Designing a generalized language resourcesystem and localization tool for the Configura CET Designer®

Abstract: This study was made at Configura Sverige AB and investigates different solutions for a generalized language resource system and a localization tool. The software application Configura CET Designer® that the solutions in this thesis should be applicable to is a kind of CAD tool that is used as a sales tool for configurable products that require space planning. Some types of products that CET Designer® is used for are kitchen, office and industrial solutions. The purpose of the thesis is to find an overall solution for the resource system that manages text resources in a more efficient way than the present custom made solution. One of the most important aspects is that translations of text resources to different human languages must be a lot more efficient than in the present solution.In the first part of this report an analysis of Configuras present custom-made resource system that is used in CET Designer® is made.The next part briefly mentions different types of solutions that exist on the market. This information is used to get a background of existing solutions that might be useful for a generalized language resource system and the range of different localization tools that exists.In the main part different solutions are compared and matched to general demands that can be applied to a lot of different applications that uses text resources. All of the solutions are also matched to the specific demands that apply to CET Designer®. Based on the matches to the demands and the analyzing discussions of possible solutions different recommendations of suitable solutions are made for applications in general as well as for CET Designer®.There are basically two different types of solutions and those are the custom-made system and the tools already available on the market. In many cases available tools offer a solution that is well designed and suits the needs well. Custom-made solutions are on the other hand very adaptable to different kinds of special requirements. The part of the management of resources where the biggest difference between those solutions is found is in the localization tool. The most advanced localization tools available on the market offers a functionality for managing localization projects which is economically indefensible to develop to the same advanced level in a custom-made tool. The advanced linguistically functions that exist in some available localization tools are the ones that make the biggest difference from a custom made tool. There exist several different tools that are available and compatible with custom-made tools which make it possible to create a well adjusted and very powerful tool.