Develop Reference

Android Locale Changed but translated strings not coming in the app

Following is the Application code of my Android app:
public class MyApplication extends Application
{
private Locale locale = null;
#Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig)
{
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
if (locale != null)
{
newConfig.locale = locale;
Locale.setDefault(locale);
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(newConfig, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
}
#Override
public void onCreate()
{
super.onCreate();
SharedPreferences settings = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
Configuration config = getBaseContext().getResources().getConfiguration();
String lang = settings.getString(getString(R.string.pref_language), "");
if (! "".equals(lang) && ! config.locale.getLanguage().equals(lang))
{
locale = new Locale(lang);
Log.i("Locale" , lang);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
config.locale = locale;
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
}
}
I have got to change the value of settings.getString(getString(R.string.pref_language), ""); from the Settings Activity of my app.
The problem is none of the strings (which have a translation) and are accessed using getString() method, are showing the translated text.
EDIT1 : I am using Android 8.0

In android 8, the behavior of the Locales changed, now every Activity context will take its locale, i.e if you in Activity1 and changed the locale for Activity1, then Activity2 will remain on the default locale.
The solution is to change the locale for every Activity and your issue will be fixed.

When you are using getString(R.string.pref_language) the call will return the string from the language matching Locale.getDefault() as long as a translation is provided.
If a translation is not provided it will return the default language, that is the language your using in the values/strings.xml file.
All translated values are in values-xx folders, where xx is the 2 letter ISO code for the language.

Android flickering screen in 4.2 with no apparent reason

I'm developing an application for android and when everything should be finished I've found an extrange behaviour. In some devices the screen starts to flicker, and there is no apparent reason for that. It may happen in initial splash with only an AsyncTask quering a webservice or in the home screen with no asynctask at all.
It's strange because only happens in devices with android 4.2, nor in 2.3 or 2.2. I've tried enabling the tag harware-accelration in manifest but I've no clue for what can be the reason
Some help?
Thanks in advance.

Finally I've managed how to avoid this. Here was the trick, just changing my Application's Override OnConfigurationChanged.
This was my old code
#Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
Locale l = getLocale();
Configuration config = new Configuration(newConfig); // get Modifiable Config from actual config changed
config.locale = l;
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
and I've changed to this
#Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
Locale l = getLocale();
Configuration config = new Configuration(newConfig); // get Modifiable Config from actual config changed
config.locale = l;
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
I hope someone finds this useful.

Android localization from external XML

Is it possible to translate android application at runtime using XML received from service?
If it is possible could someone please point me in right direction.
Thank you.

Warning
Everything I have read says that its not a good idea to let your app change the language because it isn't supported by the Android framework and it may cause problems.
With that being said, I have done it in my app and, while it has been a bit of a pain, it seems to be working so far. Here is how I did it in case you want to do it this way. You need a separate strings.xml file for each language. strings.xml in values folder as your default then maybe a strings.xml in say a values-es folder for Spanish strings. I have used the following code to change the configuration settings depending on a RadioButton that the user selects
final Configuration LANG_CONFIG = ChooseLocale.this.getResources().getConfiguration();
Locale newLocale = new Locale("English");
curLang = ChooseLocale.this.getLanguage();
if ((curLang.equals("English")) || (curLang.equalsIgnoreCase("Ingles")))
{
newLocale = new Locale("en_US");
}
else
{
newLocale = new Locale("es");
}
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), newLangToast + " " + curLang , Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
Configuration config = getBaseContext().getResources().getConfiguration();
Locale.setDefault(newLocale);
config.locale = newLocale;
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config,
getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = langPref.edit();
editor.putString(LANG_PREF, curLang);
editor.commit();
With this line being the most important to update the config
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config,
getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
I get the locale from my getLanguage() function which can be handled however you want. I also had to add
#Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
newConfig = Globals.getUserLanguage(this);
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
to every activity that allows orientation change and add this to my onCreate() of each
final SharedPreferences langPref = getSharedPreferences (LANG_PREF, 0);
if (Globals.langConfig != null)
this.onConfigurationChanged(Globals.langConfig);
I also added android:configChanges="orientation|locale" to each activity in the manifest that allows orientation change
Android Docs on localization

how to force language in android application [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Changing Locale within the app itself
in my application I need to "force" language let's say that I have locale in english as default polish and finnish, according to that post I had created function posted also bellow, function is called in createActivity(), but the problem is it does not work.... any idea why? Any suggestions?
private void setLocale(String localeCode){
Locale locale = new Locale(localeCode);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
Configuration config = new Configuration();
config.locale = locale;
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}

Here is what I got so far. I know this question is resolved, but my solution is easier and more compact. No other changes are needed, no android:configurationChanges attribute for all activities in your manifest.
public class SigmaMiddleEastApplication extends PPGApplication {
#Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
newConfig.locale = Locale.ENGLISH;
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
Locale.setDefault(newConfig.locale);
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(newConfig, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
}
}
BEWARE this may cause problems:
What could cause an Android activity to relaunch itself infinitely when returning from camera?

Add the following in the manifest (for every activity) :
android:configChanges="locale"

Changing locale: Force activity to reload resources?

So I have a language setting in my application. When the language is switched, I would like all the textviews etc to change language immediately. Currently I just change the locale in the configuration, so the language has changed when the user restarts the activity.
An ugly solution to my problem would be to make each textview load the new resources each time the language is changed. Is there a better solution? Perhaps a neat way to discretely restart the activity? Or maybe just force reload of the resources?

In your AndroidManifest.xml, add this attribute to your Activity
android:configChanges="locale"
In your activity override onConfigurationChanged()
#Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
// refresh your views here
super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
}
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html#config

I think the question is switching language in runtime for the app and displaying localized messages in UI. android:configChanges="locale" calls onConfigurationChanged if the system locale is changed (in setting of your device) while the app is running, and not if you change locale in the code for your app, which I guess is what you want to accomplish. That's why it's not refreshing.

Here is the method I use during every activity onCreate() or onResume() depending on my needs (if my activity will be resuming after user changed language settings or will always be created with language already set):
From there I just refresh the view manually or from onConfigurationChanged() which get called after this method finishes.
public static void changeLocale(Activity activity, String language)
{
final Resources res = activity.getResources();
final Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration();
if (language == null || language.length() == 0)
{
conf.locale = Locale.getDefault();
}
else
{
final int idx = language.indexOf('-');
if (idx != -1)
{
final String[] split = language.split("-");
conf.locale = new Locale(split[0], split[1].substring(1));
}
else
{
conf.locale = new Locale(language);
}
}
res.updateConfiguration(conf, null);
}

I'm not sure why this isn't picked up by onConfigurationChanged().
Hey, sandis, do you mean the method onConfigurationChanged() doesn't called in your activity when you changed the language? I met the same problem. The problem maybe this: when we change the language, the activity goes to onDestroy()(you can try this), so there is nobody to call onConfigurationChanged(). When we launch the activity again, the onCreate() is called, not the onConfigurationChanged(). There maybe something different in locale change and orientation change.

public void settingLocale(Context context, String language) {
Locale locale;
Configuration config = new Configuration();
if(language.equals(LANGUAGE_ENGLISH)) {
locale = new Locale("en");
Locale.setDefault(locale);
config.locale = locale;
}else if(language.equals(LANGUAGE_ARABIC)){
locale = new Locale("hi");
Locale.setDefault(locale);
config.locale = locale;
}
context.getResources().updateConfiguration(config, null);
// Here again set the text on view to reflect locale change
// and it will pick resource from new locale
tv1.setText(R.string.one); //tv1 is textview in my activity
}

Assuming you're changing the language through something like
private void updateLocale(#NonNull final Context context,
#NonNull final Locale newLocale) {
final Resources resources = context.getResources();
final DisplayMetrics displayMetrics = resources.getDisplayMetrics();
final Configuration configuration = resources.getConfiguration();
configuration.locale = newLocale;
resources.updateConfiguration(configuration, displayMetrics);
Locale.setDefault(newLocale);
}
You'll need to call Activity.recreate() in all currently open activities, which is what would happen if the user changed the system language while you were not subscribing to android:configChanges="locale".