How do you manage the String Translation Process?

Question

I am working on a Software Project that needs to be translated into 30 languages. This means that changing any string incurs into a relatively high cost. Additionally, tra

Answer 1

Not only did we use a database instead of the vaunted resource files (I have never understood why people use something like that which is a pain to manage, when we have such good tools for dealing with databases), but we also avoided the need to tag things in the application (forgetting to tag controls with numbers in VB6 Forms was always a problem) by using reflection to identify the controls for translation. Then we use an XML file which translates the controls to the phrase IDs from the dictionary database.

Although the mapping file had to be managed, it could still be managed independent of the build process, and the translation of the application was actually possible by end-users who had rights in the database.