Localization is the configuration that allows software to be adaptable to local national-language features. Modern Internet browsers allow a user to specify a prioritized list of their localization preferences (language/country). If software is not designed with localization features addressed up-front, refactoring to support those features in the future can be very difficult.

Localization and INDI

All language-specific strings within INDI are broken out into separate language resource files. Each line in these files contains a token and a string separated by an equals sign. For example: intro=Hello, welcome to INDI. The locale that these files pertain to is identified by the file name. When a users access INDI, their browser localization preferences will be evaluated and the first matching language resource files will be used. Currently, only the English language is supported by the INDI interface. However, this can be easily changed by adding additional language resource files.