In my application I do have several different string resources each per locale like:
res/values/string.xml //default
res/values-en/string.xml //english
res/values-it/string.xml //italian
Now the problem - each of files contains hundreds of keys and from time to time I can't really define which language is lacking some keys. Say:
<string name="yes">Yes</string> <!-- Default -->
<string name="yes">Yes</string> <!-- English -->
<string name="yes">Si</string> <!-- Italian -->
And if in German string.xml there'll be no "yes" key corresponding value will be default "Yes" instead of German "Ja" - which is disaster.
Help me to find a way to define lacking string resource keys.
You can also try MOTODEV Studio. You can use it a standalone IDE (based on Eclipse) or as an Eclipse Plugin. What you would like is an editor, which includes, that makes really easy working with localizable strings. It will show you in a same view all the files as columns, so you will not need to do any merge or diff whatsoever.
Use http://winmerge.org/
You can compare files easily.
copy all the files to one text file,, Sort the file and then check one key at once,, loooong method but the most effective one
Related
I have an app originally written in UK English, hence all of the strings in res/values/strings.xml are in UK English.
I would like to provide a "translation" to US English. For the most part US and UK English are exactly the same, so in the US translation file I only want to specify those few string changes which are affected (about 10 of 120).
I have tried creating a res/values-en-rUS/strings.xml file (this name given by Android Studio) in which I've added only those 10 strings which differ. But Android Studio gives me errors in my main strings.xml for all the remaining strings: "XXX" is not translated in "en" (English).
So, how can I efficiently provide translations to US English - ie specify only the 10 lines, without having to duplicate all the others? Duplication is always bad for code maintenance!
You can use translatable="false" settings to flag string resources that should not be translated. Something like:
<resources>
<string name="app_name" translatable="false">EasyApp</string>
<string name="action_settings">Settings</string>
<string name="easy_app">I am a Simple App!</string>
<string name="next_page">Next Page</string>
<string name="second_page_message">I am the Second Page!</string>
<string name="title_activity_second">SecondActivity</string>
</resources>
In the above sample, the app_name will not have to be translated in other locales. This way in the default strings.xml you can provide the UK version and mark with translatable="false" all the resources that you would like to maintain in US version to be the same. In res/values-en-rUS/strings.xml you will have to add only the messages that you need to maintain in US English.
Please note that if you are planning to use other locales/languages this method may not be the appropriate one, since this way you specify that the translatable="false" resources are the same for all locales.
You can check the Configure untranslatable section rows if you need more details.
I use Android Studio in app development. I want to translate strings by exporting/importing the Android language resources (strings.xml) to Excel file (xlsx). What is the best way to do it?
If anyone else needed the answer,
from res -> strings -> right click-> Open Translations Editor. Select data/variable you need then copy and paste data from Translations Editor to excel . done.
Since CTRL+A not working now in the android studio.
There is one way to convert the android strings file to CSV and then translate it with the help of google translator and then again convert back to XML.
https://www.skydevelopers.net/blog/2-best-ways-to-translate-the-android-strings-file/
here is a blog in detail
Export Strings resource file to csv
Get its content translated(probably from google translate)
convert back the Translated file to Strings.xml(android string resource file)
I used http://convertcsv.com/csv-to-xml.htm this website for converting csv file to strings resource file
need to mention Custom output template to convert it to strings resource file
<string name="{f1}">{f2}</string>
put this in template section provided
website also displays the desired converted output file
As many others pointed out, pressing Ctrl+A in the Translations Editor doesn't work since Android Studio 3.2
I work for a company that outsources translations constantly, so we need to convert android strings to and from xls files.
The only solution that worked for us reliably is this fork of the older android-lang-tool. Just build with maven and run the jar.
It exports strings, string-arrays, plurals and their key-values to an xls file. It even exports the comments.
I would suggest the best tool for android app string localization is the Translations Editor that is inbuilt into Android Studio.
The reason this is a great approach is you are able to make the process both easier for translators and less prone to errors. The XML string files in Android Studio support XLIFF notations that are a standardized method to aid string localization.
By utilizing XLIFF notation in your XML string files you can do the following to help the translators:
Provide additional context for declared strings
Mark message parts that should not be translated
To use XLIFF in your Android string XML files you need to include the XLIFF 1.2 namespace:
<resources xmlns:xliff="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2">
Here are a few examples of strings from the android localization documentation:
<resources xmlns:xliff="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2">
<!-- Example placeholder for a special unicode symbol -->
<string name="star_rating">Check out our 5
<xliff:g id="star">\u2605</xliff:g>
</string>
<!-- Example placeholder for a for a URL -->
<string name="app_homeurl">
Visit us at <xliff:g id="application_homepage">http://my/app/home.html</xliff:g>
</string>
<!-- Example placeholder for a name -->
<string name="prod_name">
Learn more at <xliff:g id="prod_gamegroup">Game Group</xliff:g>
</string>
<!-- Example placeholder for a literal -->
<string name="promo_message">
Please use the "<xliff:g id="promotion_code">ABCDEFG</xliff:g>” to get a discount.
</string>
</resources>
To access the Translations Editor in Android Studio, select Open Translations Editor from the context menu for your XML string file (ie. strings.xml) in your project tree (see below).
Convert your strings.xml to csv xml-to-csv
Import to Google Sheets
Translate using the formula =GOOGLETRANSLATE(B2, "auto", "de")
Generate output in another column using =CONCATENATE("<string name=",char(34),A2,char(34),">",C2,"</string>") where A2 is the resource_ID and C2 is the translated string
Copy the whole output column and paste inside the <resource>...</resource> tag
As Saad Mahmud answered, you can copy from the translation editor (ctrl+a ctrl+c) and then paste into a spreadsheet.
You can copy it back from a spreadsheet to the translation editor by only copying the "default value" and other languages columns, click on the topmost default value and paste (ctrl+v).
It also works with subsets (both subsets of rows and columns), as long as they are next to each other.
Be aware that empty cells in the spreadsheet will not blank out the translation in the editor, it will leave the current untouched.
Also be careful that you haven't added or removed any translation keys since the spreadsheet was created...
Export or copy to excel only supported in Windows PC.
Still not yet in MAC
As many others pointed out, you can't simply copy and paste translations from and into Translations Editor since Android Studio 3.2.
The simplest solution I found was saving the Excel file with translations as CSV file and then converting it to XML with regex and vice versa.
To "import" translations the steps:
Save xls/xlsx file with key in first column and translation in second column as CSV file (If you have file with non-ANSI caracters use Google sheets, because Excel doesn't support saving in CSV using utf-8)
Open csv file in text editor which supports "find and replace" with regex (eg. Notepad++)
Open "find and replace" and set regex search
Search ^([^,]*),(.*)$ and replace it with <string name="$1">$2</string>
Copy file to string resources file between tag
Fix possible mistakes
You can use similar method in reverse for "export". Use <string.+name="(.*)".*>(.*)</string> for finding and $1,$2 for replacing. But it only works if every string tag in in one line.
NOTE: If your res folder doesn't contians strings.xml then Android Studio won't show "Open Editor" in top right corner of the strings.xml file(Open the file). In my case all my string res files are named like strings_feature.xml
To copy/paste from Translations Editor use Android Studio 3.2 Version and below. It allows copy/paste of full column.
I have two string xml for two different languages, I would like to know the different between those xml files.
For example, there is one xml for English,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string name="app_name">Keep Accounts</string>
<string name="insertNewOne">Insert Accounts</string>
<string name="browseRecord">Browse Records</string>
<string name="set">Setting</string>
</resources>
And another xml for other language,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string name="app_name">Example</string>
<string name="insertNewOne">Example</string>
<string name="browseRecord">Example</string>
<string name="dateNoColon">Example</string>
</resources>
We can see the difference is xml for English has element string name="set", and the other has not. On the other hand, the xml file for other language has element string name="dateNoColon" but the xml for English has not.
In this case, I would like to know the English xml lacks the element string name="dateNoColon", and other xml lacks the element string name="set".
Android Studio has translations editor starting of 0.8.12 version. You can find there missing translation strings.
You can enable check for missing translations in Lint tool. There are "Missing translation" and "Extra translation" checks.
Extra translation If a string appears in a specific language translation file, but there is no corresponding string in the default locale, then this string is probably unused. (It's technically possible that your application is only intended to run in a specific locale, but it's still a good idea to provide a fallback.).
Incomplete translation If an application has more than one locale, then all the strings declared in one language should also be translated in all other languages.
Suppose if the device is set to Other language, Android will look for title in the otherlanguage.xml file in value folder. But if no such string is included in that file, Android will fall back to the default, and will load title in English from the english.xml file.
For more detail go to http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/localization.html#using-framework
I wrote a small tool for that: resdiff.
Check it out! https://github.com/danijoo/resdiff
Try sorting both files using some perl or bash script or something like that for example, using bash:
sort temp.txt -o temp.txt
and then look at the diff for example using DiffMergeit.
Use Android Lint to find both incomplete translations i.e. strings missing in a language variant and extra translations i.e. strings introduced in a language variant but missing in the default locale.
In Android Studio you can run Lint (and some other analysis tools) with Analyze -> Inspect Code.
What's the meaning of attribute 'msgid' in strings.xml ?
How to get its value?
Attribute "msgid" is present in strings.xml if you are using string localization. For example, if you have alternate application strings for Spanish in the folder values-es, values.xml will contain "msgid".
When I look at the strings.xml for Spanish I see some long values like
8340973892742019101
What is interesting is that strings.xml for Italian and other languages contains the same msgid for the same string.
The only thing that comes to my mind is that it are some unique resource IDs, produced internally by the application. So, I do not think it makes sense to search for additional meaning in them. They are unique within the application, and that is only important.
These are operating system's strings and come from the com.android.support:appcompat-v7 package. You can see them defined here
How to implement Android system l10n ？It has been l10n in German.What is different between Android and Linux in realizing system localization？
What is Operational process of implementing Android l10n ?
What is needed to implement Android system localization? such as Unicode UTF8, charset,other anything else?
Are you asking about internationalization/localization? If so there's a pretty extensive writeup in the docs.
Localization in Android is a native function, what you have to understand is how to "tell android" where to pick the words translated based on the Language that is set on the device that is running your application.
1. When developing an application for Android avoid "hardcoding" the string values and always use the strings.xml file located in the res/values folder. In that file enter every string used in your application using the tag:
<string name="app_title">Super App</string>
2. From the java side use this string resources from anywhere with the method getString(), this method receives as parameter the id of the item you want to get:
getString(R.string.app_title)
3. Once you have defined every string your app will use, just copy the strings.xml file and paste it in a new folder at the same level of the res/values folder but name it according to the new language you want to add (Read this)
4. Finally, translate every string in each folder to the proper language but keeping the same ids of every string, just changing its content:
res/values-EN/strings.xml
<string name="app_title">Best Application Ever!</string>
res/values-ES/strings.xml
<string name="app_title">La Mejor Aplicación!</string>
res/values-FR/strings.xml
<string name="app_title">Meilleure Application Jamais!</string>