I have some code I want to test. I want to check if a String is properly composed out of various strings that I have in resources. The challenge here is to deal with multiple translations in my resources. I know that locale can be an issue when testing a desktop application and that it is recommended that you create locale-independent tests.
I've found that you can set the locale programatically, but it was not recommended (see Change language programmatically in Android). While this question is aimed at changing locale at runtime when running an app normally, I was wondering if there was a better solution to my problem.
If it's just for testing, then you can change the locale programmatically without any issues. It will change the configuration of your app and you will be able to test your code with the new locale. It has the same effect as if a user has changed it. If you want to automate your tests, you can write a script that changes locale using adb shell as described here, and launch your tests afterwards.
Here is an example of testing translations of word "Cancel" for English, German and Spanish locales:
public class ResourcesTestCase extends AndroidTestCase {
private void setLocale(String language, String country) {
Locale locale = new Locale(language, country);
// here we update locale for date formatters
Locale.setDefault(locale);
// here we update locale for app resources
Resources res = getContext().getResources();
Configuration config = res.getConfiguration();
config.locale = locale;
res.updateConfiguration(config, res.getDisplayMetrics());
}
public void testEnglishLocale() {
setLocale("en", "EN");
String cancelString = getContext().getString(R.string.cancel);
assertEquals("Cancel", cancelString);
}
public void testGermanLocale() {
setLocale("de", "DE");
String cancelString = getContext().getString(R.string.cancel);
assertEquals("Abbrechen", cancelString);
}
public void testSpanishLocale() {
setLocale("es", "ES");
String cancelString = getContext().getString(R.string.cancel);
assertEquals("Cancelar", cancelString);
}
}
Here are the execution results in Eclipse:
Android O update.
When running in Android O method Locale.setDefault(Category.DISPLAY, locale) shall be used (see behaviour changes for more detail).
The current accepted answer didn't help me.
But #Dennis's comment helped to solve the Problem for me.
Use Robolectric and override the locale by specifying a resource qualifier.
Add for example #Config(qualifiers="de-port") for the German language.
#Test
#Config(qualifiers = "de-port")
fun testGetLocaleGerman(){ ... }
Robolectrics Documentation
Related
I've a problem with AAB when I need to change the app locale from within the app itself(i.e. have the language change setting inside the app), the issue is that the AAB gives me only my device languages resources, for example:
my device has English and French languages installed in it, so AAb gives me only the resources for English and French,
but from within the app itself there is a choice to switch the language between English, French, and Indonesian,
in that case, when changing the language to English or French everything is working perfectly, but when changing it to Indonesian, the app simply enters a crash loop as it keep looking for Indonesian language but it can't find.
The problem here is that even if I restarted the app, it enters the crash loop again as the app is still looking for the missing language resources, and here the only solution is to clear cash or reinstall which are the solutions that the normal user won't go through.
Just to mention it, this is how I change the locale through the app:
// get resources
Resources res = context.getResources();
// create the corresponding locale
Locale locale = new Locale(language); // for example "en"
// Change locale settings in the app.
android.content.res.Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration();
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1) {
conf.setLocale(locale);
conf.setLayoutDirection(locale);
} else {
conf.locale = locale;
}
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
context.getApplicationContext().createConfigurationContext(conf);
}
res.updateConfiguration(conf, null);
P.S. The app is working perfectly when build it as APK.
Edit:
The PlayCore API now supports downloading the strings for another language on-demand:
https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/feature-delivery/on-demand#lang_resources
Alternative solution (discouraged):
You can disable the splitting by language by adding the following configuration in your build.gradle
android {
bundle {
language {
// Specifies that the app bundle should not support
// configuration APKs for language resources. These
// resources are instead packaged with each base and
// dynamic feature APK.
enableSplit = false
}
}
}
This latter solution will increase the size of the app.
This is not possible with app bundles: Google Play only downloads resources when the device's selected languages change.
You'll have to use APKs if you want to have an in app language picker.
Details of downloading the language on demand can be found here
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/03/the-latest-android-app-bundle-updates.html
In your app’s build.gradle file:
dependencies {
// This dependency is downloaded from the Google’s Maven repository.
// So, make sure you also include that repository in your project's build.gradle file.
implementation 'com.google.android.play:core:1.10.0'
// For Kotlin users also add the Kotlin extensions library for Play Core:
implementation 'com.google.android.play:core-ktx:1.8.1'
...
}
Get a list of installed languages
val splitInstallManager = SplitInstallManagerFactory.create(context)
val langs: Set<String> = splitInstallManager.installedLanguages
Requesting additional languages
val installRequestBuilder = SplitInstallRequest.newBuilder()
installRequestBuilder.addLanguage(Locale.forLanguageTag("pl"))
splitInstallManager.startInstall(installRequestBuilder.build())
Check above link for full details
After many hours I was finally able to use the on-demand language with the new PlayCore API.
Step 1.) As the user changes the language, you need to first check whether the language is already available, if not then download the language
private void changeLocale(final String languageSelected){
SplitInstallManager splitInstallManager = SplitInstallManagerFactory.create(PlayAgainstComputer.this);
final Set<String> installedLangs = splitInstallManager.getInstalledLanguages();
if(installedLangs.contains(languageSelected)){ // checking if lang already available
Toast.makeText(PlayAgainstComputer.this,"Done! The language settings will take effect, once you restart the app!").show();
}
else{
SplitInstallRequest request =
SplitInstallRequest.newBuilder()
.addLanguage(Locale.forLanguageTag(languageSelected))
.build();
splitInstallManager.startInstall(request);
splitInstallManager.registerListener(new SplitInstallStateUpdatedListener() {
#Override
public void onStateUpdate(#NonNull SplitInstallSessionState splitInstallSessionState) {
if(splitInstallSessionState.status() == SplitInstallSessionStatus.INSTALLED){
Toast.makeText(PlayAgainstComputer.this,"Download complete! The language settings will take effect, once you restart the app!").show();
}
}
});
}}
Step2.) The downloaded languages must be installed when the user starts the app. which is done in the attchBaseContext() method
#Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
super.attachBaseContext(base);
SplitCompat.install(this); // It will install all the downloaded langauges into the app
}
Step 3.) You need to tell the Activity to use the chosen language. Following code should be placed before setContentView(R.layout.layout); of that activity
String selectedLanguage = getFromPrefernceOrWhereEverYouSavedIt(); // should be 2 letters. like "de", "es"
Locale locale = new Locale(selectedLanguage);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
Resources resources = getResources();
Configuration config = new Configuration(resources.getConfiguration());
config.locale = locale;
resources.updateConfiguration(config,
getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
Done!
Please Note
When a user (who chose a non-default/downloaded language) updates the app, that language needs to be downloaded again into the app, so make sure you handle that in your code.
when I used activity.recreate(); after the download finished (to automatically refresh the app for new language) I faced some problems, that is why I used Toast to ask the user to manually restart the app. but you can try other methods
I also noticed some other inconsistencies (even sometimes faced memory leak because of SplitCompat.install(this);) with this method, so make sure you test and optimize it according to your code.
...and if so, how?
We make a dedicated Android device for use in an industrial environment. It's basically a tablet, but with only one app running. The user is not expected to access any other features of the device and even the system settings, like WiFi and Time settings are performed through our app instead of through the Android Settings widget. So basically every button and message they see uses our strings.xml file.
Currently all of our customers are satisfied to use the default US-English settings but we will soon have some customers who want local languages and have supplied us with translation files. Currently one of them is Romanian, which is not a language with any native support on this device (a Samsung Galaxy tab 4); another is Czech.
So we want to add strings.xml files in appropriate res folders, for the non-English languages and a dropdown in our app to select which language we're using. Programmatically we think we can use Locale to set which strings.xml file it uses, so for example, if Romanian has been selected from the dropdown we would use Locale to set the tablet into Romanian so all of our app's UI will use the Romanian strings.xml file.
Our settings, including the new dropdown, are inaccessible to customers - they're set at the customer site by a field-service engineer.
Questions:
Will this work? I.e., can we control which strings.xml file it uses via Locale, even if the device has no native support for that language?
Since Romanian is not a natively-supported language with this device we assume that system messages will still come up in English. Is this true? (it's not a problem if it does - system messages are rare with our app and the users of our products are trained to contact support if that happens. I just want to make sure that if we set the Locale to Romanian, or Czech or some other language without native support it won't crash the tablet if it does try to issue a system message).
Will this work? I.e., can we control which strings.xml file it uses via Locale, even if the device has no native support for that language?
Yes, you can, by updating Locale within Configuration (see an example below). If you try to use the locale for which there are no corresponding resources (either within your app or system), the default string resources (res/values/strings.xml) of your app will be utilized.
Since Romanian is not a natively-supported language with this device we assume that system messages will still come up in English. Is this true?
It is true, if English is the current system locale.
I just want to make sure that if we set the Locale to Romanian, or Czech or some other language without native support it won't crash the tablet if it does try to issue a system message.
Your app won't crash. Locale changes made within an app effect locale resources of the app, not system one's.
An example to answer "if so, how?" The method can be used to test locale changes while an Activity is running*.
public static void changeLocale(Context context, String locale) {
Resources res = context.getResources();
Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration();
conf.locale = new Locale(locale);
res.updateConfiguration(conf, res.getDisplayMetrics());
}
* You might want to call recreate() to see string resource changes "on the fly".
Yes you can definitely switch locale of single app. For that you have to extend every activity from a base class like following:
public abstract class MyLangActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(#Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
Locale locale = // get the locale to use...
Configuration conf = getResources().getConfiguration();
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 17) {
conf.setLocale(locale);
} else {
conf.locale = locale;
}
DisplayMetrics metrics = getResources().getDisplayMetrics();
getResources().updateConfiguration(conf, metrics);
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
}
}
Now about the issue of device not supporting the language applied. The device font being used might not have support for characters in the custom language file. You might use your own fonts files to support that.
The best way to do this is to actually set the device locale. The code to do that is
Class<?> activityManagerNative = Class.forName("android.app.ActivityManagerNative");
Object am = activityManagerNative.getMethod("getDefault").invoke(activityManagerNative);
Object config = am.getClass().getMethod("getConfiguration").invoke(am);
config.getClass().getDeclaredField("locale").set(config, item.getLocale());
config.getClass().getDeclaredField("userSetLocale").setBoolean(config, true);
am.getClass().getMethod("updateConfiguration", android.content.res.Configuration.class).invoke(am, config);
ActivityManagerNative.java
package android.app;
public abstract class ActivityManagerNative implements IActivityManager {
public static IActivityManager getDefault(){
return null;
}
}
IActivityManager
package android.app;
import android.content.res.Configuration;
import android.os.RemoteException;
public interface IActivityManager {
public abstract Configuration getConfiguration () throws RemoteException;
public abstract void updateConfiguration (Configuration configuration) throws RemoteException;
}
This way you'll set the device locale, and let everything change through the normal pathways. You'll need the android:name="android.permission.CHANGE_CONFIGURATION" permission in your manifest. This is a secure permission, but installing yourself as a system app shouldn't be a problem for you.
Override getResources in Application and BaseActivity
#Override
public Resources getResources() {
if(mRes == null)
mRes = new PowerfulResources(getAssets(),new DisplayMetrics(), null);
return mRes;
}
public static class PowerfulResources extends Resources{
/**
* Create a new Resources object on top of an existing set of assets in an
* AssetManager.
*
* #param assets Previously created AssetManager.
* #param metrics Current display metrics to consider when
* selecting/computing resource values.
* #param config Desired device configuration to consider when
*/
public PowerfulResources(AssetManager assets, DisplayMetrics metrics, Configuration config) {
super(assets, metrics, config);
}
#NonNull
#Override
public String getString(int id) throws NotFoundException {
//do your stuff here
return super.getString(id);
}
}
also read this
In my app users have the ability to switch their app locale to one of the other app supported languages. I'm having issues getting Portuguese-Brazil and Simplified Chinese to work. All other translations work properly when the user changes the locale settings.
These translations work properly if the device locale is pt-rBR or zh-rCN so the only thing that could be wrong is the locale code I use. However, anything I've tried fails. Anybody know the proper Android locale codes for these so users can properly switch if they desire?
Use
new Locale("pt","BR");
instead of
new Locale("pt_BR");
Use following code its working for me for traditional and simplified chinese.
if(selectedLanguage.equals("zh_CN"))
locale = Locale.SIMPLIFIED_CHINESE;
else if(selectedLanguage.equals("zh_TW"))
locale = Locale.TRADITIONAL_CHINESE;
else
locale = new Locale(selectedLanguage);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
Configuration config = new Configuration();
config.locale = locale;
baseContext.getResources().updateConfiguration(config, baseContext.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
I want to test how my application looks like, and force it to load some specific language, but I don't want and don't need it in production code, so it can be some switch in eclipse or some code in onCreate.
EDIT: I don't want to manually change this, I want code what will let me to automate my tests.
I did something like this in my onCreate method:
// LOCALE
if (DEBUG == true)
{
Misc.setLocale(this, "en"); // change "en" to "fr" for french
}
And here is setLocale method:
public static void setLocale(Context context, String language)
{
final Locale locale = new Locale(language);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
final Configuration config = new Configuration();
config.locale = locale;
context.getResources().updateConfiguration(config,
context.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
Now I can really fast change languages, I don't need to bother with emulator or settings in my device. I also can't forget about this, because of checking for DEBUG value.
Just change the language on your emulator. If you need to run automated tests against particular languages, just define separate AVDs configured for each language.
Any code you call is just going to force the same thing to happen as if you had changed the settings.
I've found using the android.text.format.DateUtils relative APIs that return values like "yesterday" or "2 hours ago" very nice - but my app does not support every language Android does. So, I default to English, but for every language I don't support, the relative string shows in the device's setting.
For example, like:
Last attempt: hace 11 minutos.
I'd like to make the API call default to English for any languages I don't support. However, I don't see anywhere to set the Locale for the API call - I'm hoping I'm just missing it somewhere.
Is there a way to set the Locale just for the API call, ignoring the device setting?
This is working for me up to Android 7
void forceLocale(Locale locale) {
Configuration conf = getBaseContext().getResources().getConfiguration();
updateConfiguration(conf, locale);
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(conf, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
Configuration systemConf = Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration();
updateConfiguration(systemConf, locale);
Resources.getSystem().updateConfiguration(conf, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
Locale.setDefault(locale);
}
void updateConfiguration(Configuration conf, Locale locale) {
if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1){
conf.setLocale(locale);
}else {
//noinspection deprecation
conf.locale = locale;
}
}
According to the source code of the DateUtils class it uses both Resource.getSystem() and Locale.getDefault() method for formatting date and time. You can change the default Locale using Locale.setDefault() method but I don't think it's possible to change the return value of the Resource.getSystem() method. You can try to change the default locale to Locale.US but it seems to me that results will be even worse in this case.