Multi-Language Planning Capabilities in Oracle PBCS

Since Oracle’s roll out of Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service, there have been plenty of user friendly and unique PBCS features that Oracle hasn’t heavily advertised. In this series, we will be exploring some of the tools that can make your job as a PBCS user or developer a lot simpler and provide an improved user experience. Part 1 covered the new capability to further limit the years and periods shown on input forms based on the Scenario dimension properties. In this next post, we will look at the new functionality to better support a multi-language user base.

Multi-Language Capability for Planning Artifacts

One of the great new features of PBCS is that Planning Artifacts can now be displayed in different languages, matching the locale setting of the user. This feature helps create a more cohesive, consistent user experience for multi-national organizations. Previously, when you would choose to render the application framework in a different language, only the delivered components would translate, such as menus and buttons. Form names, Task List names, Instructions, Calc Manager Rules and other similar application-specific objects would not translate. Now you have the option to include custom descriptions on all these artifact types and many more.

To enable this functionality, follow these easy steps:

1. In the Simplified Interface go to Tools -> Artifact Labels.

2. In the editor window of Artifact Labels, pick the artifact type and properties you want to update. PBCS gives you the ability to choose from most types of Artifacts.

3. From the drop down menu, add the language. (Note: You can only add one language at a time in this screen)

4. Once you pick the language, you can then fill in the labels:

5. After entering your labels, click Save.

To see your new labels in action, switch the preferred language on your internet browser, or Smart View display language settings, and log back into the application. For example, I picked Danish in my browser options, and now I have the benefit of seeing both delivered content and custom content translated to Danish!

Tile labels – automatically translated

Custom translations for Task Lists:

Custom translations for Form Names and Instructions:

These steps make editing a few labels pretty easy, but what if you need to mass-load your artifact labels? No need to worry – there is an Import/Export option on the Artifact Label Editor that leverages an Excel file.

1. From the Artifact Labels page, choose Actions -> Export.

2. Choose the language you want to export and the target location. In this example we will download to our local computer.

3. You can then update all the labels at one time for the language you downloaded. You can also create new records for a different language in the same file. Save your updated file.