Configuring Terminology


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Terminology

You can change any of the words and phrases that appear in the Tivoli Service Desk interface. When you configure terminology you enable the Tivoli Service Desk interface to correspond better with the way your users describe common processes and objects.

Terminology files

Tivoli Service Desk terminology is stored in DF files. The key DF files for configuring terminology, or internationalization of Tivoli Service Desk, are *_msgs.df, *_labels.df, *_data.df.

The first character of the file name indicates the TSD application that uses a particular DF file.

File name prefix TSD application
p Tivoli Problem Management
i Tivoli Asset Management
r Tivoli Change Management
c Tivoli Service Desk files shared by all applications in the TSD suite
t Tivoli Service Desk monitor files
m Tivoli Problem Management Mail Gateway
n Tivoli Problem Management Network System Management Gateway
d TSD/390 Interface
s Tivoli Service Desk Application Server
b Tivoli Service Desk Table Builder

The remainder of the DF filename indicates the contents of the file.

DF file types Contents
*_msgs.df These files contain the messages that appear in a window (like the monitors), or in warning or error message dialog boxes.

Example: The p_msgs.df file stores the message "Do you wish to end this call?" that appears after a user registers a call.

*_labels.df These files contain words or phrases that are labels in other DF files or are common words (terminology) that should be referenced elsewhere.

String example: In c_labels.df, the string C_COMMON_PROBLEMS contains the value 'Common Problems.' Other DF files reference this string as
%!c_labels[C_COMMON_PROBLEMS]. You can change the value between the single quotation marks (').

Label example: In p_labels.df, the string P_ALTB_IN_ACTIONS contains the value 'Use Alt+B in %!c_labels[C_ACTIONS] to add a Hypermedia link.' This string references terminology located in c_labels.df for "Actions".

Note: The name of the file containing the string follows the percent sign (%) and exclamation point (!). The file name is in lower case letters to enable UNIX systems to locate the file. The string name is enclosed in brackets [ ].

*_data.df These files contain strings that the TSD Build utility inserts into the database.

Example: Menu actions, tool tips, Profile names, Action Group names, system action names and descriptions, and Data Viewer names.


Tasks

Editing DF files

You can use any text editor to modify string DF files. You can change the value of a string by modifying the information in single quotes.

Note: You cannot use the TDT Interface Designer to modify string DF files. The TDT Interface Designer removes all comments in DF files and reorders all the string information.

To edit a DF file:

  1. Open the file in any text editor.
  2. Locate the string value you want to modify.
  3. Change the value contained between the single qoutes.
    Example, you could change STRING P_RESUMED 'Resumed' to STRING P_RESUMED 'Restarted'.
  4. Save the changes to the file.

Parsing DF files

After you make changes to DF files containing terminology, you must parse them. Because DF files reference strings in other DF files, you must follow a specific parse order.

To ensure that you parse correctly after configuring terminology, follow these steps:

  1. Parse the *_labels.df files first, starting in the common directories and working out to the product directories.

    Note: You can ensure this by using the parse utility with the -d option to parse all DF files:
    In the Tivol Service Desk directory, usually TIVTSD, type parse -d.
  2. Check that DF files reference only strings located in the *_labels.df files.
  3. If you make changes in the *_msgs.df files, then you must parse the corresponding KB files.
    Note: These KB files must be re-parsed because the *_string.kb files are used to resource the strings.

For more information on parsing, see The TSD Script Parser.