I've written a simple script to convert UTF-8 names to English characters. When sorting by translated names, the result is that Carré Otis is converted to carre otis. Note that the é is converted to e and the name is converted to lower case. When sorting by TRANSNAME, this results in a display similar to Windows Explorer.
Unfortunately, this is strictly an English-language translation. It's my only language. I've tried many times to learn other languages and failed. Kudos to those of you who can speak in multiple languages !!! At any rate, the script is simple enough that I think (hope) that others can make this work for their own region.
There a couple of things that need to happen for this to work.
1) install PHP (CLI VERSION) with interbase (no server is necessary...it's one of the things you're asked during install)
http://ca2.php.net/get/php-5.2.13-win32-installer.msi/from/a/mirror is the install link (windows)
2) be sure that the .php extension is registered to the php.exe program. This is an option for install, but you may have to do this
manually by right-clicking your mouse on the transname.php file and setting the default program to c:\program files\php\php.exe
3) copy the fbembed.dll file from the PVD directory to the php directory and RENAME IT to gds32.dll
4) copy the following dlls from the pvd directory to the php directory
- icudt30.dll
- icuin30.dll
- icuuc30.dll
5) in the script, you need to enter the exact path and database file name...the place in the script I think is obvious, but let
me know and I'll help out
6) make sure PVD is NOT running, then double-click the transname.php file.
7) a command window should open, and the record number that is being updated should be displayed...about 1000 names per second.
I'm sure Nostra has something like this up his sleeve (watch him if you play cards with him), but until he pulls it out, this should work. As they say, if you go to a card game and don't see a looser, you're it.
If you're observant, you'll see there's a metaphone option (set to false) in the script. I'm hoping (someday) to use this to find people or titles on the internet without regard to spelling or the order of names (ie. A.J. COOK or COOK, A.J. or a.j. cooke). Not to worry...it's still in the dreaming stage. It never hurts to be ready.
This is the first of a number of 'general purpose' scripts I'll be posting. I'm really fond of ImageMagik as well, and will probably be posting image manipulation scripts in the near future. This is a program that can manipulate images, and do significant 'intelligent' processing. Of course, it's another install, but that's later.
I'm still working on a way to integrate this into PVD, so someday, such scripts may run directly from PVD.
Screenshots of the php installation settings:
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