CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2021 - E2159. Expertiza internationalization

Introduction - Purpose & Problem

1. Language selection

2 Rendering the language
How do we go about rendering the screen in that language?
In the previous step, we’ve identified the language in which a view is to be rendered. It is important to note that this language may not only differ for a different user, but also for a different page for the same user. The question now becomes, how do we render the screen in this language? To tackle this question, we explore 2 fundamental concepts:
Views are composed of independent language elements
While this is something we typically take for granted, it becomes especially important in the context of translation. That is, a view is not a single contiguous block of text, nor is it an atomic visualization of information (unlike a screenshot), but rather a carefully organized collection of individual elements such as texts, buttons, etc that each contain language that needs to be translated separately. Crucially, this means that we cannot swap out a page in one language in its entirety for a page in another language in its entirety. Instead, each individual element needs to be swapped out individually so as to only impact the language and not the structural composition of the page itself.
*Views require translation at a large number of call sites
Given that a view is composed of individual elements, this also means that the computation of how to translate such an element such as a button’s text would need to be done separately for each element. This would result in not only a single centralized

3. Translation gaps

Design

Proposed Solution 1. Language selection

2. Rendering the language
Rendering the language
Once we have determined the language in which to render the page, we now need to update the rails view code to actually generate the appropriate HTML in the target language. This is the responsibility of the view. However, currently, the actual content of the HTML is hardcoded in (red) English. For example:

<h2>Summary Report for assignment: <%= @assignment.name %></h2>
<h4>Team: <%= @team.name %></h4>

As discussed earlier, “Views are composed of independent language elements” and so we cannot simply swap out the entire page content for a separate page in another language (Why? - See “swap out the entire view” in the alternative approaches section):

<h2>Rapport de synthèse pour l'affectation: <%= @assignment.name %></h2>
<h4>Équipe: <%= @team.name %></h4>

I18n - Internationalisation, How are we using I18n in Ruby on Rails 7 3. Translation gaps

Database Design

Database Modification ==

Test Plan

Test Details Manual Testing Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Scenario 4 Scenario 5

Future Scope

1. Expand to more languages
As part of this project we have targetted Hindi as a second language, however our work makes it easy to extend to other languages as well.

2. Identify and implement the course language override on more course specific screens
As part of this project, we have introduced a generic framework by which any view can provide a preferred language in which it should be rendered, this is required by this project for the course language feature set by the instructor. We have currently made the assignment screen display in the course’s language, however other screens such as the “Your work” screen and so on are also specific to the course could also be rendered in the course language when the user has not provided a preference.

Team

Team Members

Reuben M. V. John [rmjohn2@ncsu.edu]
Renji Joseph Sabu [rsabu@ncsu.edu]
Ashwin Das [adas9@ncsu.edu]
Arnav Julka [ajulka@ncsu.edu]

Mentor

Jialin Cui [jcui9@ncsu.edu]