iPhone Tutorial for Beginner | Programmer | Developer

Please read part one (Tutorial: iPhone Localization in Xib Files) before you read this tutorial. In previous tutorial I explain how you can localized your iPhone application in Xib(nib) files. This time I explain how you can localized your iPhone application using code. So I am going to use the old project code(you can grab that from here) and localized the answer’s for the questions. In previous tutorial questions were localized inside xib files and in this tutorial the answer will be localized using code(genstrings)

Output will look like this:

Follow these steps to make your application localized in French language:
1. Open LocalizediPhone Project in Xcode(source code link). Open LocalizediPhoneViewController.h file and write down this code between Import and @end
[lang = 'c']
@interface LocalizediPhoneViewController : UIViewController {
IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Name;
IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Nationality;
IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Profession;
IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Hobby;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Name;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Nationality;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Profession;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *lblAns_Hobby;
[/lang]

2. Now move to LocalizediPhoneViewController.m file and write this code, after Implementation

@synthesize lblAns_Name,lblAns_Nationality,lblAns_Profession,lblAns_Hobby;

3. Open your English and fr Xib files in Interface Builder and place 4 labels inside each of them and then bind them with your controller(LocalizediPhoneViewController).

4. Now in LocalizediPhoneViewController.m file, replace viewDidLoad code
[lang ='c']
- (void)viewDidLoad {
NSLocale *locale = [NSLocale currentLocale];
NSString *titleOFApplication = [locale displayNameForKey:NSLocaleIdentifier value:[locale localeIdentifier]];
self.title = titleOFApplication;
self.lblAns_Name.text = NSLocalizedString(@”AnsName”,@”Answer Question to your name”);
self.lblAns_Profession.text = NSLocalizedString(@”AnsProfession”,@”Answer Question to your Profession”);
self.lblAns_Hobby.text = NSLocalizedString(@”AnsHobby”,@”Answer Question to your Hobby”);
self.lblAns_Nationality.text = NSLocalizedString(@”AnsNationality”,@”Answer Question to your Nationality”);
[super viewDidLoad];
}
[/lang]

5. Now go to /Applications/Utilities/ and open Terminal application. Navigate to the directly where you safe this code( In my case I place this code on Desktop). So write >cd desktop< and then >cd LocalizediPhone<. Next step is to run the ‘genstrings’ command. What it will do is, it will find all the occurrences of NSLocalizedString in our .m files in the classes folder. To run this command you will type >genstrings ./Classes/*.m<.

6. Once you run the command you will see nothing on terminal screen. But if you open the LocalizediPhone project, You will see a new file called ‘Localizable.strings’.

7. Open this file and you will see that it automatically generate the strings. It will look like this

/* Answer Question to your Hobby */
"AnsHobby" = "AnsHobby";

/* Answer Question to your name */
"AnsName" = "AnsName";

/* Answer Question to your Nationality */
"AnsNationality" = "AnsNationality";

/* Answer Question to your Profession */
"AnsProfession" = "AnsProfession";

8. Drag that file to Xcode in Resources folder, but when it prompts do not press on Add button. Localizable.strings files are encoded in UTF-16, which is a two-byte version of Unicode. So un-check the box that says ‘Copy items into destination group folder’ because the file is already in our project folder. Also change the ‘Text Encoding’ to ‘Unicode (UTP-16)’ form combo box. Now press ‘Add’ button.

9. You can check the file in resources folder again. Now do the same thing which we did in first tutorial. Right click on localizable.strings and select ‘get info’. Now in ‘Info’ window select ‘General’ tab and click on bottom left button ‘Make File Localizable’

10. Do not close the ‘Info’ window and select ‘General’ tab. Now in bottom left click on ‘Add Localization’ button and in popup write fr, press ‘Add’ button.

11. Close info window and expand ‘localizable.strings’ and you will see two string files (English, fr). Actually these are the same string files, so now we will change in English.strings file first. Place these inside of it

/* Answer Question to your Nationality */
"AnsNationality" = "I am Pakistani";

/* Answer Question to your Hobby */
"AnsHobby" = "I love travelling";

/* Answer Question to your name */
"AnsName" = "My name is Adeem Basraa";

/* Answer Question to your Profession */
"AnsProfession" = "I am Senior Software Engineer";

12. Now in fr.strings file replace with this:

/* Answer Question to your Nationality */
"AnsNationality" = "Je suis pakistanais ";

/* Answer Question to your Hobby */
"AnsHobby" = "J'adore voyager";

/* Answer Question to your name */
"AnsName" = "Mon nom est adeem basraa";

/* Answer Question to your Profession */
"AnsProfession" = "Je suis Senior Software Engineer ";

That’s it for now. Run your application and you will see the changes when you change the language from Setting Application inside iPhone.

You can grab the code for this tutorial from here.

Please remember this note if your localization didnt work on simulator/iPhone:
[Note: If it does not show the changes we made. Do not worry about this, iPhone or iPhone simulator stored your application information in cache. So you have to remove your application from iPhone/iPhone simulator first. Then move to ~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/ ( here ~ means your home directory) and delete "User" folder. Clean your Xcode project by pressing Cmd+ Shift+K (or in menu go to "Build" > "Clean". Run the application again and it will show you the changes]

About genstrings, you can run this any time to re-create your base language file. Its good that you do not edit it by yourself. Change in your strings files inside your code and then regenerate the localizable.strings using genstrings.

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