When You Need to Localize and Categorize

Internationalization -- or "I18N", a very geeky abbreviation referring to the number of letters left out -- is commonly defined as a set of practices intended to make software more "localizable" by introducing layers of abstraction in the code and the data of an application. That way, it is easier to later modify the language, currency, date, and number format according to the requirements of a specific locale.

Localization -- or "L10N" -- describes a set of complementary practices used to create the translations and other things specific to a locale, so that information is presented to the user in a format that he can understand.

Today, most programming languages and application frameworks provide ample functionality to accomplish both. Because the technology has been available for many years, we tend to think that Localization is merely a mechanical step on the way to successful completion of an international software project.

Unfortunately, this is not at all true for Web Content Management System implementations, regardless of the vendor and platform. This is because locale information is not isolated, but becomes part of the overall content categorization, or taxonomy. Before you can localize, you must understand the relationships between all the components of the taxonomy, and design your information structures accordingly. Let’s take a look at some of these relationships and dependencies.

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