How to localize Cordova iOS projects? - ios

Question

I've been searching on the Internet but none of the solutions I found seems to work so, my question is with Xcode 6, how we could localize a Cordova app?
The image below illustrates the problem, I tested the app in the iOS Simulator (I changed the language settings of the simulator to Spanish) but the context menu in inputs or some plugin like camera are still in English. I changed the "Localization native development region" to "es" but still in English. Also I have Localizable.strings in the es.lproj folder.

Answer 1

Finally I figured out after some digging and with the help of a guy that greatly assisted me in other forum, you have to put this in the project .plist this:
<key>CFBundleLocalizations</key>
<array>
<string>es</string>
</array>
Each string is the language you want to localize.

Answer 2

It is also possible to do this without a hook or plugin by using <edit-config> in your config.xml. Here is an example:
<platform name="ios">
<edit-config target="CFBundleLocalizations" file="*-Info.plist" mode="overwrite">
<array>
<string>en</string>
<string>es</string>
</array>
</edit-config>
</platform>
Usage of <edit-config> in config.xml was introduced in Cordova 6.4.0.

Answer 3

The preferred answer is correct but has the drawback to be native, i. e. you have to modify the Info*.plist after cordova prepare.
If you want to stick with the Cordova's style (which i recommend), you can use a hook or a plugin for this.
I did it with a plugin because a plugin has (from scratch) the ability to modify the native configuration's files (AndroidManifest.xml or Info*.plist).
See https://stackoverflow.com/a/27947343/2728710
What I've done :
make a new specific plugin name "cordova-plugin-config-ios"
localPlugins/cordova-plugin-config-ios/plugin.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plugin id="cordova-plugin-config-ios" version="0.0.1" xmlns="http://apache.org/cordova/ns/plugins/1.0">
<name>CRM Factory Cordova Localization iOS Plugin</name>
<description>A label translate example</description>
<!-- ios -->
<platform name="ios">
<config-file target="*-Info.plist" parent="CFBundleDevelopmentRegion">
<array>
<string>French</string>
</array>
</config-file>
<config-file target="*-Info.plist" parent="CFBundleLocalizations">
<array>
<string>fr_FR</string>
</array>
</config-file>
</platform>
</plugin>
make a hook add-local-plugins.sh. In it, install the specific plugin made
add-local-plugins.sh
echo "Install specific plugin for modify Info*.plist"
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-config-ios --searchpath ${projectDir}/localPlugins/cordova-plugin-config-ios
call the hook via config.xml
config.xml
<hook src="hooks/add-local-plugins.sh" type="before_prepare" />
In my case, the hook was not mandatory but I like the freedom brought by it and to be able to log what the program did (echo part).

Answer 4

Go to the .plist file of any plugin and comment out:
<!-- <key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>nl</string> -->
Then the plugin will use the systems set language and region. This is likely the most practical solution for a lot of cases.

Answer 5

How to use iOS device settings for language:
It seems CFBundleDevelopmentRegion is always set to en_US by default (or maybe this is because I build on a laptop that has these settings) thus showing context menus, file upload dialog etc in English.
I found that setting CFBundleDevelopmentRegion to empty uses device settings for language.
Note that some plugins seem to set language, so if you cannot get it to work, check your plugins. This was tested in Ionic 5 / Angular / Cordova.
Put this in your config.xml ios section:
<platform name="ios">
<config-file parent="CFBundleDevelopmentRegion" target="*-Info.plist">
<array>
<string />
</array>
</config-file>
</platform>
Thanks to #maximillion-bartango answer for putting me on the right track with this

Answer 6

I post the way that i worked:
Find in the x-code the folder Resources (is placed in root)
Select the folder Resources
Then press the main menu File->New->File...
Select in section "Resource" Strings File and press Next
Then in Save As field write InfoPlist ONLY ("I" capital and "P"
capital)
Then press Create
Then select the file InfoPlist.strings that created in Resources
folder and press in the right menu the button "Localize"
Then you Select the Project from the Project Navigator and select
the The project from project list
In the info tab at the bottom you can as many as language you want
(There is in section Localizations)
The language you can see in Resources Folder
To localize the values ("key") from info.plist file you can open
with a text editor and get all the keys you want to localize
You write any key as the example in any InfoPlist.strings like the
above example
"NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription"="blabla";
"NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription"="blabla2";
That's all work and you have localize your info.plist file!

Answer 7

You can do this within the app code itself using cordova-custom-config:
<custom-config-file parent="CFBundleLocalizations" target="*-Info.plist" mode="replace">
<array>
<string>en</string>
</array>
</custom-config-file>

Answer 8

Adding CFBundleLocalizations works, however, you still need to manually add, or drag, the InfoPlist.strings files to the Xcode project to work.
I found this Cordova plugin completely takes over the process, https://github.com/kelvinhokk/cordova-plugin-localization-strings. So I can simply run cordova prepare and it is all set.