I am trying to understand Base.lproj but I am not still understanding it. If I create a new simple project with a view controller and Swift+Storyboard in XCode 6 beta 4 I get a Base.lproj folder out of the box containing the storyboard file.
I then add a simpel NSLocalizedString(...) in my view controller for testing purposes. This requires a Localizable.strings file. When I create one should I add it in the Base.lproj or should I add it in a specific language folder?
If I change the Localization native development region key in Info.plist to de for german and I no Localizable.strings file for de in the de.lproj folder it seems to fallback on Base.lproj if Localizable.strings file is found there. However, if I add a Localizable.strings file in the de.lproj folder but don't add the property (key + value) the app fails during runtime. It seems like Base.lproj isn't searched.
I don't understand which language Base is and when it is used? Is it only for Storyboard files?
I was under the impression that base.lproj is used in cases where the current language/ localisation file does not have a property key. For instance if I do have Main_Title = "Title Text"; in base.lproj and absent in en.lproj while the current language is English, I assumed iOS will find it in base.lproj but that is not the case.
Your initial conclusion is correct:
Base is only used when you did not support that language in localizable.strings
The specific language localizable.strings folder is used when device/ app is using that language
If you do not provide support for a specific file/ string key in a language and you have a folder for that language, it will throw run-time warning
In case of storyboard files and xibs if you only have base.lproj folder which contains your views, notwithstanding how many languages you support, it will not fail (this is what I am doing as well).
Related
I am a little confused about the implementation of localization in Xcode. I know that I can provide as many languages as I want by creating the appropriate XY.Iproj folders and inserting the .strings and Localizable.strings files into them. This all happens automatically with Xcode.
Unfortunately I have problems understanding the Base concept. As I understood it so far, the development language is to be used there. In my case this is English, so should I write in the storyboard and XIB files as text directly in English? For example the headline (a label) of the settings page with the content "Settings"?
But why do I have also the .strings file with the translation into English? That would be redundant, because I have already entered English text directly in the Base file and the .strings file contains the same text again.
Or should the storyboard and XIB files only have identifiers like "settings_page_headline" as content for labels? But that's nonsense, because these labels are good for nothing...
Or can I completely delete the .strings for the English translation if I have already inserted the English content in the storyboard and XIB files?
I hope you can enlighten me a bit. Of course I have read the documentation of Apple, there my problem of understanding is not discussed as much as I need to understand it.
Main.storyboard (Base) and Main.strings (English) contain the same content:
Content of the Main.storyboard (Base):
Content of the Main.strings (English):
"tos-eB-aJc.title" = "Send Feedback";
"S56-oM-eis.title" = "Rate this App";
From Apple documentation:
Xcode creates a Base.lproj folder in your project folder and adds to it the resource files you select. Xcode creates a language folder for the development language but only adds resources that need translation to the folder. For example, if you select English as the development language, Xcode inserts the resource file in the Base.lproj project folder but not the en.lproj folder because the resource is already in English.
link: InternationalizingYourUserInterface
As I understand it, this was done to optimize the import of localization files. Also you can not localize some .xib . If you want to understand how, by what logic and in what order the localization files are loading, read this document from Apple: LocalizingYourApp
I have a Xamarin iOS application that supports 4 different languages at the moment. However
I would now like to be able to translate the contents of my info.plist file and its keys like NSCameraUsageDescription so that its
values can be translated as well.
I have done quite a lot of research so far and by searching through the documentation it is advisable to create an InfoPlist.strings file which would contain
my key NSCameraUsageDescription = "the content here".
There would be an InfoPlist.strings file for each language and this would be contained in a folder fr.lproj, es.lproj etc following the language.
I think that it is relatively well explained to exploit this option in Xcode with the possibility to create .strings files and to localize them directly.
However, on Visual Studio I have some difficulties to introduce and adapt my files. The equivalent of a .strings file on Xcode is a .resx file on VS ?
How can the relationship between my InfoPlist.strings and my main Info.plist file be in order to tell my application to tap in the folder fr.lproj / InfoPlist.strings when I switch to french for instance.
Am I supposed to create one folder for each language named fr.lproj where I put a single file InfoPlist.strings or InfoPlist.resx with my keys ?
However, on Visual Studio I have some difficulties to introduce and
adapt my files. The equivalent of a .strings file on Xcode is a .resx
file on VS ?
No, to create a .strings file in visual studio, you should choose add -> new item -> Text File, then change the file name With xxx.strings.
How can the relationship between my InfoPlist.strings and my main
Info.plist file be in order to tell my application to tap in the
folder fr.lproj / InfoPlist.strings when I switch to french for
instance.
If you created the InfoPlist.strings for each language, it will automatically read the configuration in the file of the Corresponding language, and then show the right language. If the key was not find on the InfoPlist.strings, it will use the default value in main Info.plist.
Am I supposed to create one folder for each language named fr.lproj
where I put a single file InfoPlist.strings or InfoPlist.resx with my
keys ?
Yes, if you have four language to support, you should create 3 xx.lporj folders(another is Base.lporj) and each contains an InfoPlist.strings and Localizable.strings.
In your InfoPlist.strings file, set the key NSCameraUsageDescription = "the content here" and ect....
Read the document may help.
Here is what I just created in my project:
My app is Base language English.
I have added German, and Xcode generated automatically a folder structure that doesn't correspond to what the documentation says. (cf screenshots from Xcode and Finder).
When I run genstrings, it only generates stuff for the english strings (the german remains empty).
I manually copy then the English strings into the German strings, but Export ignores the German strings in the cliff file
What am I missing?
Two things:
First, the de.lproj folder should be at the same level as the en.lproj folder, not a subdirectory of it. Second, you can choose when exporting to XLIFF if you want to export existing translations or the development language only. You may not be seeing that option since the folder layout is currently incorrect.
Only one Resource file is displaying When i'm adding Localizable.strings file for any language. My steps are,
Selected My main app's project file in xcode and found info option is there
in info - Localization - + option
Note: there is only one resource file (InfoPlist.strings) is available to add Language.
3- then Finish, but there is no Localizable.strings file is displaying in xcode but there is InfoPlist.strings file displaying.
But if i do these same steps in sample app which is working fine , I can able to select Multiple resource files And also I can see many Localizable.strings & InfoPlist.strings
in xcode.
Like:
Localizable.strings (English)
Localizable.strings (Spanish)
InfoPlist.Strings (English)
InfoPlist.Strings (Spanish)
Can anyone please tell me the solution to add multiple resource files when localizing any language?
If you want to make your app to support multiple languages, then you'll need to add .strings files to your project, make sure that you should name it "Localizable.strings" only, and need to put in particular language folder,
See this question and my answer there,
Localized filename should always be named Localizable.strings, and that file is within the particular language folder, for English, en.lproj and for French fr.lproj like wise.
Localizable.strings file should be inside the Base.lproj folder.
While testing localization for my app I discovered that Xcode changes the traditional Chinese .lproj folder name from zh-Hant.lproj to zh-hant.lproj (notice lower case 'h') in the app bundle. Since the correct form for traditional Chinese is zh-Hant.lproj, localization won't work when the user changes their device's language to traditional Chinese therefore I have to manually load localizations when this language is set.
quick summary
folder name as seen in project:zh-Hant.lproj
folder name as seen in bundle/.app file after building:zh-hant.lproj
Why do you suppose Xcode is changing the name of this folder and of course, the most obvious question: how can I resolve it?
Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm writing a framework which has its own localizations and turns out the app which was integrating my framework had its own localizations too, where traditional Chinese was set to zh-hant therefore even thought Xcode placed the framework's .strings file and app's .strings file in the same folder (framework's is called FrameworkLocalizable.strings while app uses default Localizable.strings), I guess Xcode has to decide which .lproj folder name to use when creating the folder for the bundle and the app's name wins.
It should be ZH_Hant or ZH_Hans - underscore.