1. What is NLS ?

NLS stands for National Language Support. In the context of Oracle Applications,
it basically means the ability to run an Applications instance in any one of the
supported languages (other than American English), including certain
region/territory specific numeric and date formats. Typically, in order to support a
given language, only the customer-facing components of the Applications
software (i.e. the user-interfaces, lookup tables, online documentation etc.) are
translated. The underlying logic for the translated instance stays the same as that
for American English.
In Release 11i, Oracle Applications is currently translated into 32 languages.
They are Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian French, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, European French, European Portuguese, Finnish, German,
Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American
Spanish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese,
Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.
You can also review Note 124283.1 Multilingual Support in Oracle Applications
Release 11i

________________________________________________________________
____

2. What is MLS ? And what is the difference between NLS and MLS ?

MLS stands for Multi-Lingual Support. If a particular Application is said to be MLS

enabled, it means the Application can be successfully run in more than one
language on the same Oracle Applications instance.
Many people use the terms NLS and MLS in various different contexts to mean
different things. However, NLS does not necessarily mean supporting only one
language and MLS does not mean something totally different than NLS. In fact
MLS should be considered as an additional functionality within NLS. An NLS-
enabled Application supports translations and an MLS-enabled Application is a
special type of an NLS-enabled Application that supports multiple languages.
Please also review Note 211708.1 Detailed Explanations of How NLS/MLS is
Being Handled in 11i

________________________________________________________________
____

3. Which character set should I use ?

You need to create your database using the correct character set for the
language that you are installing. This is detailed in the Oracle Applications
Installation Manual. If you are installing more than one language, you need to
ensure that the character set that you use is the correct one for all languages.
This places a restriction on the languages that you can run concurrently as they
must all share a common character set.
Oracle recommends employing the UTF8 character set, as this makes it easy to
add other languages in the future. However, UTF8 is not recommended for a
single language implementation of the Thai language, since it uses 3 bytes per
character in that language and thus increases the storage overhead.

In order to check the database character set use:

select value "Character Set" from V$NLS_PARAMETERS where
parameters='NLS_CHARACTERSET';

In order to check all database NLS parameters use:

select * from V$NLS_PARAMETERS;

4. How do I create an NLS installation ?

To create an NLS installation you should follow the instructions provided in the
Applications installation manual. Typically you install the American English
version of the Applications instance first, followed by the languages.
Refer to following notes about how to install additional/upgrade languages to an
Oracle Applications on:
If you have: You should use:
CR:201191 Oracle Applications NLS Install Notes UNIX Srvr Rel 10.7/10SC
16.1
10.7
CR:273380 Oracle Applications NLS Release 10.7 NCA Release Note
CR:273383 Oracle Applications NLS Release 10.7 Patch Sets, Version 4
CR:273386 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes Release 11
11.0 CR:273384 Oracle Applications NLS Installation Guide Rel 11 for NT
CR:273385 Oracle Applications NLS Installation Guide Rel 11 for UNIX
11.5.1-11.5.8 Note 177183.1 Succesfully Installing NLS/MLS in 11i
11.5.3 CR: 281148 Oracle Applications Release 11i NLS Release Notes 11.5.3
11.5.4 CR: 282202 Oracle Applications Release 11i NLS Release Notes 11.5.4
11.5.5 Note 156598.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes 11.5.5
11.5.6 Note 166663.1 Oracle Applications CRM 11.5.6 Family Pack - NLS Installation
11.5.7 Note 185071.1 Oracle(R) Applications 11.5.7 NLS Release Notes
11.5.8 Note 212012.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes 11.5.8
11.5.9 Note 232831.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes 11.5.9
11.5.10 Note 277295.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes for 11.5.10
11.5.10.2 Note 316804.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes, Release 11i (11.5.10.2)
12 Note 405294.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes Release 12

________________________________________________________________
____

5. How would I upgrade to a new release of Oracle Applications ?

To upgrade to a new release of Oracle Applications you must follow the steps
outlined in the document, Upgrading Oracle Applications. The upgrade is applied
for American English only. Once the upgrade is complete, you should apply the
relevant NLS language updates for the new release.
If you have: You should:
Installed languages from a Install the new language from the 11.5.X NLS CD pack. Do not apply
pre-11i release (such as the translated version of the 11.5.X maintenance pack even if you
11.0.3) and wish to upgrade applied the American English maintenance pack to get to the 11.5.X
it level.
Installed languages from a
Apply the translated 11.5.X maintenance packs for all your existing
previous 11i release (such
NLS languages. Do not use the NLS CD pack.
11.5.5) wish to upgrade it
Follow Oracle Applications Upgrade Guide: Release 11i to
Upgrading an existing Release 12 to install the NLS software and the Post-installation
system to Release 12 Tasks section of Note 405294.1 Oracle Applications NLS Release
Notes Release 12 for relevant tasks

Please review Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes, Release 11i/12 as

described in previous step.
Another way to upgrade NLS is to synchronize existing translations on your
system with US patch levels using Note 252422.1 Requesting Translation
Synchronization Patches

________________________________________________________________
____
6. In what order should I apply the different language versions of a patch ?

When you are applying an Oracle Applications patch in a language other than
American English, you must ensure that you first apply the American English
version of the patch. This is regardless of whether or not you ever plan to run
your application in American English, because only the American English version
of the patch contains all the required scripts to create non language-specific
database objects, executables etc.
Only after you've applied the American English version of a patch should you
apply the translated patch. The translated versions can be applied in any order,
or merged into one and applied once.

________________________________________________________________
____

7. How many languages can I run concurrently in Oracle Applications ?

In Release 11/12 you can run any number of the supported languages
concurrently as long as those languages are supported by the character set of
your instance. The Unicode character set (UTF-8) supports all languages
available in Oracle Applications. For a list of the supported character sets for
each language see the Oracle Applications Installation Manual or
- for 11i: Note 333785.1 Oracle Applications Internationalization Guide, Section
Determining the Correct Language and Character Set for Each Tier
- for 12: Note 393861.1 Globalization Guide for Oracle Applications Release 12,
Section 2. Installing

________________________________________________________________
____

8. How do I find out which languages I have installed ?

For Release 11i/12, use License Manager (refer to the AD Procedures Guide
in Note 66926.1 for details). In prior releases you used the One-Hour Install
(11.0) or AutoInstall (10.7) to set the license status.

Starting with 11.5.9 Oracle Application Manager was introduced. Also earlier
Realease 11i can include Oracle Application Manager if any OAM patch was
applied.
Navigational path in OAM is:
Oracle Application Manager -> Site Map -> License Manager -> Reports ->
Languages

For previous releases, you can use the following SQL statement to find out which
languages you have installed in your Oracle Applications database. Connect to
the database using the APPS oracle username.
SQL> SELECT LANGUAGE_SHORT_NAME, INSTALLED_FLAG FROM
FND_LANGUAGES WHERE INSTALLED_FLAG IN ('B','I');
The language which has an INSTALLED_FLAG of 'B' is called the base
language. Languages with INSTALLED_FLAG of 'I' are called installed
languages. Your installation should have one (and only one) base language.
However it can have zero or more installed languages. American English should
always be either a base or an installed language.

________________________________________________________________
____

9. What is the difference between the base language and an installed

language ?

Applications that are not NLS enabled, have their product seed data only in the
base language.
Multi-lingual products (or multi-lingual parts of products), on the other hand, store
seed data for both the base and installed languages.
This means that an Applications instance must have a one and only base
language, but it could have zero or more installed languages. But, since all
translated instances also have American English as an active language, it can
have one or more installed languages.
In Release 11i most of the products are multi-lingual (i.e. NLS/MLS enabled).

________________________________________________________________
____

10. Which language should I set as my base language ?

For Release 11i/12, since most products are multi-lingual, you would select the
base language after considering the description of base language given in
question 8. That is, you would select the language which you require all products
to have their seed data in, including the non multi-lingual products.

________________________________________________________________
____

11. Why does American English appear as an installed language even

though I am not using it ?

Even if you are running in an NLS environment with a language other than
American English, this language will still appear as an installed language.
However this is a 'dormant' language. This dormant American English language
is required for future upgrades because upgrades are performed in American
English.

________________________________________________________________
____

12. What are Localizations ?

Localizations provide additional functionality that is required for certain countries.

This is different from regular translations which merely affects the look of
applications, i.e. Forms, reports, seed data and online help which are translated
rather than actually functioning differently.

________________________________________________________________
____

13. I want to de-license a language translation in Oracle Applications. Is

there a supported method?

No, you cannot disable/deactivate a language once it is installed.

________________________________________________________________
____
14. Are all modules, interfaces translated in all languages?

Products can be:

- Fully Translated. All components of the product are fully translated.
- Partially Translated. Some (not all) components are translated.
- Not Translated. None of the components are translated.

Please refer:
- for 11i: Note 185637.1 Oracle Applications 11i Translation Scope and
Availability
The translation availability of every product and component is available via Note
314411.1 Translation Scope for Oracle Applications Release 11i Software
Translation availability of Online help for 11.5.10 is referenced in Note
317136.1 Translation Scope for Oracle Applications Release 11i Online Help

- for 12: Note 405992.1 Oracle Applications Release 12 Translation Scope and
Availability
The translation availability of every product and component is available via Note
412218.1 Oracle Applications Release 12 Product Level Software Translation
Matrix

________________________________________________________________
____

15. What is the difference between a Full (NLS) and a Partial (NLS merged)
patch translation

The standard process is that Applications patches are translated to all languages
with the patches in fully translated form. For 11i/12 patches, Oracle Support may
request a patch before a fully translated version is ready. You can raise a service
request and ask for the translated patch. In this case, a partially translated patch
is generated.
Partially translated patches are known as 'merged' patches. Any previously
translated strings are included in these patches. Only new strings are not
translated. The merged patches are replaced as soon as the fully translated
patches become available. You should check Metalink and apply the full
translation when became available.
Note: after applying a partially translated patch, it is not always obvious where
the non-translated strings exist however fully translated versions of the patch
should be applied anyway once it is released.
________________________________________________________________
____

16. Are all the patches translated?

NO. Some patches require translation, some don't.

When considering whether a patch translation is required, the line 'compatible
requires_translation yes' is specified in the file. Secondly, it may help to know
that the file types listed below do not need to be translated.
Non-translated file types:
SQL (sql), Datamerge (dat, ctl, exp) (Only for R11.5.0) , Export/Import (dmp),Text
(txt), Images (jpg, bmp), Graphics (ogd) , XML (xml), XSL (xsl) , Javascript (js) ,
Java Server Pages (jsp), LCT (.lct), HTM (.htm)
With latest AD.I patches (AD.I.4) , when US patch is applied, next section will be
displayed:
STRT_TASK: [Ask translated patch question] [] [Mon Sep 04 2006 11:02:09]

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This base patch contains files which may require translation
depending on the languages you currently have installed.

Oracle Corporation recommends that you obtain any translated versions of this
patch for each of your non-US languages PRIOR to applying this base patch.

The translated version of the patch should be applied immediately AFTER

applying this base patch.
-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

***
Do you wish to apply this patch now ?