Customizing product strings 

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You can replace a word or phrase in the product user interface with terminology that better suits your environment.

About this task

The following list defines the application properties files that contain strings you can customize:

Common strings

com.ibm.lconn.core.strings.templates in the lc.util.web-3.0.jar file found in the <application_name>.ear/<war>/WEB-INF/lib directories.

Activities

com.ibm.openactivities.web.coreui.resources.resources in Activities.ear\oawebui.war\WEB-INF\lib\oawebui.jar.
Note: This resource bundle contains the notification strings and a few user interface strings, but the majority of the Activities user interface strings are provided in JavaScript™. See Customizing strings sourced in JavaScript for more information.

Blogs

com.ibm.lconn.blogs.strings.ui in Blogs.ear\blogs.war\WEB-INF\classes\com\ibm\lconn\blogs\strings

Bookmarklet

• com.ibm.lconn.bookmarklet.strings.ui
• com.ibm.lconn.bookmarklet.resources.jspresources
  

in <application>.ear\lc-bookmarklet.war\WEB-INF\lib\lc-bookmarklet.jar where <application>.ear is the EAR file of one of the following applications:
• Activities
• Blogs
• Bookmarks
• Communities
  
  

Bookmarks

• com.ibm.lconn.dogear.strings.uilabels
• com.ibm.lconn.dogear.strings.ui
  

in Dogear.ear\dogear.webui.war\WEB-INF\lib\dogear.svc.jar

Communities

• com.ibm.lconn.communities.strings.ui
• com.ibm.lconn.communities.strings.uiemail
  

in Communities.ear/comm.web.war/WEB-INF/lib/comm.web.jar

Files

• com.ibm.lconn.files.strings.ui: Main Files application user interface and the Files widget in Communities
• com.ibm.lconn.files.strings.uitemplates: About and Metrics pages
• com.ibm.lconn.files.strings.uihelp: Help pop-ups
• com.ibm.lconn.files.strings.cmis: CMIS custom object type property labels and descriptions. See Working with CMIS API object types.
  

in Files.ear/lconn.files.ui.jar. To customize the text in email notifications generated by the Files application, see Customizing Files notification templates.

Forums

com.ibm.forum.web.resources.resources_xx where xx is the language identifier in Forums.ear/forum.web.war/WEB-INF/lib/forum.web.jar.

Home page

• com.ibm.lconn.homepage.resources.nls.jsp.jsp_resources: Most string appearing in the user interface, except the stories in the river of news
• com.ibm.lconn.homepage.resources.nls.ui.ui_resources: Strings for notifications
• com.ibm.lconn.homepage.resources.nls.catalog.service.ui.CatalogServiceUIMessages: Strings related to widgets, such as widget titles and the strings that are displayed in the customization palette
  

in homepage.war/WEB-INF/lib/homepage.utils.jar.

Media gallery

com.ibm.lconn.files.strings.cmis_xx where xx is the language identifier in files.ear/qkr.share.services.rest.jar.

Moderation

• com.ibm.lconn.moderation.ui.strings.ui_xx
• com.ibm.lconn.moderation.notification.strings.notification_xx
  

where xx is the language identifier in moderation.ear/sn.moderation.ui.jar

News repository

• com.ibm.lconn.news.nls.jsp_resources: Most strings appearing on the email settings page
• com.ibm.lconn.news.nls.ui_resources: Strings that are displayed in the Home page user interface for notifications
• com.ibm.lconn.news.nls.templatePlaceholders: Strings for stories appearing in the river of news in Home page
  

in News.ear/news.common.jar.

Profiles

• com.ibm.lconn.profiles.strings.ui_xx
• com.ibm.lconn.profiles.strings.uilabels_xx
  

where xx is the language identifier in lc.profiles.app.war/WEB-INF/lib/lc.profiles.web.app-3.0.jar. You must also define field labels in the profiles-config.xml file. See Specifying external labels for attributes for more details.
Email resource strings:

• com.ibm.lconn.profiles.strings.uimail_xx
  
where xx is the language identifier in lc.profiles.core.service.impl-3.0.jar.

Search

com.ibm.lconn.search.strings.ui in Search.ear/search.common.jar.

Wikis

• com.ibm.lconn.wikis.strings.ui
• com.ibm.lconn.wikis.strings.uihelp
• com.ibm.lconn.wikis.strings.uitemplates
  

in Wikis.ear/lconn.wikis.ui.jar.

You cannot use the customization debugging capability to test edited strings.

Attention: You cannot use this method to customize the default notification messages in emails that are sent from the Files, News, and Wikis applications. See http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/documentation/lc3notifications/ for details about how to customize notifications.

Procedure

1. Many strings in the user interface are represented by a key-value pair defined in a properties file stored in the application JAR file. Before you can redefine the value of a string, you must figure out which key is used to represent it.
2. Create a properties file in which to store the key-value pair for the string that you want to customize. Give the properties file the same name as the properties file that is used to store that key by the application. Give it the full name. For example, if you copy the templates.properties file, and paste it into the <customization_dir>/strings directory, name it as follows:
   

com.ibm.lconn.core.strings.templates.properties



Note: The file must be created with the full file name above; that is, it should not be a series of directories containing the file templates.properties.

Also, specify a language code for the properties file in the file name. If you do not provide a _ <language_code> value at the end of the properties file name, the value you specify for the key in the properties file is used despite the locale of the web browser accessing the application.

For example, if you were to change the key with the current value of "Help" to "Ayuda" and defined it in a file named com.ibm.lconn.files.strings.ui.properties (without the _es suffix), then anyone who accesses the product will see Aydua in place of the Help string even if their browser locale is not set to es. In some cases, you might want the same value applied to all languages. If you wanted to change the term "IBM® Connections" to a company name, for example, then you could store the customized key in a properties file without the _ <language_code> suffix and the company name shows as-is to all browsers. Use one of the following language codes:

ar
Arabic
cs
Czech
da
Danish
de
German
el
Greek
en
English
es
Spanish
fi
Finnish
fr
French
hu
Hungarian
it
Italian
iw
Hebrew
ja
Japanese
ko
Korean
no
Norwegian
nl
Dutch
pl
Polish
pt_BR
Brazilian Portuguese
pt
Iberian Portuguese
ru
Russian
sl
Slovenian
sv
Swedish
tr
Turkish
zh
Simplified Chinese
Note: If you provide translated strings in Simplified Chinese, be sure to also provide strings in Traditional Chinese. If the customer's language preference is set to Traditional Chinese, but it is not provided, Simplified Chinese is displayed by default.

zh_TW
Traditional Chinese

3. Store the properties file that you created in the following directory, which is created by the installation wizard:
   

<customizationDir>\strings



where <customizationDir> is the root directory for customization files. See Customizing the user interface for more details. Unlike some of the other areas of the product, the strings directory in the customization root does not have a subdirectory for each application. Each application uses unique properties file names, so all of the strings that you replace can be stored in this common strings directory.

4. Using the IBM WebSphere® Application Server Integrated Solutions Console, stop and restart each application EAR file.
5. Test your changes by clearing your browser cache, and then refreshing the browser.
6. To force all user web browsers to refresh all cached content and display your changes, run the command that updates the product version stamp.
1. Enter the following command to access the IBM Connections configuration file: execfile("connectionsConfig.py")
   
If prompted to specify a service to connect to, type 1 to pick the first node in the list. Most commands can run on any node. If the command writes or reads information to or from a file using a local file path, you must pick the node where the file is stored. This information is not used by the wsadmin client when you are making configuration changes.

2. Enter the following command to check out the IBM Connections configuration files:
   
LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("<working_directory>","<cell_name>")

where:

• <working_directory> is the temporary working directory to which the configuration XML and XSD files are copied and are stored while you make changes to them. Use forward slashes to separate directories in the file path, even if you are using the Microsoft® Windows® operating system.
AIX® and Linux® only: The directory must grant write permissions or the command does not run successfully.

• <cell_name> is the name of the WebSphere Application Server cell hosting the IBM Connections application. This argument is case-sensitive, so type it with care. If you do not know the cell name, type the following command while in the wsadmin command processor:print AdminControl.getCell()
  
For example:

• AIX or Linux:LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("/opt/temp","foo01Cell01")
• Microsoft Windows:LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("c:/temp","foo01Cell01")
  
  
3. Enter the following command to increment the value of the versionStamp property:
   
LCConfigService.updateConfig("versionStamp","<gmt_timestamp>") where <gmt_timestamp> is the GMT time. You can specify an empty string for the time stamp or provide a GMT value string. When you specify an empty string, the client calculates the current GMT time and updates the version stamp with that value. If you choose to provide the time, specify it using the following format: yyyyMMdd.HHmmss and specify the time in GMT. It is best to provide an empty string and let the client format the time stamp. For example: LCConfigService.updateConfig("versionStamp","").

4. After making changes, you must check the configuration files back in and you must do so during the same wsadmin session in which you checked them out for the changes to take effect. See Applying common configuration property changes for information about how to save and apply your changes.
   
Customizing strings sourced in JavaScript
Replace a word or string in the product user interface that is sourced in JavaScript as opposed to a strings resource bundle.

Adding custom strings for widgets and other specified scenarios
You can add custom strings or modify existing strings when performing certain tasks in IBM Connections, without having to update product resource files.

Parent topic: Customizing the user interface

Related tasks
Adding labels to media gallery fields
Customizing Files notification templates
Specifying external labels for attributes

Related reference
Working with CMIS API object types