CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Reputation: 1335

App Localization for two versions of the same Language

Background: We are trying to localize apps for FR-FR, FR-CA, ES-ES, and ES-MX. We've created the correct localizable.strings and strings.xml files for both android and ios, respectively. All four look like they are supported by both OS.

Issues: We are having issues testing that these are correct. For instance, there is the option in either OS to select French, but not French Canadian. When we switch the language to French and the region to Canada in an iOS device, it only changes the keyboard.

Questions:

Upvotes: 4

Views: 231

Answers (1)

Stephan Branczyk
Stephan Branczyk

Reputation: 9385

Note that for Android, the language-country attribute doesn't necessarily need to exist in a real combination for it to still work. For instance, if you create a localization for the German language in Canada, it will still work even though probably no one made a phone for that particular combination.

When confronted with an unknown combination, Android will just cascade up to the less precise German language attribute for language-related localizations (assuming German is even present on the phone/apk) and cascade up to the less precise geographical-only attribute of Canada (assuming Canada-related attributes are even present on the phone/apk).

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about iOS to give you specific advice on that part of the question.

How could you test for localizations? At Google I/O last year, there was a presentation on a new Eclipse localization tool for testing your layouts on many different locales at the same time.

As another testing strategy, that would also help with iOS, aside from asking distant family and friends living abroad, or asking your own existing customers (if you have any), you could go on http://fiverr.com/ and pay five US dollars to someone French-speaking in Quebec to do a quick test of your app on their phone and send you phone screenshots of your app running on their device.

Depending on your budget and the geographical location(s) you're targeting, there must be many other web sites/services that could help you crowdsource (or hire mechanical turks for) such a task.

Upvotes: 2

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