Operator interface Chinese language support

[cfyao]

I'm trying to display Chinese characters in my operator interface, e.g., display Chinese characters in menus, button labels, message box texts,... I edited resource string file (.ini file) using notepad to replace English strings with Chinese strings, e.g., FILE = "文件". When I save the file choosing encoding UTF-8 or unicode, the operator interface displays some symbols rather than expected Chinese characters. I tried same thing with TestStand sequence editor ( I added Chinese characters to file SequenceEditorStrings.ini ), sequence editor displays same symbols if the encoding chosen is UTF-8, but if encoding chosen is unicode, it fails to start with a message box popup showing "The sequence editor cannot startup, System Level Exception. Error code: -17502". Could some one tell me what's the right way to do this? Thanks!

[James_Grey]

TestStand expects the characters in resources file to be multibyte characters, not unicode. I would guess that you should save as ANSI from notepad. Multibyte characters are relative to the current "code page", so your machine must be set to Chinese for non-English character codes to be correctly interpreted and displayed.

I don't know if it necessary just to change display strings, but you might also want to checkmark the Configure>>Station Options>>Localization>>Recognize Multi-byte Characters option.

[cfyao]

Thanks for your reply, James. But
1) I did checkmark the Configure>>Station Options>>Localization>>Recognize Multi-byte Characters option.
2) The resource string file was originally in ANSI format. I edited the resource string file using notepad, typing Chinese characters using Microsoft Pingying input. When I saved the file, a warning message box popped up, saying that "This file contains characters in Unicode format which will be lost if you save this file as a text document. To keep the Unicode information, select the Unicode encoding in the Save As dialog box." If I save the file in ANSI format and run the operator interface, all the Chinese characte strings are displayed as question marks. The other formats I can choose in the Save As dialog are Unicode, Unicode big endian and UTF-8. If I choose Unicode or Unicode big endian format to save the file, then the strings to display cannot be found in the resource string file. If I choose UTF-8 format, the Chinese character strings are displayed as some unrecognizable symbols, which indicates that the strings can be found in the resource string file in UTF-8 format, but the operator interface cannot disply them correctly. This is also the case for TestStand sequence editor.

[James_Grey]

Before you edit the file, make sure you setup Control Panel>>Regional And Language Options>>Advanced>>Language for non-Unicode programs.

I'm not sure whether you need to set the Code Page Conversion Tables, or just the language. I don't think Chinese shows up in the language list unless you install Chinese language packs or run Chinese windows (click the install East Asian Languages option on Control Panel>>Regional And Language Options>>Languages).

I hope that helps. I'm monolingual if you don't count programming languages, so I don't have any first hand experience with this 🙂

[cfyao]

I'm running Win2K, so there is no "Language for non-Unicode programs"  in Regional Options dialog. I installed Chinese language. In code page conversion tables, Chinese is checked. Is there any NI TestStand technical support guy who can help me out? Thanks a lot!

[cfyao]

I finally make it work For Windows XP,  in Control Panel>>Regional and Language Options set Chinese as the language for non-Unicode programs. After this setting, typing Chinese characters in the ini file and save it in ANSI format, NotePad will not complain. Run operator interface, and Chinese characters are shown! For Win2000, the equivalent thing to do is that in Control Panel>>Regional Options>>General tab, press Set default button to bring up Select System Locale dialog and choose Chinese. After that, NotePad can also save a text file containing Chinese in ANSI format without any complaint. Thanks James for offering your help.

[potpi]

Hi

I succeeded in translating in chinese some menus of the TestStand sequence editor interface thanks to this topic.

But now I am trying to set Chinese strings in popup messages in TestStand to display these popup messages in Chinese. But when i write Chinese characters, Teststand sends me an error code concerning token. i suppose that is because chinese characters are not recognized.  I did not find the information or clues to do it. 

Configuration

TestStand Engine Version:4.2.1(4.2.1.83)

Sequence editor 4.2.1.83

Licence: development system

OS: Windows XP

Thanks

[potpi]

Additive information :

- i use a non asian version of windows (I am French)

-  Error code sent by TestStand during the execution : An error occurred while attempting to display the Message Popup dialog box.
[Error Code: -17300, Value invalid or out of range.]

[dug9000]

TestStand is a multi-byte program (non-unicode). You need to do the following to ensure that Chinese characters are processed correctly.

1) In the Region control panel for Windows. The last tab has a setting for setting the language for non-unicode programs. You will need to set this to Chinese. If you are on a Chinese OS it should already be set to Chinese, but on a French OS it is probably set to French.

2) In the TestStand station options, go to the Localization tab and make sure that the "Recognize Multi-byte characters" checkbox is checked. Restart the Sequence editor or OI after changing this setting.

Once you have done 1 & 2 you should be able to use Chinese characters throughout TestStand.

If it still doesn't work after doing this, please attach a screen shot showing how you've configured the message popup step.

Hope this helps,

-Doug

[potpi]

I did 1 and 2 before posting to display correctly the translation in chinese of the sequence editor interface like it was indicated in the previous posts.

But you mentioned to restart sequence editor. And it was the problem :  I did not do it the first time. So I restarted Sequence Editor and now it works !

Thanks doug for your help