I'm writing an iOS app, where I want the user to be able to change the UI language independent of the iPhone's or iPad's language. The question is, how do I reload the appropriate NIB file for the currently displayed view when the language changes and how do I load the appropriate .strings file so that NSLocalizedString works appropriately?
This should do the trick, assuming that de is the new language selected by the user. Also assure that you are reinitiating the current view.
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"de", nil]
forKey:#"AppleLanguages"];
Personally, I don't like the idea of giving NIB files to translators. Instead, I design the NIBs so there is enough space for non-English languages (typically they will require 50% more room for text), and then I store all text resources in Localizable.strings files.
Then, in my code I set the text for each UI control.
[_myButton setTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"My button title",
#"My description for translation file, e.g. including chars limit")
forState:UIControlStateNormal];
I find this makes the translation process easier to manage.
To answer your original question, you would put this code in the viewWillAppear function of your UIView to ensure it is reloaded each time the UI reappears.
Related
I am working on Localization of my App to support English and Spanish language.I have created the string files for both english and spanish.All the strings in my app are managed by
`NSLocalizedString(#"key", nil);`
and give the expected result.I have given an option for changing the language inside my app in a tableview.
NSUserDefaults *nsdefault=[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
nsdefault setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObject:#"en"] forKey:#"AppleLanguages"];
nsdefault synchronize];
1) I need to change the app name and icon depending on the selection of language in tableview.For app name i used "CFBundleDisplayName" = "Librairie";
so that the next time i launch the app the app name and icon should change.
2)for app name
`"CFBundleDisplayName" = "Librairie";`
.It works only if i go to iPhone's setting and change the language manually.Through code it doesn't work.
Please suggest me the approach i can follow so that when i choose spanish language from my tableview the name and icon gets replaced.
can i localize the app icon image also like we do for any image used in UIView ?
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
You can't change neither the app icon, neither the display name. Both of those are read only once the app is installed, and even if you could, those would create a really bad user experience.
I use Done button in my custom view and I'd like to make its title localizable. I know that system Done button from UINavigationBar is already localized and it would be perfect to get it's localized strings somehow. Is there a way to do this?
Using the whole UINavigationBar only because of localized Done button seems to be inappropriate.
Clarification: the point is to use the same localized strings, that system uses.
There isn't an official way to get standard strings from the OS, but it's highly likely that all the strings will be in localized strings files, and most of those are present on the simulator (it won't have strings from apps that aren't present on the simulator, but should have almost all the strings from frameworks).
The simulator's framework directory is relative to your Xcode install directory and something like this (typing it from memory, change the version as appropriate):
Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator6.1.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/
To start with, I'd look in UIKit.framework/en.lproj/*.strings (or English.lproj or en_US.lproj). Strings files are plists and will generally be binary plists on device (such files start with "bplist00"). There are various ways to open these: TextWrangler will automatically display plists as XML, and the command-line tool plutil will convert to other formats. I use the bash alias
alias plist-dump='plutil -convert xml1 -o /dev/stdout --'
When you've found the string, you have a couple of options:
Load it directly from the framework at runtime with something like
[[NSBundle bundleWithIdentifier:...] localizedStringForKey:#"DONE" value:nil table:...]
This is not recommended. Yhere's no guarantee that it will work on a different OS version. (In practice, a string like "Done" probably won't move, but the alternative is easy enough that it's not worth the fuss.)
Copy the strings into your project. I don't know of a tool to automatically do this and merge with your existing Localizable.strings, but it probably exists somewhere and would not be too difficult to write. Slightly legally dubious (but not much more so than copying strings by eye for the languages you care about); I would definitely avoid doing it on a prerelease SDK to avoid concerns about Apple's NDA.
Copy the whole strings file into e.g. UIKit.strings and use something like NSLocalizedStringFromTable(#"DONE",#"UIKit",nil). Likely to be a copyright infringement!
In practice, I think Apple is unlikely to care about copying a handful of strings/images from iOS into an iOS app. Copying them into an Android app is another matter entirely...
Just add needed localization in project settings, all system stuff like done button will be localized by device locale if you added it, else it willbe on default language which you also should set up.
For custom button:
[self.myButton setTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"my localizable title", #"") forState:UIControlStateNormal];
It also valid for any NSString in your project.
NSString *someText = NSLocalizedString(#"my localizable title", #"");
self.myLabel.text = someText;
You should make your app localizable anyway by adding needed localizations.
After that just follow this instructions:
http://www.raywenderlich.com/2876/how-to-localize-an-iphone-app-tutorial
But I really recommend to you to do this in the end of project.
I want to change the language of my app. At the moment I am doing it at the following way.
I have two buttons which are change the languages in NSUserDefaults. But before this affects my app I need to restart it.
Here is my code.
- (IBAction)changeDutch:(id)sender {
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"nl", #"en", nil] forKey:#"AppleLanguages"];
}
- (IBAction)changeEnglish:(id)sender {
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"en", #"nl", nil] forKey:#"AppleLanguages"];
}
This works fine. But I don't want every time to restart my app. Can anyone tell me how to do that?
Kind regards!
Check out HMLocalization: https://github.com/HeshamMegid/HMLocalization
It's a replacement for the default localisation framework. It has a demo showing how to change language without having to restart the app.
There is a method to change app language without restart mentioned this tutorial post I've tried it in an app and it works mostly but still if you are using system items like More tab in tabbar, Edit button on MoreNavigationController and Cancel button on UISearchBar and so on, there text can't be changed for selected language without restarting app. If there is no such item that is controlled by iOS instead of your app, this is a perfect solution for you.
If your data is in UITableView then you could use [tableView reloadData];.
You can even set the app languages in appDelegate, defined in Constants, keys, then on the IBAction call those keys then be stored in NSUserDefaults.
which way you're using for localization, I mean to ask is that native in which we just only maintain the folder structure or taken from Db.
Anyways, If you're using native part, then look at following link which may assist you as I think we can replace the language option there:
"http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3910244/getting-current-device-language-in-ios"
(Frankly speaking, I've no idea)
But if you are using the db part, then in that case you just use some enum based tact and according to which just fetch your data, that approach is simple as I've already applied in so many apps.
In any concern, just back to me. :)
How can I make UIBarbuttonItem localizable?
My implementation:
UIBarButtonItem *cancelButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone
target:self
action:#selector(cancel)];
Originally I thought that it is automatic, because it looks easy to make it like this, but looks like not.
EDIT1: Official Apple dox says that cancel, done, edit, save buttons are localized, but not sure how to make it.
Alright, I think I know what's going on.
UIKit decides in which language to display strings, based on the value of [[NSBundle mainBundle] preferredLocalizations]. The idea behind this is to use translated resources whenever possible, falling back to English otherwise. For example, if you don't provide the translation of your app in Finnish and Finnish is selected in Settings->General->International->Language, your app will be in English. It may be a bit more complicated (UIKit may go through all the list of languages in the order displayed in Settings.app, trying to find the first language your app has translations for), but the point stands.
The above may be too obvious to miss a crucial nuance. The language determined by the above algorithm is used for the app's whole UI. For example, if the app bundle doesn't contain sk.lproj, nothing will be displayed in Slovak. In fact, it does make sense because otherwise some parts of UI would be in Slovak, other parts, in English.
Open the compiled app's bundle to see which *.lproj folders are there. The same set, sorted according to user preferences, will be returned by [[NSBundle mainBundle] preferredLocalizations]. All localizable strings, including system bar button items, will be displayed in one of those languages. If you don't support, for example, Russian, the whole UI will appear in another language, even if Russian is selected in Settings.app.
If this is the case with your app indeed, there are two right things and one wrong thing to do:
right: provide Slovak translation for each and every string displayed in your app, translate any text-containing nibs to Slovak too;
right: ignore Slovak altogether if you cannot (or don't need to) support it;
wrong: select any strings file or any nib, open Xcode's inspector, click "Add Localization…" (if the button is disabled, first click "Make File Localizable"), type "sk", click "Add" and build the project. This will make UIKit think your app is translated to Slovak, and system bar button items will automatically appear in Slovak when it's selected in Settings.app.
If you see a different behavior, there may be something wrong with the project/build/built app. For example, I noticed that when you make a file localized, its non-localized copy doesn't get deleted from the previously built app bundle.
Bump, but I think Vanya’s problem might be the “Localization native development region”/CFBundleDevelopmentRegion entry in Info.plist. If this is set to English and no localizations are explicitly made available as Costique explains, all system strings will be non-localized. But, set it to sk and - violà.
Not sure I understand your question correctly, but standard (system) bar button items are localized and thus automatically appear in the user-selected language. There are notable exceptions like UISwitch showing 0/1 instead of ON/OFF. What language are you having problems with?
That said, you can always use custom bar button items in place of system ones and provide necessary translations yourself. It's just overkill in most cases.
My implementation in Swift:
let doneButton = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .done, target: self, action: #selector(doneButtonTapped(button:)))
This uses the system default language for "Done" text.
i am making an app for iphone and for that i am using certain free libraries.My problem is that i want to show their complete license of nearly 4-5 pages in my application bundle so that a user can open settings in iphone and see that licensing page at one time but i am unable to do it.I have read these Specifiers for making an application bundle .
PSGroupSpecifier
PSTitleValueSpecifier
PSTextFieldSpecifier
PSSliderSpecifier
PSToggleSwitchSpecifier
PSMultiValueSpecifier
PSChildPaneSpecifier
but i want to show a page full of text like Settings->General->About->Leagl
just like in iphone through PSChildPaneSpecifier .Please help me how to do this>???
Thanks
You can create the same effect as used by Apple's iWorks apps for the license > section of the settings, without using any custom preference controller. Note this works for iOS 5 on the iPad, I have not tried it elsewhere. Use a PSChildPaneSpecifier for the initial control in the root plist. This points to the name of another plist file which will be the displayed child pane. You do not add .plist to the name within the root.plist file, it is implied. This plist file must be within the settings bundle. Next, use PSGroupSpecifiers in the child pane as the controls. For each paragraph use another PSGroupSpecifier - so the thing will scroll. Only use the Title section of the PSGroupSpecifier. The next gotcha that I found, was that by putting the strings in the plist file, the text was clipped in portrait orientation, so a placeholder string needs to go in the plist file and a StringTable used to point to a strings file. Text read from the strings file is properly kerned and displays without clipping.
The iPhone's "Legal" page is a custom preference controller which you can't use (not even with undocumented methods – you need to write a preference bundle in system locations which AppStore apps can't reach at all).
If you'd like to display the license, show it in the app.
I think you are going to need to use something like a UITextView, just make it non-editable. You can make in unobtrusive in your app but I think that is the only way to have 4-5 pages.
I don't think there is a nice way of displaying this in the preferences bundle. Personally I would either provide a series of url links or bring the preferences into the app itself. There is a good framework on github here that you may be able to modify.