Web site internationalization services, website and software localization, globalization and internationalization

Web site internationalization (I18N) can be defined as the process of developing a web site’s code base (functionality) so its feature design and code do not make assumptions based on a single language. I18N issues include your website or web-driven application's ability to: a) support non-English characters, b) sort based on different language rules, c) be designed keeping text separate from code, d) handle different address, time, date and numerical formats, among other considerations.

The process of Web site Internationalization (I18N) includes the following 4 steps:

  1. Discovery: which includes introductory education to I18N & L10N development issues, Q & A sessions with all web internationalization stakeholders, internationalization kit   preparation, and a review of current web internationalization readiness
  2. Assessment: which includes review and analysis of site or application, review and analysis of global marketing plans and requirements, review and analysis of source architecture, design development, and build processes, review and analysis of current I18N and L10N strategies, review and analysis of source code
  3. Implementation: which includes externalization of hard-coded strings for ease of localization, currency/time/dates/numbers issue resolution, double-byte and single-byte enabling, I18N-friendly build methodology, I18N test plan preparations, localization kit preparation, knowledge transfer I18N education, recommended I18N tools and any required tool training
  4. Testing: which includes client driven I18N and DBCS enablement testing, bug reporting-fixing and regression testing

In order to analyze an English site to determine the Web Site Internationalization Requirements, you will need to gather the following information (This information is collectively referred to as a “Web Site Internationalization Kit”.):

  1. Your site(s) URL
  2. Any passwords or login instructions
  3. Summary of site architecture
  4. Summary of any technologies and/or development tools used to develop your site
  5. Any source code for your site or web-driven application