CODEWITHSUNDEEP
delphidllresourceslocalizationdelphi-6
Rahul W
Rahul W

Reputation: 841

Creating resource only DLL with translated form resources

I have a large application which i want to migrate to Arabic. I have defined the strings that we show to the user under the resourcestring keyword.

I am using the External Translation manager provided with Delphi 6. However, I am not very much comfortable using the tool. I want to create a resource only dll with all the translated strings like how the Delphi ETM does, and then switch between languages at run-time at the click of a button.

I was able to link the resourcestrings to the Dll, but how about form's captions and hints and the component properties? I am loading the Dll at runtime depending on the language, but the form properties are not reflecting as they were not available in the Dll.

Any pointers in the right direction ???

Thanks Rahul W

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1232

Answers (1)

user160694
user160694

Reputation:

What the Delphi localization tool and runtime support do is to redirect resource loading - including forms - from the executable to the DLL. Forms, their components and controls (non default properties) are stored as resources into the executable (as long as you don't create them fully at runtime - but then you would have to set their properties one by one).

Thereby if you want to work alike the standard translation tool you have to work the same way. What the DLL Resource Wizard does is to extract all project .dfm (and those you add manually) and resourcestrings to a copy that can be localized. When an app is started the form loading code checks from where the .dfm should be loaded. You should override this code to load your resources.

Be aware that changes language at runtime may need a different approach, because loading a whole form from resources may "reset" it to the creation state. On the other hand, compared to approaches like gettext, it allows to localize far more than the form text, including images, colors, and to adapt control sizes to the new string easily. IMHO gettext is good for simple needs, but when localization becomes a complex task and you may need to localize for a very different "culture", more powerful tools are needed.

Upvotes: 1

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