Localization in RDM
Learn about how localization in Reltio Reference Data Management (RDM) supports language-specific translations for reference data while preserving a single canonical value.
Localization in Reltio Reference Data Management (RDM) allows you to maintain language-specific translations for reference data values. Organizations can present the same reference data in different languages without changing the underlying canonical value that RDM uses to standardize data across systems.
Localization is useful for global teams that manage shared reference data across regions, business units, or applications that require localized labels for users in different languages.
You can add translations for lookup type values in the RDM application. For more information, see Localizing Lookup Type Values in RDM.
You can add translations with the Lookups API and return a localized value with the Transcode API. For more information, see Manage RDM localizations using APIs .
The following roles can manage localization in RDM:
Data Steward
Reltio Configurator
Solution Architect
For role definitions, see About roles .
How localization works
In RDM, a canonical value remains the authoritative value for a lookup entry. Localization adds translated representations of that value for supported languages. Separating the canonical value from its translations allows one reference data definition to support multiple language experiences while preserving consistency in matching, storage, integration, and downstream processing.
Because the canonical value remains unchanged, localization improves readability for users without introducing multiple versions of the same business meaning.
Language fallback behavior for localized values
When a Transcode request includes the Accept-Language header, RDM resolves localized values by language priority.
RDM first tries to find an exact match for the requested language code. If no exact match is available, RDM applies fallback logic to find the closest supported localized value before falling back to the default value stored in the data. If the Accept-Language header requests a language that is not in the lookup's localizations, RDM returns the default English value stored in the data.
RDM supports short-to-long language fallback for supported locale pairs. For example, if a request sends ko and the lookup data contains ko-KR, RDM returns the ko-KR localized value instead of falling back to English.
Short-to-long fallback improves localization results for browser-based requests because some browsers send only the base language code instead of a language-and-region code. For example, a browser configured for Korean might send ko instead of ko-KR. Without short-to-long fallback, the request would return the default English value even when a Korean localization was available.
RDM localization fallback follows common industry expectations for language negotiation. If you prefer English over a localized fallback value, change your browser language priority settings to control which language RDM returns.
Example: short-to-long fallback
- Request header:
Accept-Language: ko - Available localization in the lookup:
ko-KR - Result: Korean localized value from
ko-KR
Supported locales
The following table lists the locales that are supported for the RDM service. RDM supports additional locales beyond the platform-wide list; for the full list of languages supported across all Reltio services, see Internationalization and Localization.
| Language | ISO Language Code |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans (South Africa) | af-ZA |
| Chinese (Simplified) | zh-CN |
| Chinese (Traditional) | zh-TW |
| Chinese | zh-CN |
| Croatian (Croatia) | hr-HR |
| Czech | cs-CZ |
| Danish (Denmark) | da-DK |
| Dutch | nl-NL |
| English | en-IN |
| English (UK) | en-GB |
| English (US) | en-US |
| Finnish (Finland) | fi-FI |
| French (France) | fr-FR |
| German | de-DE |
| Greek | el-GR |
| Hebrew (Israel) | he-IL |
| Hungarian | hu-HU |
| Italian | it-IT |
| Japanese | ja-JP |
| Korean | ko-KR |
| Latin | la-VA |
| Malay (Malaysia) | ms-MY |
| Norwegian (Norway) | no-NO |
| Persian (Iran) | fa-IR |
| Polish | pl-PL |
| Portuguese | pt |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | pt-BR |
| Portuguese (Portugal) | pt-PT |
| Romanian (Romania) | ro-RO |
| Russian (Russia) | ru-RU |
| Slovak (Slovakia) | sk-SK |
| Slovenian (Slovenia) | sl-SI |
| Spanish | es-ES |
| Swedish (Sweden) | sv-SE |
| Turkish | tr-TR |
| Vietnamese | vi-VN |