Internationalization aspects in developing web applications for central and east europe

Abstract

The globalization trend has been affecting Central and Eastern European countries since the 1990s. A number of countries, each with its distinct language and culture, have been established after the fall of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. To successfully target this market a presentation form is needed that takes into account these unique circumstances. Today, the World Wide Web provides a basis for such a presentation form, but problems arise when implementing it. While ad-hoc solution did not prevail, a more thorough and guided approach is needed. Given the size and development potential of this region, detailed attention to the process of internationalization and related technologies is of crucial interest. This paper presents technological guidelines for the development of multilingual web applications. It sums up some existing solutions and introduces a few ideas on how to handle multi-language data. Based on authors' experience and a literature review, guidelines are introduced. This starts at the database level, where the basis for storing language data is laid. Furthermore, application and framework support is discussed at the object level and finally the finish is reached at the user interface.