CODEWITHSUNDEEP
android
lomza
lomza

Reputation: 9716

Dynamic Android app languages

Many times I've seen Android apps that have a list of languages displayed and I can tap on any of this language and download it for this specific app (GO Weather widget has this functionality).

I'm interested in how is this implemented and what is the best way to load languages dynamically in Android apps? Adding 100 string.xml resources in app project is not a solution and besides if I want to provide some kind of "funny holiday language" pack or add a new language I would need to upload the project to Google Play again and again...

Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1165

Answers (1)

Geobits
Geobits

Reputation: 22342

While it's possible to use Expansion Files to add on to your app, they are limited in some ways. The main problem for you would be that you can only have a limited number of expansion files. If you wanted 100 languages, your only option would be to load them all in the expansion file, and download the whole thing. While that might not be a problem, since a list of translated strings probably isn't that large, you may want to go a different route.

The best option I see for downloading separate language add-ons is to forgo using strings.xml altogether. Just use a simple CSV file to hold your strings, mapping names to strings. When your program starts, read it in to a string array/map/whatever, and you have all your strings at the ready. This way, if you want to add a language, it's as easy as downloading a text file and saving it to your data directory.

Also, you can keep a file listing all the available languages on the same server, so you don't have to update the app if you want to add seasonal or limited-time-only languages, like you mentioned. Just read in the file to get the list.

Note, you'll need somewhere to host the files, but that's hardly a barrier in this day and age.

Upvotes: 2

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