Farvashan's SharePoint Blog [ MVP ]

We are almost completed our Persian language pack for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Beta 2, first and foremost I wanna say that it's my own language pack without any support from Microsoft, as a result it could not be complete like other language packs and I'll complete it and make it available for a free download if I can get any official support from the Microsoft. Until that time I can create a dedicated site collection and your administration access for evaluation and test drive purpose, just ping me a note. I'm using  this language pack for my own projects and I have completed first and second implemented projects and soon third will be available on the internet as a beta situation, can you see how interested we are about implementing enterprise projects based on the SharePoint Technology, three projects even before the release!? Medical Education & Development Center ( is a research center web site hosting members area, task & project management, e-journal, voting priority of future research ideas and so on )http://80.191.144.36/Default.aspx

ICT & Research Workspace at Alzahra University  ( University extranet web site hosting teachers and students dedicated areas, a rich collaboration area between instructors and learners, scheduling classes, student submitting process, live communication & Instant messaging and future planed for an e-learning environment based on SCORM 2004 )

http://portal.alzahra.ac.ir/default.aspx

 I have experience of 5 enterprise projects based on the SharePoint 2003 (you can see some of them on the about), and now by the great enhancements and functionality of SharePoint 2007, I'm sure a lot of solutions can be provided on this platform, but my issue is Persian calendar &  language support for this technology and my goal  writing here is some kind of collaboration and talking to others and perhaps a guy from Microsoft to fined a way  encouraging Microsoft supporting Persian for the future development of this technology.I have a contact to Gwyneth Marshall, a Program Manager in the Office International Services team, she told me it must be followed by the Microsoft Local Language Program, but this program is based on a collaboration between Microsoft and local Government and as you know  main countries that uses Persian language (Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan) are in a bad situation and any direct contact with the most important Persian country (Iran)  is almost impossible. But as you know there are a lot of other peoples all around the world uses Persian as their  language ( Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Pakistan, Southern Russia, Indian subcontinent, .) also a lot of Persian peoples in United State.Finally, we have an smart research team working and localizing Microsoft products and technologies since 2001, we have already Persian version of products like: SharePoint 2001 & 2003, CMS 2002, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Project 2003, Project Server 2003 & Microsoft CRM . Right now we are working on the WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and all the Microsoft Office 2007 products, and I'm sure this can be an excellent localized version for Persian if I can have some kind of documents, tools or any recommendations from Microsoft.

www.sharepointsolutions.ir

We are almost completed our Persian language pack for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Beta 2, first and foremost I wanna say that it's my own language pack without any support from Microsoft, as a result it could not be complete like other language packs and I'll complete it and make it available for a free download if I can get any official support from the Microsoft. Until that time I can create a dedicated site collection and your administration access for evaluation and test drive purpose, just ping me a note. I'm using  this language pack for my own projects and I have completed first and second implemented projects and soon third will be available on the internet as a beta situation, can you see how interested we are about implementing enterprise projects based on the SharePoint Technology, three projects even before the release!? Medical Education & Development Center ( is a research center web site hosting members area, task & project management, e-journal, voting priority of future research ideas and so on )http://80.191.144.36/Default.aspx

ICT & Research Workspace at Alzahra University  ( University extranet web site hosting teachers and students dedicated areas, a rich collaboration area between instructors and learners, scheduling classes, student submitting process, live communication & Instant messaging and future planed for an e-learning environment based on SCORM 2004 )

http://portal.alzahra.ac.ir/default.aspx

 I have experience of 5 enterprise projects based on the SharePoint 2003 (you can see some of them on the about), and now by the great enhancements and functionality of SharePoint 2007, I'm sure a lot of solutions can be provided on this platform, but my issue is Persian calendar &  language support for this technology and my goal  writing here is some kind of collaboration and talking to others and perhaps a guy from Microsoft to fined a way  encouraging Microsoft supporting Persian for the future development of this technology.I have a contact to Gwyneth Marshall, a Program Manager in the Office International Services team, she told me it must be followed by the Microsoft Local Language Program, but this program is based on a collaboration between Microsoft and local Government and as you know  main countries that uses Persian language (Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan) are in a bad situation and any direct contact with the most important Persian country (Iran)  is almost impossible. But as you know there are a lot of other peoples all around the world uses Persian as their  language ( Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Pakistan, Southern Russia, Indian subcontinent, .) also a lot of Persian peoples in United State.Finally, we have an smart research team working and localizing Microsoft products and technologies since 2001, we have already Persian version of products like: SharePoint 2001 & 2003, CMS 2002, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Project 2003, Project Server 2003 & Microsoft CRM . Right now we are working on the WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and all the Microsoft Office 2007 products, and I'm sure this can be an excellent localized version for Persian if I can have some kind of documents, tools or any recommendations from Microsoft.

www.sharepointsolutions.ir

Why you are using Microsoft for Office SharePoint Server, and using Windows SharePoint Services alone!?

As you know Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a free service by Windows Server 2003, and Office SharePoint Server (OSS) is an enterprise server product serving your office applications especially by a deep integration with the Microsoft Office products. Also we are all know that both of them are Microsoft Products.

So I'm suggesting OSS  & WSS  for an easy way talking about.

Why you are using Microsoft for Office SharePoint Server, and using Windows SharePoint Services alone!?

As you know Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a free service by Windows Server 2003, and Office SharePoint Server (OSS) is an enterprise server product serving your office applications especially by a deep integration with the Microsoft Office products. Also we are all know that both of them are Microsoft Products.

So I'm suggesting OSS  & WSS  for an easy way talking about.

One of the most lack in WSS is not supporting of Multilanguage sites and workspaces, I was waiting for the new version of SharePoint technology for covering this really important requirement,  and now we have support of Multilanguage publishing sites on the Office SharePoint Server 2007 ( OSS not WSS ).

This is a good solution for the internet facing of enterprise organizations with the need of internet publishing sites in multi language. For example a press news site for  a company can be hosted on the OSS as a source in the English language (en-us), and then multi publishing sites for the other languages can be derived from this as a target news sites ( ja-jp, fa-ir, and so on ). It's possible by variations and can be implemented just on the publishing sites. You can see the Steven Van de Craen's Blog for details.

All of the target sites will be synchronies by the source, for example when you create a page on the source, a localized version of that page will be created on the targets, and even a third party solution  can be implemented for translation of contents.

But we need a solution for a simple WSS Team Site to be multi language, just a button on top of the page, you click on it and then, template of the site will be changed to the other language, it's fantastic, isn't it?

I'm confused about why Microsoft don't support it!?  I think with the new techniques of Resource files ( resx files ), it can be implemented, for example, take a look at me thinking:

By installing a language pack, a file for that language will be created on the address:

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12CONFIGResources

For example: wss.en-US.resx, wss.ja-JP.resx, wss.fa-IR.resx, almost 90%  of your site language is in this file. This is an XML file with a lot of data rows, each data row contains a name, and value.

  <data name="accessDenied_pagetitle">    <value>Error: Access Denied</value>  </data>  <data name="accessDenied_currentuser">    <value>Current User</value>  </data>  <data name="accessDenied_loggedInAs">    <value>You are currently signed in as:</value>  </data> 

When you create a new Web Application a copy of all files on the resource folder from the address above will be created on the address below:

C:InetpubwwwrootwssVirtualDirectories80App_GlobalResources

This files will be worked on the runtime,  and if you change a value and reopen your  page, can see your changes are applied on the page.

Just imagine, you have a list on your SharePoint site with at least three columns: name, value1, value2, and you have a simple code for replacing all the data rows of the file on the App_GlobalResources by different values of your list, then your site will be replaced with another language.

But this is not operational, because each user can be change the file and it's not possible simultaneously. In addition none of users and visitors have  access to your web server and Inetpub folder.

I'm thinking to the “Business Intelligence Portal 2003″, as you know it's a site template that can be installed on the WSS 2, and have a list for translating strings, and each user can set a different language for interface. Is there anyone here known it's mechanism?

I'm looking for a way resolving this issue, and implementing Multilanguage support to the WSS 3, if you have any idea please let us discuss about.

One of the most lack in WSS is not supporting of Multilanguage sites and workspaces, I was waiting for the new version of SharePoint technology for covering this really important requirement,  and now we have support of Multilanguage publishing sites on the Office SharePoint Server 2007 ( OSS not WSS ).

This is a good solution for the internet facing of enterprise organizations with the need of internet publishing sites in multi language. For example a press news site for  a company can be hosted on the OSS as a source in the English language (en-us), and then multi publishing sites for the other languages can be derived from this as a target news sites ( ja-jp, fa-ir, and so on ). It's possible by variations and can be implemented just on the publishing sites. You can see the Steven Van de Craen's Blog for details.

All of the target sites will be synchronies by the source, for example when you create a page on the source, a localized version of that page will be created on the targets, and even a third party solution  can be implemented for translation of contents.

But we need a solution for a simple WSS Team Site to be multi language, just a button on top of the page, you click on it and then, template of the site will be changed to the other language, it's fantastic, isn't it?

I'm confused about why Microsoft don't support it!?  I think with the new techniques of Resource files ( resx files ), it can be implemented, for example, take a look at me thinking:

By installing a language pack, a file for that language will be created on the address:

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12CONFIGResources

For example: wss.en-US.resx, wss.ja-JP.resx, wss.fa-IR.resx, almost 90%  of your site language is in this file. This is an XML file with a lot of data rows, each data row contains a name, and value.

  <data name="accessDenied_pagetitle">    <value>Error: Access Denied</value>  </data>  <data name="accessDenied_currentuser">    <value>Current User</value>  </data>  <data name="accessDenied_loggedInAs">    <value>You are currently signed in as:</value>  </data> 

When you create a new Web Application a copy of all files on the resource folder from the address above will be created on the address below:

C:InetpubwwwrootwssVirtualDirectories80App_GlobalResources

This files will be worked on the runtime,  and if you change a value and reopen your  page, can see your changes are applied on the page.

Just imagine, you have a list on your SharePoint site with at least three columns: name, value1, value2, and you have a simple code for replacing all the data rows of the file on the App_GlobalResources by different values of your list, then your site will be replaced with another language.

But this is not operational, because each user can be change the file and it's not possible simultaneously. In addition none of users and visitors have  access to your web server and Inetpub folder.

I'm thinking to the “Business Intelligence Portal 2003″, as you know it's a site template that can be installed on the WSS 2, and have a list for translating strings, and each user can set a different language for interface. Is there anyone here known it's mechanism?

I'm looking for a way resolving this issue, and implementing Multilanguage support to the WSS 3, if you have any idea please let us discuss about.

Gwyneth Marshall from SharePoint Team Blog tell us about future language packs of SharePoint and Office. I was waiting for the officially support of Microsoft for Persian language on the 2007 Office systems and SharePoint technology, but unfortunately I'll announce you Persian language is not on the timeframes that Gwyneth tell us about.

As you know at least 5 countries uses Persian as their primary language, and it's language of RUMI & HAFEZ poems.

I made a lot of efforts during 3 years ago contacting Microsoft or one of its localizing  partners about supporting Persian in the SharePoint technology, but all of my huge tasks in the past was unsuccessful.

I confused when I get some news about a project localizing Office 2007 & Windows Vista in Persian by a very low budget on the American university of Dubai.

Can you believe this very important project can be handle just by a 10,000$ and using some students of university ?!

As you know Persian is completely different from Arabic and it's a huge set of very technical tasks about initiating a suitable community by Persian peoples about selecting right words an strings, implementing spell checking, Persian calendar and so on.

We have a Persian LIP for Office 2003 now, prepared on Dubai by an Arabic development team, and if you have any experience about using that, you know that there is a lot of issues, in some cases we get messages that absolutely there is no meaning!

I'm working on the SharePoint technology since 2002 and we have our own Persian language pack  for WSS 2 and 3, and we are localizing Office 2007, and all of them will be ready at the exact time of Microsoft release. You can see some of our implementations of WSS 2 in the addresses below, also I'll be host a Persian WSS 3 for demo next week, and I can give you a workspace for use if you are interested. Main goal of me presenting this sites and hosting a demo site for WSS 3 is to get support of Microsoft for creating a perfect language pack for Persian.

http://talented.mui.ac.ir

http://merc.mui.ac.ir

http://te.mui.ac.ir

http://edcportal.mui.ac.ir

I hope one of Microsoft employees or any related person see this post and tell me a direct way for talking to Microsoft or one of its partners about our passion. If you have any suggestion for me, please let me know.

Gwyneth Marshall from SharePoint Team Blog tell us about future language packs of SharePoint and Office. I was waiting for the officially support of Microsoft for Persian language on the 2007 Office systems and SharePoint technology, but unfortunately I'll announce you Persian language is not on the timeframes that Gwyneth tell us about.

As you know at least 5 countries uses Persian as their primary language, and it's language of RUMI & HAFEZ poems.

I made a lot of efforts during 3 years ago contacting Microsoft or one of its localizing  partners about supporting Persian in the SharePoint technology, but all of my huge tasks in the past was unsuccessful.

I confused when I get some news about a project localizing Office 2007 & Windows Vista in Persian by a very low budget on the American university of Dubai.

Can you believe this very important project can be handle just by a 10,000$ and using some students of university ?!

As you know Persian is completely different from Arabic and it's a huge set of very technical tasks about initiating a suitable community by Persian peoples about selecting right words an strings, implementing spell checking, Persian calendar and so on.

We have a Persian LIP for Office 2003 now, prepared on Dubai by an Arabic development team, and if you have any experience about using that, you know that there is a lot of issues, in some cases we get messages that absolutely there is no meaning!

I'm working on the SharePoint technology since 2002 and we have our own Persian language pack  for WSS 2 and 3, and we are localizing Office 2007, and all of them will be ready at the exact time of Microsoft release. You can see some of our implementations of WSS 2 in the addresses below, also I'll be host a Persian WSS 3 for demo next week, and I can give you a workspace for use if you are interested. Main goal of me presenting this sites and hosting a demo site for WSS 3 is to get support of Microsoft for creating a perfect language pack for Persian.

http://talented.mui.ac.ir

http://merc.mui.ac.ir

http://te.mui.ac.ir

http://edcportal.mui.ac.ir

I hope one of Microsoft employees or any related person see this post and tell me a direct way for talking to Microsoft or one of its partners about our passion. If you have any suggestion for me, please let me know.

A main reason for migrating to the Linux & Open Source projects in some organizations is an statement like this: Microsoft is a black box, no source code available, we don't understand how it works, we can't trust on it, and so on. I wanna say to my colleagues it's not completely true, first and foremost Microsoft shared source initiative . Through the Shared Source Initiative, Microsoft is sharing source code with customers, partners, and governments worldwide. The Shared Source Initiative encompasses…(read more)

A main reason for migrating to the Linux & Open Source projects in some organizations is an statement like this: Microsoft is a black box, no source code available, we don't understand how it works, we can't trust on it, and so on. I wanna say to my colleagues it's not completely true, first and foremost Microsoft shared source initiative . Through the Shared Source Initiative, Microsoft is sharing source code with customers, partners, and governments worldwide. The Shared Source Initiative encompasses…(read more)