Patent ID: 7596777

Claim:
A translation locking mechanism comprising: a lock tester, wherein the lock tester is stored in a computer-readable storage medium, the lock tester is configured to execute on a processor coupled to the computer-readable storage medium, the lock tester determines whether a translation lock prohibits changes to translatable properties of an object without locking non-translatable properties of the object, the object is part of a software application, the translatable properties comprise data and metadata affected by a language translation, the metadata comprises information about user interface elements, the lock tester is further configured to determine whether alterations have been made to locked translatable properties of the object contained in a changed dataset being checked-in, and prevent checking-in of the changed dataset when the changed dataset comprises unacceptable alterations to locked translatable properties of the object, and the unacceptable alterations require retranslation of at least one of the locked translatable properties of the object; an editing tool, wherein the editing tool is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, the editing tool is configured to execute on the processor, the editing tool is configured to permit changes to non-translatable properties of the object even though the translation lock prohibits changes to be made to the translatable properties; and a display system, coupled to the processor and configured to display data, identify data that is not editable, and alert a user when the locked tester determines that the changed dataset comprises unacceptable alterations to locked translatable properties of the object.