Internationalization & Character Transcoding Guide¶

Note

Liferay Docker Manager (LDM) is engineered to provide seamless, native-language support for software engineering teams across all nations. This document details how LDM handles non-ASCII folder names, German umlauts, European accents/diacritics, and non-Latin scripts (CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek).

🌐 Philosophy & Overview¶

Developers frequently work with local folder names, workspace paths, or project titles written in their native languages (e.g. /projects/München-Portal, ~/dev/Liferay-Köln, or /repos/东京-Liferay).

However, Linux kernel networking, Docker Engine container specifications, volume naming contracts, and DNS hostnames strictly require RFC-1123 compliant ASCII alphanumeric characters.

To bridge this boundary, LDM enforces a Dual Identity Model:

Raw Native Identity: Preserved on your local host filesystem, metadata records, and visual Web Dashboard UI (ldm dashboard).
Transcoded RFC-1123 Identity: Generated dynamically via sanitize_id() for Docker container names, Docker volumes, Traefik proxy routes, and DNS subdomains.

🔤 Transcoding & Normalization Rules¶

LDM applies zero-dependency string transcoding in ldm_core/utils.py (sanitize_id()):

1. German Umlauts & Eszett¶

German characters are transcoded into standard Latin digraph replacements:

Original Character	Transcoded Replacement
`ä`	`ae`
`Ä`	`AE`
`ö`	`oe`
`Ö`	`OE`
`ü`	`ue`
`Ü`	`UE`
`ß`	`ss`

2. European Accents & Diacritics¶

Unicode NFKD decomposition strips accents while preserving base Latin characters across Spanish, French, Portuguese, Scandinavian, and Italian languages:

Sample Character	Transcoded Replacement
`é` / `è` / `ê`	`e`
`ñ`	`n`
`ç`	`c`
`å` / `á` / `à`	`a`
`ø`	`o`

3. Non-Latin Scripts (CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek)¶

When a project identifier consists exclusively of non-Latin scripts (such as Chinese 東京, Cyrillic Москва, or Arabic دبي), LDM generates a deterministic, safe SHA-256 hash prefix (project-a1b2c3d4). This guarantees 100% valid Docker container initialization without crashing the Docker daemon.

📊 Component Mapping Breakdown¶

The table below illustrates how a workspace named München-Portal is represented across the LDM ecosystem:

Component / Layer	Format Rendered	Actual Value	Reason & Context
Host Filesystem Path	Raw Native	`/Users/dev/repos/München-Portal`	Folder name on disk remains untouched.
Web Dashboard UI (`ldm dashboard`)	Raw Native	`München-Portal`	Developer UI renders human-readable workspace title.
CLI Status (`ldm list` / `ldm info`)	Raw Native	`/Users/dev/repos/München-Portal`	Terminal lists preserve actual disk locations.
Docker Container Name	Transcoded	`liferay-muenchen-portal`	Enforces Docker Engine daemon naming compliance.
Docker Volume Name	Transcoded	`muenchen-portal_osgi_state`	Enforces POSIX Docker volume naming rules.
Traefik Proxy Hostname	Transcoded	`muenchen-portal.local`	Enforces DNS domain label specifications.
Cloud Subdomain (`--share`)	Transcoded	`muenchen-portal.lfr-demo.online`	Enforces public URL domain specifications.

🖥️ Terminal Display Options (`--no-unicode`)¶

For developers working in legacy SSH terminals, Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe), or ASCII-only CI build logs, LDM supports output character safe-replacements:

# Force ASCII safe-replacements for terminal UI icons and color codes
ldm status --no-unicode

Last Updated: 2026-08-18 | Last Reviewed: 2026-08-18