This article shows you how to develop Global applications using Java™ and the IBM development platform.
Lesson 3: Testing a global Web site
Looking back at Lesson 2, what is the basic reason Mr. Foo lost potential Japanese customers? Was it because Japanese customers thought "Spicy Beijing Duck" would be too spicy? No. Mr. Foo missed the customers because he did not test.
Testing a global Web site is not difficult; global testing can even be done on an English system. (Of course, full-fledged testing must be performed on each language version of the system.) In order to use your English (or any other langauge) client for testing different langauges, on Internet Explorer, select Internet Options from the Tools pulldown menu. When the Internet Option dialog box pops up, select Languages.
Figure 6: Internet Explorer Options window
When the Language Preference dialog appears, you can specify the language you want to test. Select Move Up to bring the desired language ot to the top. The language you specify affects the 'accept-language' HTTP header value, meaning that you can 'trick' the server into behaving as if it were receiving the request from the native client. You can then test the language.
Figure 7: Internet Explorer Language Options window
Mr. Foo's problem would not have happened if the application were running on an English operating system, since English resources are picked by default if the locale specified was not available. The problem surfaces only when the Servlet is run on a non-English system.
Global application developers should keep this in mind, and may want to test the sever applications in different locales along with testing browsers for different languages. The important lesson that we have learned from Mr. Foo's episode is "Leave nothing to fate."
