Setting Up Locales

A locale is a set of rules guiding how common data appears to the user or is received from the user. These rules are used to format data from a Siebel database before displaying the resulting information in output fields on the user interface. Siebel Business Applications use local settings to support language and geographical conventions for the display language of drop-down lists and formatting of data, such as dates, times, numbers, and currencies.

The Locale information is stored in the Locale Table (S_LOCALE). The data in this table is maintained by the administrator using the Locale Administration view. For more information about languages and locales, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide. For more information about configuring the formatting for dates and currency, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.

The locale with which a Siebel Application Object Manager component is initialized is determined by the value of the parameter Locale Code. Although the locale is set during initial installation and configuration, it can be changed to any locale that is preconfigured with the Siebel application or that has been added by the administrator. The Locale Code parameter can be set at the Enterprise, Server, or Component level.

Several locale definitions come with the standard Siebel application. You can also revise these existing locales, or create new locales, using the Locale Administration view.

Note: Create a new locale only if a locale is not already defined that can meet your requirements.

After a locale and its settings are defined, you can create translations for locale names that appear in the locale pick applet, rather than the three-letter acronym locale code. For example, instead of showing ENU as the locale name, the administrator provides English–United States as a translation for English speakers, Inglese–Stati Uniti d’America for Italian speakers, and so on. Only translated locale names appear to users on locale pick applets.

Note: While the Siebel Web Clients use the locale settings specified in the Locale Administration view, the Siebel Mobile Web Client and the Siebel Developer Web Client use the locale settings defined in the Regional and Language Options settings on the client computer.

Setting up a Siebel Application Object Manager component includes assigning it a locale. Because the locale directs how locale-sensitive information such as dates, times, and numbers differs between countries, customers can configure a Siebel Application Object Manager for each country or other geographical setting in which they have users, and provide these users with data that appears correctly for their locale.

This task is a step in Process of Implementing Initial Setup.

To create a locale

  1. Navigate to the Administration - Data screen, then the Locale view.

  2. In the Locale list, create a new record, and complete the necessary fields.

    Some fields are described in the following table.

    This table describes the fields to complete when creating a locale.

    Field

    Comments

    Locale Code

    Type the locale code. Siebel Business Applications use the three-letter acronym conventions of Microsoft for the locale codes. In most cases, the acronym is created by taking the two-letter language abbreviation from ISO Standard 639 and adding a third letter to form a unique identifier.

    For example, ENU (English–United States), ENG (English–United Kingdom), or FRA (French–France)

    For information about Microsoft codes, see your Microsoft documentation.

    Locale Name

    Type the locale name. The naming convention for locales is generally Language Name–Territory (for example, English–United States, English–United Kingdom, or French–France).

    Description

    Type optional text describing the locale.

    UI Directionality

    Select a value for the direction of the text that appears in the user interface. Values are:

    • Right To Left (Arabic and Hebrew)

    • Left To Right (all other predefined locales)

    International Dialing Code

    Select the country code to appear in phone numbers. This field suppresses the country code for phone numbers that are in the user’s locale. For example, the phone numbers for two accounts are the following:

    • +33 1-23 42 34 56, for an account based in France (+33 is the country code for France)

    • +1 6502955000, for an account based in the U.S. (+1 is the country code for the U.S.)

    To a user based in the U.S. (locale ENU), the International Dialing Code value is “USA and Canada (1)", and the phone numbers given here appear as follows:

    • +33 1-23 42 34 56

    • (650) 295-5000

    Positive Currency Format

    Select a value for the location of the currency symbols with respect to the digits (100).

    For example, for U.S. format, $32.45, select s100.

    Negative Currency Format

    Select a value for the location of the negative sign (-) with respect to the currency symbols and digits (100). Examples follow:

    • For U.S. format, ($32.45), select (s100).

    • For British format, -£32.40, select -s100.

    Currency Decimal Separator

    Type the symbol to indicate the decimal place in currency.

    Currency Grouping Separator

    Type the symbol to group numbers in currency. Use \B to designate a space.

    Number Decimal Separator

    Type the symbol to indicate the decimal place in numbers. Examples follow:

    • For French format, 1 234,34 (comma as decimal symbol)

    • For U.S. format, 1,234.34 (period as decimal symbol)

    Number Grouping Separator

    Type the symbol to group numbers. Examples follow:

    • For French format, 1 234 (space as number grouping separator). Use \B to designate a space.

    • For German format, 1.234 (period as number grouping separator)

    • For U.S. format, 1,234 (comma as number grouping separator)

    Number Leading Zero

    Select the check box to display a leading zero (0) in numbers less than one (for example, 0.7, not .7).

    Number Fractional Digits

    Type the number of digits after the decimal separator. For example, the number 12.340 has a number fractional of 3.

    This field applies to data fields of type DTYPE_NUMBER.

    List Separator

    Type the symbol to separate consecutive numbers in a list.

    In the U.S., consecutive numbers are separated by a comma (for example, 1.23,3.57,4.01).

    In France, consecutive numbers are separated by a semi-colon (for example, 1,23;3,57;4,01).

    Long Date Format

    Type the appropriate long date format, which typically contains day and month names. For example, the dddd, dd mmm, yyyy format yields a date such as Friday, 07 Jun, 2004.

    The following date format options represent the day of the month:

    • d specifies the day of the month, with no leading zero for single-digit days (1, 2, 3, ...).

    • dd specifies the day of the month, with a leading zero for single-digit days (01, 02, 03, ...).

    • ddd specifies the abbreviated name of the day of the week (Mon, Tue, Wed, and so on).

    • dddd specifies the full name of the day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on).

    The following date format options represent the month:

    • m specifies the month, with no leading zero for single-digit months (1, 2, 3, ... 12).

    • mm specifies the month, with a leading zero for single-digit months (01, 02, 03, ... 12).

    • mmm specifies the abbreviated month name (Jan, Feb, Mar, and so on).

    • mmmm specifies the full month name (January, February, March, and so on).

    The following date format options represent the year:

    • yy specifies the last two digits of the year (00, 01, 02, ... 99).

    • yyyy specifies the full four digits of the year (1999, 2000, 2001, ... 2099, ...).

    Date formats can include literal delimiter characters, such as a space, comma, period, hyphen, or forward slash (/). The Date Separator character is usually one of these characters. A delimiter can be any non-numeric character, but avoid using the date format options for the Long Date Format field in the delimiter.

    Long Date Format (continued)

    If you must use a date format option in a delimiter, then enclose the delimiter in single quotation marks. For example, a date of Thursday, January 24, 2013 in English is quinta-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2013 in Portuguese. The de delimiters (which mean “of") in the Portuguese date include the letter d, which is a date format option for the day of the month. You specify the English date in a format of dddd, mmmm dd, yyyy. But you must specify the Portuguese date in a format of dddd, dd 'de' mmmm 'de' yyyy. You enclose the de delimiters in single quotation marks so that the letter d in these delimiters is not interpreted as the day of the month.

    Note: Long dates are supported only for the calendar, the Gantt chart, salutation text on the home page, and balloon text in some charts.

    Short Date Format

    Type the appropriate shortened date format. Examples follows:

    • yymmdd: 081104 or 080321.

    • m/dd/yyyy: 11/04/2008 or 3/21/2008). This is the default U.S. format.

    • dd.mm.yyyy: 04.11.2008 or 21.03.2008. This is the default German format.

    For information about other elements used in date formats, see the description for the Long Date Format field.

    Date formats can include literal delimiter characters, such as a space, comma, period, hyphen, or forward slash (/). The Date Separator character is usually one of these characters. A delimiter can be any non-numeric character, but avoid using the date format options for the Long Date Format field in the delimiter.

    Note: If you enter a month number greater than 12, then the month defaults to 12. If you enter a day number greater than the number of days in the month, then the day defaults to the last day of the month. For example, if you enter 42/99/03 (U.S. format), then the date defaults to 12/31/03.

    Date Separator

    Type the symbol to use in a date format to separate the components of the date. It must be a single non-numeric character that is not one of the elements representing day, month, or year.

    Time Separator

    Type the symbol to separate hours from minutes in a time format.

    Time Leading Zero

    Select the check box to display a leading zero (0) in time fields. Examples follow:

    • 01:03 AM, 01:03 PM, 12-hour clock with leading zero.

    • 1:03 AM, 1:03 PM, 12-hour clock without leading zero.

    • 01:03, 13:03, 24-hour clock with leading zero.

    • 1:03, 13:03, 24-hour clock without leading zero.

    24-hour clock

    Select the check box to indicate use of the 24-hour clock. Clear the check box to indicate use of the 12-hour clock.

    Time A.M. Designator

    Type the symbol for designating time between 00:00 and 12:00 (for example, AM, a.m., or am).

    Time P.M. Designator

    Type the symbol for designating time between 12:00 and 24:00 (for example, PM, p.m., or pm).