release candidate versions of Essentials and the final release which would invalidate the translation.
Now, translation can be achieved by someone almost completely independently of Latitude Geographics, and without the issues described above. The new workflow looks something like this:
New Business Workflow
| Step # | Workflow Step Description | Actor |
| 1 | Publish resources in languages requiring translation from a released version of Essentials. | Latitude Geographics Products Staff |
| 2 | Download Initial translation Kit from Localization Portal | Translator |
| 3 | Translate English values to language-specific values. | Translator |
| 4 | Package and upload translated resources to Latitude Geographics via the Localization Portal | Translator |
| 5 | Download Intermediate Testing Package and apply to installed Geocortex Essentials instance | Translator |
| 6 | Review translation | Translator |
| 7 | Repeat steps 3-6 as necessary | Translator |
| 8 | Request Final Production Package | Translator |
| 9 | Review translation, and approve production package | Latitude Geographics Support Staff |
| 10 | Download Final Production Package from Localization Portal and apply to production Geocortex Essentials installation. | Translator |
I work on and/or manage lots of initiatives that take months to roll-out, so I appreciate the odd small project that nonetheless has a noticeable impact on efficiency.
remarkable info thanx