Translations in an RTC list

[Steve Workings]

I know all the important people are at the bar in Boston, but I have a question:

As the snap here shows, I'm creating an e.rtc.List for use as the variable in a dropdown control. I'm replacing the displayed word with the translated word, but still storing the English word.

As you can see, the rs.data(1) is returning a correct set of characters. When I construct the newline I get the correct set of characters. But I've tried several string/character replacement functions, and am getting garbage characters in the final output list when I try to substitute the translated string. See how the characters to display for Enrichment are nothing like what I'm producing right up to the substitution.

Any thoughts? Image link here:

rtcTranslate.png

[Steve Workings]

Re: Translations in an RTC list

Still not resolved. I've discovered something else odd about this. If I display the result in the watch list in "unexpanded" mode, it shows the correct results. But when I expand the view to show the multiple lines of the result, the characters change. Unfortunately, it's the erroneous result that's getting emitted by the function.

rtcTranslate2.png

[Steve Workings]

Re: Translations in an RTC list

Resolved. Anyone who's been to an Alpha Developer's conference, going on during this thread, knows how busy Selwyn is during the conference. Yet he found time to assist here -- we reported it as a bug but he pointed out that we just weren't using the right procedures.

The solution is just this:

txt = rs.data(1)
txt = *html_escape(txt)

[Steve Workings]

Re: Translations in an RTC list

One more update. Selwyn has pointed out that the dialog to Define Choices for a dropdown box tells us that using this would do the job:

txt = rs.toString()
txt = "{noUTF8Encode}" + crlf() + txt

I haven't experimented further -- my variable lists need to display the native language word but store the English word so I have this format in my variable lists:

DisplayThis|StoreThis
DisplayThat|StoreThat

Whether applying the above suggestion to this would do the job would just require a little experiment - maybe later or maybe someone else has time to try if needed.

[Jay Talbott]

Re: Translations in an RTC list

Two quick comments. First, thanks for posting the solutions, Steve. It sets a good example which we should all follow. Even though posting the solution will not benefit you, it will certainly benefit others in the future.
Second, you are correct that Selwyn was busy during the conference. Once again, anyone who wonders why we Alphaholics are so loyal to this software company should now have that question answered. No software company is more responsive to their customers. And this response is pervasive through Alpha.
Thanks,
Jay

[Steve Workings]

Re: Translations in an RTC list

Sigh. You'd think by now I'd figured out all the tricks. But now I have an Excel sheet with the Chinese translations for the English keys in the Text_Dictionary.

At this point I wish I'd just done things with cut & paste -- I'd be done with the 1700 records. But nooo, I had to try this with Xbasic.

So I'm updating the Text_Dictionary by using AlphaDAO to open the spreadsheet as a usual data source, getting the translated word from the spreadsheet, then trying variations on this:

	tword = rstxt.data("Translated")
	args.set("Data", convert_acp_to_utf8(tword))

This and several variations *almost* work, in that many of the entries appear correct, but it's clear that others are not. For instance, I get this:

域??경만力?

when I should have this:

活跃地游泳

Any ideas?

[Steve Workings]

Re: Translations in an RTC list

Talking to myself some more, but putting it up here for posterity (and maybe Jay):

After no responses on this I asked Selwyn if he had any guidance. He pointed out right away that I should just be going through MS Management Studio to do the job. This was the perfect suggestion. I used Management Studio to import the Excel to a SQL table then ran a query to update my target table -- the text dictionary. Beautiful stuff if you know it's there -- I did not.