CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneobjective-cios4localization
Heena
Heena

Reputation: 754

iphone: How do I make my app support two or more languages?

I have my app with english version. I want it to run with french text also.

What steps I need to perform? or what API or extra code I will need?

Any examples or tutorial will help me more.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 864

Answers (2)

Parth Bhatt
Parth Bhatt

Reputation: 19469

You need to add localizable strings for all the languages. And also you need to add the .lproj along with the localized file for each language you want to provide the support for.

Hope this helps you.

EDIT:

I have some of these links useful for you.

http://www.icanlocalize.com/site/tutorials/iphone-applications-localization-guide/

http://adeem.me/blog/2009/05/09/tutorial-iphone-localization-in-xib-nib-files/

How simplify iPhone localization?

http://www.raywenderlich.com/2876/how-to-localize-an-iphone-app-tutorial

I feel the last one which is from http://www.raywenderlich.com is the best one I would recommend.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

user387184
user387184

Reputation: 11053

The tutorials are good for starters but you should consider following points before you start:

  • "normal" localization where you localize XIB files is not really recommendable when the XIB might change, since you have to maintain multiple XIB files (for each language there will be a standalone XIB) Honestly this becomes a pain after a while

  • Therefore I suggest (even though it is more work at the beginning) to set the labels and button titles programmatically: 

     mylabel.text = NSLocalizedString(@"text:", @"text:"); 

[mybtn setTitle: NSLocalizedString(@"textbtn", @"textbtn") forState:UIControlStateNormal];

  • Then use: genstrings -o en.lproj *.m to create the strings file which will look for all those NSLocalizedString and create a file Localizable.strings in the folder en.lproj

If you follow this advice it will make live easier for you in the future - though it's not really 100% comfortable yet. If you need to add a new NSLocalizedString (eg because you have a new label) you need to create a completely new file Localizable.strings. Make sure you have a backup copy of this file where you have the translation, otherwise it gets overwritten and lost. I haven't yet come accross a good solution how to build up the strings to be translated...

ps there is no need to add localized XIB files anymore.. otherwise you end up having multiple XIB files which one wants to avoid in the first place...

Upvotes: 0

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