Localize Strings Using Some Utilities

When release applications, one thing will not be avoided, it is localizing. According to the different user demands, we can divide them into Set language through Settings and Set language inside App

###Set language through Settings

The user demand is easier than another one, when we change language by “Settings -> General -> international”, all applications will restart. So, the .strings file will be loaded again and the language is changed.

Now, let’s see how to do it.

• Use the macro NSLocalizedString(@"user_label_text", nil); to wrap your strings.
• Add one kind of language to project as follow, Xcode will generate a forder named language-lproj.
  

• Use the commend tool genstrings to generate Localizable.strings file.

  genstrings *m -a -o  language-lproj
  

• Change the value of the key for different language.

  "user_label_text" = "用户登陆"
  

The game seems over, but it is not true. The genstrings commend either replaces your earily changes, or just follows the changes, does not merge them. This is boring.

So what can i do? You know, we do not be defeated by Ants. Some advice as follows:

1. Localizable Strings Merge needs $4.99.
2. AGi18n free and can auto convert strings in xib.

3. my shells.

   localizedstring.sh

   #!/bin/sh
   echo "input the language you want localize:"
   read language
   echo $language
   desFilePath=$PWD/"$language".lproj/Localizable.strings
   echo des file path is:"$desFilePath"
   if [ ! -e $desFilePath ] ; then
       echo "des file doed not exit, touch it."
       touch $desFilePath
   fi
   tmpDir=$PWD/"$language".lproj/tmp
   tmpFile="$tmpDir"/Localizable.strings
   tmpFile1="$tmpDir"/Localizable1.strings
   
   rm -rf $tmpDir
   mkdir $tmpDir
   touch $tmpFile1
   find . -name '*.m' | xargs genstrings -macRoman -a -o  $tmpDir
   find . -name '*.mm' | xargs genstrings -macRoman -a -o  $tmpDir
   iconv -f utf-16le  -t utf-8 $tmpFile > $tmpFile1
   chmod 755 loop.sh
   echo  tempfile=$tmpFile1
   echo des=$desFilePath
   ./loop.sh $tmpFile1 $desFilePath
   

loop.sh

    #!/bin/sh  
    echo 1=$1
    echo 2=$2
    SRC=$1
    DES=$2
    if [ $# -ne 2 ] ; then
        echo Usage: loop.sh src des
        exit 1
    fi
    echo arg OK
    while read line; do
        #line is NULL
    #echo line=$line
        if [ "$line" == "" ] ; then
            echo $line >> $2
            continue
        fi    
        equal=`echo $line|grep "="`
        if [ "$equal" == "" ] ; then
            echo "$line" >> $2
            continue
        fi    
        left=`echo $line| cut -d "=" -f1`
        num=`cat $2|grep "$left"|wc -l`
    #echo num=$num
    #    sleep 1
        if [ $num -eq 0 ]; then
    #   echo "$line insert $2 !!!!!!!!!!!!"
            echo $line >> $2
        fi
    done < $SRC

4. Lin can reduce workload for you.

   

   

   

   

###Set language inside App

For this, we need an Object to load stings information real-time.

LanguageHelper.h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#define CustomLocalizedString(str,comment) [LanguageHelper  get:str alter:nil]
@interface LanguageHelper : NSObject

+(void)initialize;
+(void)setLanguage:(NSString *)lan;
+(NSString *)get:(NSString *)key alter:(NSString *)alternate;

/* @brief 返回当前语言
 * @return 返回当前设置的语言
 */
+(NSString *)currentLanguage;
@end

LanguageHelper.m

#import "LanguageHelper.h"

@implementation LanguageHelper

static NSBundle *bundle = nil;

+(void)initialize {


    NSUserDefaults* defs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
    NSString *current = @"";
    if ([defs valueForKey:@"userLanguage"])
    {
        current = [defs valueForKey:@"userLanguage"];
    }
    else
    {
        NSArray* languages = [defs objectForKey:@"AppleLanguages"];
        current =[languages objectAtIndex:0];


        NSArray *supportLanguage = [[NSBundle mainBundle] objectForInfoDictionaryKey:@"SupportedLanguage"];
        if (![supportLanguage containsObject:current])
        {
            current = [[NSBundle mainBundle] objectForInfoDictionaryKey:@"DefaultLanguage"];
        }
        [defs setValue:current forKey:@"userLanguage"];
        [defs synchronize];
    }

    [self setLanguage:current];

}
+(void)setLanguage:(NSString *)lan {
    NSLog(@"preferredLang: %@", lan);
    NSString *path = [[ NSBundle mainBundle ] pathForResource:lan ofType:@"lproj" ];
    bundle = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:path];
}

+(NSString *)get:(NSString *)key alter:(NSString *)alternate {
    return [bundle localizedStringForKey:key value:alternate table:nil];
}

+(NSString *)currentLanguage{
    NSUserDefaults* defs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];

    return [defs objectForKey:@"userLanguage"];
}

@end

First, we need replace NSLocalizable(string,commit) to CustomLocalizable(string,commit), then when the app initializes, we call the method +(void)initialize, when we change another language, we call the method +(void)setLanguage:(NSString *)lan, then we reload the data on views, the function come true.

###Attention！！！
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