WizTom for the Web

WizTom for the Web is a complete environment to translate Internet Web sites and Web-based applications, without duplicating the original Web pages or Web services (.NET components, Servlets, CGI, etc.).

Because WizTom for the Web supports Unicode, it is able to translate any Web site to any number of languages including Asiatic (Japanese, Chinese, etc.) and Middle East languages (Arabic, Hebrew).

Add-ons:

 ASP Extractor

 PHP Extractor

 PDF Extractor

 PDF Extension

 XML Extension

 Web Translation Pad

Architecture Overview

WizTom for the Web main components are:

 WizTom Web Proxy Server

 and WizTom Studio

WizTom Web Proxy Server is the translation proxy-server end-users connect to in order to browse the translated Web site. Pages are downloaded from the origin Web site on behalf of the original user and their content translated by WizTom Web Proxy Server.

Translations are stored in a WizArt Multilingual Database which is prepared using WizTom Studio. WizTom Studio is presented in detail here.

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WizTom Web Proxy Server

WizTom Web Proxy Server and the WizTom Multilingual Database must be installed downstream from the origin Web server so that users connect to WizTom Web Proxy Server instead of the actual Web server. On Windows platforms, WizTom Web Proxy Server can be installed as a Windows NT Service in a matter of minutes, making administration as easy as possible; on UNIX platforms, it is installed and running as a daemon.

WizTom Web Proxy Server was implemented with performance in mind. The software architecture is based on a pool of worker threads processing pages as they are received by overlapped I/Os, enabling fast transfer rates and excellent reliability and scalability. Together with WizTom's HTML parser, the WizTom Multilingual Database system also enables high performances to translate Web pages and other documents.

WizTom Studio comes with an integrated module called the "Deployment Helper" which assists the user to deploy WizTom Web Proxy Server and the WizTom Multilingual Database.

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WizTom Multilingual Database

To ensure the best performances possible, WizArt has implemented its own proprietary database format. This specialized database system enables lightning fast retrieval of multilingual texts; it is not a general purpose database such as a relational database.

WizTom Multilingual Database uses cache, pages and a LRU mechanism to cut down physical disk operations. The translation manager can modify the default parameters, for instance the size of the cache in memory. WizTom Multilingual Database supports Unicode, therefore enabling storage of all character sets.

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Smart Filter Technology New!

To effectively handle translation of client-side scripting languages such as JavaScript, WizTom for the Web now implements advanced compilation/interpretation technology capable of handling string items intelligently: the Smart Filters.

Because strings may serve multiple purposes in programming languages in general, they need to be dealt with carefully. For instance, in JavaScript, the language's keywords and DOM identifiers ("ID" attributes in HTML and used in JavaScript code) must not be translated.

WizTom for the Web is now able to recognize these items as literals instead of texts, making sure bits of code will not be altered by the translation process. JavaScript is the first area to benefit from Smart Filters technology, but it is planned to broaden the use of Smart Filters in WizTom for other programming languages too.

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Translation Rules

Translation rules may be given to WizTom as directives to translate complex strings. For instance, to correctly translate this text: "There are 3 items left.", WizTom must know that "3" is a variable. In a different runtime context, the string might as well come up as "There are 5 items left."

This is done by replacing the variable part of the string with a description of that variable surrounded by brackets. In the case we are considering, we should use the following text: "There are {number} items left.". A French translator would then translate this text with "Il reste {number} éléments."

It is possible to cover more complex cases with extended rules.

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Integration

As a standard Web proxy server supporting both HTTP and HTTPS protocols, WizTom easily integrates into any existing architecture while providing enough flexibility to consider several options, such as installing directly on the Web server host, installing on a dedicated machine, using load balancing, etc.

WizTom for the Web works regardless of the server-side architecture and technology: it does not matter what Web server, application server or database system are used, because WizTom Web Proxy Server translates pages and documents after they are generated by the origin server.

WizTom for the Web can translate the following types of resources:

 HTML pages (including dynamically generated content such as ASP, JSP and PHP pages);

 XML/XSL documents (static and dynamic); Learn more...

 JavaScript and VBScript;

 Java applets.

Furthermore, support for proprietary formats is also available as add-ons to WizTom for the Web, such as:

 PDF files (static and dynamic documents);

 BusinessObjects WebIntelligence Universes and Full-Client Reports (for use with the Report Editor and Report Viewer controls). Learn more...

WizTom for the Web is also able to redirect HTTP/HTTPS requests for images and other resources to prepared translated versions. For instance, if the client needs the image called "welcome.gif", and the WizTom Multilingual Database specifies a translation for this file (e.g.: "bienvenue.gif" in French), WizTom Web Proxy Server will retrieve the translated image "bienvenue.gif" in place of the original image.

Translation rules may be used in conjunction with this feature, enabling complete translation of all images in a matter of seconds assuming file-naming conventions were properly followed. For instance, all requests to ".gif" images may be translated using this rule: all GIF files "{any}.gif" are mapped to "{any}_FRA.gif" for the French language.

Translated images may be hosted on the origin server host or on the WizTom Web Proxy Server host.

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Supported Environments

New versions of Windows and Solaris will be supported as they become available. Additional operating systems may be supported depending on customer demand.

Because of the technology used, following Internet standards, WizTom for the Web should work with any Web server and application server. So far, tests have been made in various environments such as:

 Microsoft IIS (including ASP, ASPX and .NET-generated pages)

 IBM WebSphere (including JSP and Servlet-generated pages)

 Lotus Domino (for Web clients; Notes clients should use WizTom for Windows) - learn more

 BEA WebLogic Server (including JSP and Servlet-generated pages)

 Apache (including PHP, Perl and CGI-generated pages)

 BusinessObjects WebIntelligence - learn more

 Cognos - learn more

 ...

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