Starting in Workbench 3.7, a Lexicon Module Builder view is available. The lexicon module builder allows you to bundle multiple lexicon files into a module for ease of distribution. The lexicons available for use are those lexicon files (modulename.lexicon) located in the appropriate !lexicon subfolder for the target locale. For example, !lexicon/fr is the subfolder which would contain French lexicon files. You can build new lexicon modules or replace existing ones. In this view there are text fields for defining module information, a Browse button that allows you to locate existing lexicon modules, a selection table of available lexicon files that can be selected for inclusion, a check box to delete source files after the build is completed, and a Build Module button to initiate the build, as shown in Figure 7.

The text fields in this view allow you to provide basic information for the module. Several of these fields are required. Leaving a required field empty will result in a failed build. The required fields are:

Brand Pattern, an optional text field, allows you to specify a “brand” attribute for this module. The Lexicon system refers to this field at runtime, comparing it to the brand for the current system (JACE or Workbench). If you provide a brand name in this field, the set of lexicon files in your module will be available for loading only if this value matches the runtime brand identifier defined as part of the license.

Providing a Brand Pattern value is optional. A lexicon module with no brand pattern will always be available for use.

Located just below the brand pattern text field is a check box option to delete lexicon files after the build is completed. If you select this option, when you click the Build Module button you will be prompted to comfirm that you want to delete files in the !lexicon folder.

As mentioned earlier, the selection table in the lower half of the view lists the lexicons available for use. Click a check box in the left column of a table row to mark a lexicon file for inclusion in the module. Double-clicking an entry in the selection table will switch to the Lexicon Editor view for the selected language-module combination. Switching between the lexicon views will retain your selections (text box values, selected table rows, check box values) unless a module was loaded from the Module Chooser. In that case, the module must be re-loaded in order to re-populate the selection table with the lexicons within that module.

If rebuilding an existing lexicon module, click the Browse button to open a Module Chooser dialog box. Once you select a module in the Chooser and click OK, it fills in the context of that module in the available text fields in the Lexicon Module Builder view and the module’s existing lexicon files are added to the selection table, as shown in Figure 8. Clicking the Cancel button in the Chooser closes the dialog box. When you click the Build Module button, you will get separate confirmation dialog boxes to overwrite the existing module, to delete the lexicon files, and indicating the module was rebuilt successfully.

Lexicon modules can be rebuilt multiple times.

A lexicon module edited with the Lexicon Module Builder must adhere to the following restrictions:

On completion of the build, you will see a confirmation message indicating that the module was constructed and placed in the !modules folder.