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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS
Developing CFML Applications
Introduction to globalization
Globalization lets you create applications for all of your customers in all the languages that you support. In some cases,
globalization can let you accept data input using a different character set than the one you used to implement your
application. For example, you can create a website in English that lets customers submit form data in Japanese. Or, you
can allow a request URL to contain parameter values entered in Korean.
Your application also can process data containing numeric values, dates, currencies, and times. Each of these types of
data can be formatted differently for different countries and regions.
You can also develop applications in languages other than English. For example, you can develop your application in
Japanese so that the default character encoding is Shift-JIS, your ColdFusion pages contain Japanese characters, and
your interface displays in Japanese.
Globalizing your application requires that you perform one or more of the following actions:
• Accept input in more than one language.
• Process dates, times, currencies, and numbers formatted for multiple locales.
• Process data from a form, database, HTTP connection, e-mail message, or other input formatted in multiple
character sets.
• Create ColdFusion pages containing text in languages other than English.
Defining globalization
You might probably find several different definitions for globalization. Here, globalization is defined as an
architectural process where you place as much application functionality as possible into a foundation that can be
shared among multiple languages.
Globalization is composed of the following two parts:
Developing language-neutral application functionality that can recognize, process, and respond
Internationalization
to data regardless of its representation. That is, whatever the application can do in one language, it can also do in
another. For example, think of copying and pasting text. A copy and paste operation should not be concerned with the
language of the text it operates on. For a ColdFusion application, you might have processing logic that performs
numeric calculations, queries a database, or performs other operations, independent of language.
Taking shared, language-neutral functionality, and applying a locale-specific interface to it. Sometimes
Localization
this interface is referred to as a skin. For example, you can develop a set of menus, buttons, and dialog boxes for a
specific language, such as Japanese, that represents the language-specific interface. You then combine this interface
with the language-neutral functionality of the underlying application. As part of localization, you create the
functionality to handle input from customers in a language-specific manner and respond with appropriate responses
for that language.
Importance of globalization in ColdFusion applications
The Internet has no country boundaries. Customers can access websites from anywhere in the world, at any time, or
on any date. Unless you want to lock your customers into using a single language, such as English, to access your site,
consider globalization issues.
One reason to globalize your applications is to avoid errors and confusion for your customers. For example, a date in
the form 1/2/2003 is interpreted as January 2, 2003 in the United States, but as February 1, 2003 in European countries.
Another reason to globalize your applications is to display currencies in the correct format. Think of how your
customers would feel when they find out the correct price for an item is 15,000 American dollars, not 15,000 Mexican
pesos (about 1600 American dollars).
Last updated 8/5/2010
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