Share My Creation Large project localized

fredo · Apr 17, 2017

The challenge was to make an existing project usable in several languages.

The reason I mention it here is that the localization from de to en and fr was relatively easy to make with @Erel 's Localizator concept.

It took only 20 mandays to go over 80.000 lines of code and integrate the translation functions. The Excel list with the key phrases has about 1400 rows. The app consists of over 80 modules and uses over 50 libraries.

The real advantage of "Erel's way" is the very short turnaround time:

If one phrase was to be added it took only a few steps to append it to the excel list, use the Google Docs SpreadSheets for translation with the really nice plugin "Easy Translations" (thanks, @corwin42) and start the B4J program to get a strings.db directly in the projects Files folder.
If you decide to add another language just let the Excel key column be translated via Google SpreadSheet and copy the result back to your Excel sheet. It takes only -1- run of the B4J program and the app has another language.

Although Google's machine translation might be far from perfect it is free and produces fairly understandable texts. If one decides to get professional translators it will be very easy to send the strings list in an appropriate format. The received data wil be integrated by one single run of the Localizator B4J.

We took a simple Bootstrap webpage and extended the B4J program with the neccessary loc.localize("...") functions:

B4X:

Private Sub BuildWebpages(strLangShort As String, mapLangFoundNatName As Map)
    loc.Initialize(File.GetFileParent(txtDB.Text), "", strKeyLanguage, strLangShort)
    If strLangShort=strKeyLanguage Then
        Dim strOutFile As String = File.Combine(txtPubFolder.Text, "index.html")
    Else
        Dim strOutFile As String = File.Combine(txtPubFolder.Text, strLangShort & "/index.html")
        If Not(File.Exists(strOutFile, "")) Then
            ListView1.Items.Add("MakeDir--> " & strOutFile)
            File.MakeDir(strOutFile, "")
        End If
    End If
    ListView1.Items.Add("  Create--> " & strOutFile)

    File.Delete(strOutFile, "")

    Dim strToWrite As String = raGetWebpageIndex(strLangShort, mapLangFoundNatName)
    File.WriteString(strOutFile, "", strToWrite)

End Sub

B4X:

Sub raGetWebpageIndex(strLocale As String, mapAvilLang As Map) As String
...
For Each k As String In mapAvilLang.Keys
        If k.Length <> 2 Then Continue
 
        If strLocale = strKeyLanguage Then
            ' All links show simply down --> \en\index.html
            If k = strKeyLanguage Then ' de
                sb.Append($"<a href="index.html">${mapAvilLang.Get(k)}</a>"$)
            Else
                sb.Append($"<a href="${k}/index.html">${mapAvilLang.Get(k)}</a>"$)
            End If
        Else
            ' All links show one level up an then down --> ..\en\index.html
            If k = strKeyLanguage Then ' de
                sb.Append($"<a href="../index.html">${mapAvilLang.Get(k)}</a>"$)
            Else
                sb.Append($"<a href="../${k}/index.html">${mapAvilLang.Get(k)}</a>"$)
            End If
        End If
        If intS < mapAvilLang.Size -1 Then
            sb.Append(" ~ ")
        End If
        intS = intS +1
    Next
  Dim strLangSwitcher As String = sb.ToString
   '
   Dim strHtml As String = $"
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    ...
    <!-- Jumbotron -->
    <header class="jumbotron" role="banner">
        <div class="container">
            <div class="row">
                <div class="col-md-5">
                    <h1>besonavi</h1>
                    <!-- Logo -->
                    <figure class="text-center">
                        <a href="./index.html">
                            <img class="img-logo" src="images/logo.png" alt="">
                        </a>
                    </figure>
                    <!-- /.text-center -->
                    <!-- Language switcher -->
                    ${strLangSwitcher}
                    <!-- /Language switcher -->
                    <!-- Title -->
                    <h1>${loc.localize("Koma-Reisen! Schlafen von Abfahrt bis Ankunft.")}</h1>
                    <!-- Sub title -->
                    <p>${loc.localize("Eben noch auf dem Sofa - nun bereits am Strand")}</p>
                    <!-- Button -->
                    <p class="btn-app-store">
                        <a class="btn btn-link" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yourcomp.app1&hl=${strLocale}">
                            <img src="images/google-play-badge.png" alt="">
                        </a>
                    </p>
                    <!-- /.btn-app-store -->
                </div>
                <!-- /.col-md-7 -->
                <div class="col-md-7">
                    <!-- Images showcase -->
                    <figure>
                        <img class="img-android" src="images/android/1.jpg" alt="">
                    </figure>
                </div>
                <!-- /.col-md-5 -->
            </div>
            <!-- /.row -->
        </div>
        <!-- /.container -->
    </header>
    <!-- /.jumbotron -->
    ...
"$
    ...
    Return strHtml
End Sub

Based on our experience the "Localizator" is the most productive way to localize a large project.

Share My Creation Large project localized

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