In Xcode 5 > Project > Info > Localizations one can pick a language/region from Other section. Can one localize an app for a region/language that is not among the 32 languages found under Settings.app > General > International > Language without any extra code? And what about InfoPlist.strings and its CFBundleDisplayName localized to a region?
Take Belarusian (be), for example. Can Xcode use be.lproj at runtime without any additional code (on my part)? Or must one manually pick the locale, i.e. using [[NSLocale currentLocale] localeIdentifier]?
Apart from Localizable.strings (for which one can provide code, if need be), I'm mostly concerned about CFBundleDisplayName: can CFBundleDisplayName be localized to one of the Other languages/regions? As far as I can tell, InfoPlist.strings (and CFBundleDisplayName within it) can't be manipulated from code.
Related:
Multiple Localized .strings Files in iOS App Bundle
Localizing apps for non-standard locales
I could have a separate Target for each of those Other languages:
That is, localize those 32 supported languages under Target 32 (for which Xcode can automatically pick correct .lproj directory).
And Belarusian goes under say Target Be (and has only one Localizable.strings and InfoPlist.strings)?
Obviously, this would mean a lot of targets (and tiresome submit procedure). Is this multiple-targets approach the best possible?
Related
I'm writing this question because a lot of information on Stackoverflow (and even Apple's developer website) about this topic is unfortunately partially outdated:
I want to support multiple languages in my Xcode 12.5/Swift 5/iOS 12.3+ app: German as the default language and English as a "fallback".
Currently the "Info" tab lists two "Localization" languages:
The "Localization" section of the File Inspector for both my Main.storyboard and LaunchScreen.storyboard file look like this (by default):
"Base" is checked and that's why the first screenshot shows 2 files for it.
The language in Info.plist is set to the following:
So far I haven't touched the actual localization settings yet and I've been using the same language for every label,... in XIB (which is probably saved in "Base").
According to Apple's old Localization Guide, "Base" is the default language that is used, as long as it's included in the user's language settings (so in my case: German). The "Developer Language" is the "fallback" language that is used if the user's language settings don't include the base language (in my case: English). This Q&A page also says:
If you adopt Base Localization, make sure that the value of
CFBundleDevelopmentRegion matches the language used by your content in
the Base.lproj folder.
... and in this guide enabling the base localization for "English - Development Language" for both storyboards adds 2 localized files to it, without actually adding another ("Base") localization to the list. As you can see on my first screenshot, "Base" and "Development" are separate list entries, which wasn't the case in earlier Xcode versions.
My first question is: Did I understand all of this correctly? It's a bit confusing that the quote sees "Base" and "Development Language" as the same thing, even though you can of course have a default language that isn't the "fallback" language.
The same Q&A I linked above also goes into detail about regional versions of a specific language:
If my app supports "German" (language code: "de") but the user's language settings only list e.g. Austrian German ("de_AT"), then the app is still going to set its own language to German. Let's say I want to use Swiss German (de_CH) as the default language but the user only picked Austrian German ("de_AT") in his settings, does this still work the same way? Should you rather set your app's default language to the regular non-regional language (German = "de") instead, even if the labels,... use e.g. Swiss German words?
How do I change the "Base" language to German (let's say, "de_CH") and also make it appear as that in the list, while using English ("en") as the "fallback"? I did find a similar question but unfortunately the steps described in the answer don't work the same way in Xcode 12.5. anymore.
What I wanted to achieve:
Support English but use German as the default language that is also used if the user's language settings don't include English or German.
How I achieved this in Xcode 12.5:
Add "German (de)" to the "Localizations" list via the little "+" button. In the new Choose files and reference language to create German localization pop-up every storyboard file should already be ticked by default. This adds .strings (German) localization files for all storyboards in the Project Navigator on the left:
In Main.storyboard's File Inspector tick the "English" box in the "Localization" section (this might take a while). This adds an additional Main.strings (English) file in the Project Navigator. Repeat this step for each storyboard, including the launch screen.
To change the "Development Language", which is the language the app uses by default and also if it doesn't support any of the languages the user set in their device's language settings, close Xcode, then open the project's .xcodeproj file with a text editor (I used BBEdit, which is free). There should be a list of files, including project.pbxproj. Open it and set developmentRegion (= development language) to the language code of the language that you added in step 1, so in my case "de". Do not use a different code (e.g. add "German (de)" but set it to "de_CH") because that's going to create an additional localization.
There are now two ways to finish this part of localization:
A. Leave it as is. Changes in storyboard aren't going to affect any of the .strings files. Advantage: The text can be edited directly (without using storyboard), which is useful if you aren't the person who's working on the translations. Disadvantage: You can't quickly see and test the changes to a translation in storyboard but have to run the app in the simulator or on an actual device.
B. Use the default language as "Base" language: Untick "German" for every storyboard and hit "Remove" in the pop-up, which removes the localizations in the list. This way changes to the storyboard affect the default language, which makes it easier to test changes.
I used version B:
Important:
These .strings files are only used for storyboards! If you also want to set localized text at runtime using NSLocalizedString (e.g. for an error dialog), then you have to add an additional Localizable.strings file (more details here):
File - New - File - Strings File - Call it Localizable.strings
Click "Localize" in its File Inspector and pick one of the languages you want to use in code.
Afterwards, also in the File Inspector, you can tick the other languages in the "Localization" section (including the development one).
Bonus infos:
You can change the app language of the simulator through the scheme:
Product - Scheme - Edit Scheme - Run (left side) - Options tab (right side) - App Language
You can also show a preview of the currently selected UIViewController and change its displayed language without starting a simulator:
Editor - Preview - In the new preview window on the right there's a button in the bottom right
Disclaimer: I found this solution by testing different things, as there's currently no tutorial for this (using the latest Xcode version). If this is not the "right" way to do localization, please post your own answer and I'll check it out.
I'm trying to account for both English and Georgian and an app I'm developing. I had added the localization language to the project, have all the storyboard languages setup and the strings files.
I now want to test to see if the text translates correctly.
However, when I go to Edit Scheme and find the application language drop down it doesn't have Georgian.
When I added the localization in the project settings I could go to a More menu that had LOADS of languages. Why does this not exist in the Application Language drop down in the scheme settings?
EDIT:
Tried the solution below by adding language and locale as arguments:
I have what I believe is the correct setup for translating strings depending on the language of the phone etc.
The Xcode scheme Debug options only include a subset of languages plus pseudolanguages for testing. However, there are workarounds.
If you want to see if text translates correctly, do one of the following:
Go to your scheme's Arguments tab and add the AppleLanguages and AppleLocale to the "Arguments Passed On Launch" section.
For example, to select the Georgian language and the Georgian region, you'd add:
-AppleLanguages "(ka-GE)"
-AppleLocale "GEO"
or:
On the device or simulator, set the region and language in the device's Preferences and then run your app.
More here: Internationalization and Localization Guide
Note that the ISO language code for Georgia is "ka-GE", not "ge". You should have "ka-GE.lproj" as your localization folder name.
The language code comes from the ISO codes here: ISO 639-2 codes, and the region code comes from these: ISO_3166-2 codes
One other thing I just noticed is that your string translation files are called "Localize.strings". The default filename is "Localizable.strings" and if you're calling NSLocalizedString without providing an explicit file name in the optional table parameter, that's what iOS looks for. So, you'll probably need to rename your translation files for things to work.
I am developing an iOS app targeted almost exclusively at a Japanese audience, with the possibility of a small portion of english-speaking users.
All storyboards and xibs are being designed with Japanese strings, and localization into English should take place at a later stage.
From the beginning, the Project's Info/Localizations section in Xcode reads:
(The two files are, of course, "Main.storyboard" and "LaunchScreen.xib")
Because "English" is already added (as the development language), I can not click the "+" button and add it as a localization. I could add 'Japanese' instead, but I want it to be the Development Language, not just some (secondary) localization.
Also, and in an apparent contradiction with the above, The Target's Info.plist file reads:
When I select either of the localized files (Main.storyboard and LaunchScreen.xib) in the Project Navigator, and check the file inspector, the 'Localization' section reads:
...which seems to suggest that the existing, Japanese files (.xib and .storyboard) are the 'Base' and checking 'English' will add support for that language too (The pull-down menu seems to indicate that I can chose between using a strings file or a dedicated duplicate of the storyboard. I am inclined to believe the strings approach is better).
...So, how should I proceed?
A. Check the 'English' box in the File inspector / Localization section?
This creates an en.lproj folder and adds a strings file inside it that I should translate later, I guess. This effectively seems to treat my existing Interface Builder files (populated with Japanese labels) as 'Base', and provide for localization into English through the strings file created (if I understand correctly). However, English as the Development Language in the Project settings remains somehow unsettling...
B. Remove English and instead add Japanese in the Project/Info/Localizations pane?
This will make Japanese the Development Language, and I can re-add English as a localization afterwards. But for some reason, if I do this Japanese will not be treated as 'Base' language, and (unnecessary) string files will be also added for Japanese, not just for English.
EDIT: I found this question, which somehow provides a 'fix' for the option B above.
OK, this is what I settled for (but I will still accept better/smarter answers):
I did as suggested by the question I mentioned before, and edited the Xcode project file to force Japanese as the "Development Language":
developmentRegion = English;
hasScannedForEncodings = 0;
knownRegions = (
en,
Base,
);
becomes:
developmentRegion = Japanese;
hasScannedForEncodings = 0;
knownRegions = (
en,
ja,
Base,
Next, for the storyboards/xibs I want to localize, I will check the 'English' checkbox in the File inspector/Localization:
...and that will create my string files for English localization (Notice the 'Japanese' checkbox below 'English'. I'd rather it not be there at all, because the Base xibs/storyboards already have Japanese text labels by default, but I can just leave it unchecked).
Now, the Project's Info pane, 'Localizations' section looks like this:
ADDENDUM: Now that I think of it, with things setup like this, if someone ever launches this app on (say) an iPhone set to French, the app will fall back to Japanese (not English). This is probably not ideal, since the default language for non-Japanese speakers should be English, not the other way around.
However, I can not afford to design my xibs with English text and translate them to Japanese afterwards.
I decided to merge several of my projects into one project using the same code base and use different targets for the different versions of my application.
My application is translated to 7 languages with English as default. The other languages are: Swedish, Dutch, German, French, Polish and Spanish. The translations worked like a charm before. I am using the NSLocalizedString and have my Localizable.strings which is translated.
However, now that I merged my projects together, and also added the InfoPlist.strings file, the application incists on using the default texts (English). When I start the application and get the "share location" question, I get the question in the localized language (So the OS does get the localization), but the rest of the application is still in English.
The files are correctly translation and have no errors. I have tested several languages, but all are in English.
If I set the CFBundleDevelopmentRegion to e.g. Swedish, the whole app is in Swedish instead. So the localizations work, but the app ignores the system setting.
Am I missing something?
I found the answer to my problem. I have several strings files, one for my app translation, and one for each target called InfoPlist.strings which contains just CFBundleDisplayName and CFBundleName for localized app name. These cannot be included into the Localizable.strings since these are different for each target.
I removed the InfoPlist.strings files from my project and now the app is localized again.
I couldn't find any similar questions, so here we go:
I am working on an iOS app that for the first release will only be in french, but we plan to release an english version as well in the future. At this point, I thought it was a good idea to use NSLocalizedString for all the text, so that the app will be ready when the english language will be required. However, I would really like to use english as the key value in my code:
aString = NSLocalizedString(#"Yes", #"Text for positive answer");
instead of
aString = NSLocalizedString(#"Oui", #"Text for positive answer");
Then I want to run genstrings, and localize the .strings file in french (and give it to the translators). But if I do it like that, how can I get rid of the "original" english .strings file? Am I totally wrong here, and do I have to use french for now in my code?
If you are developing the app in English and localizing it into French, I wonder why you would want to actively prevent the app from running in English. If some users in your target market (France only, I imagine?) prefer to run their iOS device in English language, why deny them their preferred language? Or is it because you won't be doing QA of the English version and therefore don't wish to expose it yet?
In any case, I believe that you can restrict the list of supported languages by simply editing your project metadata. In XCode the list of supporting languages is shown on this page -- simply remove English and I believe that your English localizations, even if they are present in your project, won't be used (I haven't tested this but I doubt it would delete your existing English files, it should just remove them from the application's supported languages list)
You can do your whole project in english, keep english words for keys in the localizable.strings files, but keep only the fr.lproj folder, and in the plist set the supported languages only to french.