Localizing an application

[AdmiralAK]

Need some direction here.
I just downloaded xAudic.
I like it, and I took a look at its internals
by taking a lok at its package contents.
I found an english.lproj folder. I assume that
it is named as such because it uses the english
language for menus, dialogue boxes etc.

I want to startlocalizing and since xAudic seems
like a small app I think it would be fitting to start
with it (who knows perhaps my name will be on
their site, get my 15 minutes of fame lol ).

In any case, I assumer that if I make a german.lproj
folder and I go into the files and change the names,
for example einstellugen instead of prefs and so on
I can localize the app. Unfortunatelly some files are
in XML which I dont know, and obj-c which I can figure out
from my C and Java training.

So a few questions:

1) Is my hypothesis about localization correct ?

2) Does the folder have to be named in the language
that you are going to use ? For example should it be
german.lproj or deutsche.lproj ?

3) Is there a quick guide to XML (no mumbo jumbo ) on the
net somewhere ?


Thanks

Admiral

 

[tie]

I don't really know, but this is what I would guess:

Duplicate the English.lproj folder and rename it German.lproj (case matters).

Inside the folder will be a bunch of files. Do not change their names. You want to change their contents. There will probably be a few types of files:

Images/sounds/movies: Replace these if necessary with localized versions

.nib files: Open these in Interface Builder and edit at will. This is probably where you have to make the most changes. (Although, mp3 apps tend to use custom interfaces which may be more difficult to localize.)

XML files (e.g., Info.plist): These will generally be lists of key/string pairs like

[key]theKey[/key][string]theString[/string]

. Do not change the key. Be very careful about changing the strings; you can change application-specific strings, but some of them are for working with the OS. For example, there is often something like

[key]mainclass[/key][string]theClassName[/string]

. You obviously don't want to change this because the application won't load correctly.

Try this and see if it works.

Could you maybe help me localize my program, Eyes. Basically, I just need localized text for the preferences window (a screenshot is at the link above) and for the main menu (which has only two items, "Preferences..." and "Quit Eyes".

Does anyone here know Japanese?

[Edit: Fixed UBB stuff. All those brackets should really be chevrons]

 

[rharder]

Don't forget to take a look at other Apps to see how they're localized.

Check out www.webmonkey.com. They've got great entry-level and advanced tutorials on various web technologies, including XML. If you're familiar with HTML, you're halfway there.

-Rob