Translat.ini File

Question

We are upgrading RP11.3 to RP11.5. We have a number of custom rules that have been merged into 11.5 batch system. The issue we are having is that after we merged our custom error messages for our custom rules into the translate.ini file, the system is not recognizing our entries. It seems that the 11.5 system is pulling these error messages from another file.
How can we get the system to recognize our custom errors messages in translate.ini that we have created and used in past version of Documaker.

Answer 1

Under 11.5, Documaker uses Oracle's globalization standards for messaging. The translat.ini file isn't strictly used at runtime, rather, a compiled binary version that is language-specific is used instead. To generate the compiled binary version, there are some steps to be followed.
The first thing you will need is the LMSGEN utility from Oracle's NLSRTL package. Currently this is distributed with Oracle database SDKs. I don't have any more specific information than that right now. Here is a bit more info on this utility http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14225/ch10oci.htm#i1007610
Once you have LMSGEN installed and ready, you need to convert your translat.ini into an intermediary MSG and MMP files. You can create a script that will translate your translat.ini file and create these files for you. It's a relatively simple process:
Translat.ini lines:
1000 = &E&: Error: Requested library <&LIB&> not available or cannot be loaded.
1001 = &E&: Error: Use of rule or function <&NAME&> requires a printer classification of <&CLASS&>.
Translat.msg:
#CHARACTER_SET_NAME=AMERICAN_AMERICA.US7ASCII
1000, 42, "%1: Error: Requested library <%2> not available or cannot be loaded."
1001, 42, "%1: Error: Use of rule or function <%2> requires a printer classification of <%3>."
Translat.mmp:
1000:E,LIB,
1001:E,NAME,CLASS,
The MMP file is a token/parameter mapping file, since the old translat.ini uses tokens, and Oracle's globalization framework uses parameters. Note the top line in the translat.msg file -- this is required!
The format of the INI file:
msgNumber = &TOKEN&: Message with &TOKEN&
The format of the MSG file:
msgNumber, msgType [42=Error,0=Info], "Message with %1 parms"
Format of the MMP file:
msgNumber:TOKEN1,TOKENn,...,
Once you have the MSG file, then use the LMSGEN utility from Oracle's NLSRTL package to converts that into an MSB file. The MSB file is a compiled binary version of the message file, and this is what is used to generate the actual messages. There will be a different MSG file for each language your system should support. In addition, the MSB files are platform dependent and must be compiled on the platform where they are intended to be used.
One thing to keep in mind when running it is that Oracle's messaging libraries are built around the notion of each product having its own separate directory under the Oracle home directory (identified by the ORACLE_HOME environment variable). Each product may in turn have its own separate component or "facility" with its own set of message files. Oracle manages this by having a separate directory under ORACLE_HOME for each product, and then a "mesg" directory under that where the message files for every component are placed. When you run the lmsgen utility, it already expects there to be an Oracle base directory and an ORACLE_HOME environment variable that points to it. In addition it expects there to be a sub-directory for the product under the Oracle directory, and a "mesg" subdirectory under the product directory. When you run the lmsgen routine, it expects you to give it the name of the msg file, the name of the product, and the name of the facility. It uses the product name to locate the "mesg" subdirectory, and it uses the "facility" name as the base name of the msb file that it generates (the filename is suffixed by the language). So, to run lmsgen you will need to have a directory which has some directory underneath with a "mesg" directory under it. So for example (assuming you don't have Oracle code already installed somewhere) you could do the following:
mkdir C:\Documaker\mesg
set ORACLE_HOME=C:\
lmsgen translat.msg Documaker xlt
and lmsgen would write a file name "xltus.msb" to the "C:\Documaker\mesg" directory. (The msg file has a code in the first line identifying the language that it is written in, which is how it knows to name it with a suffix of "us". Documaker currently doesn't use the "ORACLE_HOME" method of locating the file, but as far as I know, you do need to have an ORACLE_HOME defined to run lmsgen.exe.
Since we don't use the ORACLE_HOME method, you would need to provide command-line options to override input and output paths.
lmsgen translat.msg Documaker xlt us -i .\ -o .\
The -i identifies the input directory to location the MSG file. The -o indicates the output directory to use as a destination for the compiled MSB file.
Finally, move the MSB and MMP file to the \dll\lang folder inside your Documaker installation.