Specifying Nonlocalized Descriptive Text

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

Nonlocalized descriptive text for a class can be specified in one of two ways:

• Attaching a Description qualifier to the class.
• Setting the Description property in the instance of the __Lexicon class that is associated with the class.

There are two disadvantages to using the Description qualifier. First, the text becomes available only in the original language for the class—the language that is specified by the Locale qualifier. Second, it hinders performance because all of the descriptive text is retrieved whenever the class definition is retrieved.

Using a translation table allows the descriptive text to be decoupled from the class definition. In the __Lexicon instance created to translate the text, set the SourceLocale and TargetLocale properties to the same value. Specify the properties or class to be described in the Keywords property and the text in the Descriptions property. The Translations property remains empty. Examine the following example.

instance of __Lexicon
{
    GUID = "{e588652-edb5-11d0-00c04fb68820}";
  
    SourceLocale = "ms\\0x409";
    TargetLocale = "ms\\0x409";

    Keywords = 
        { "MyClass", "Tree", "Dog", "Pencil" };

    // We do not use the Translations array

   Descriptions = { 
        "This is My Class", 
        "This is a tree",
        "This is a canine", 
        "This is a graphite-based writing instrument")
       };

};