Providing a user-friendly application requires that it is completely internationalized to the language of the end user. Thanks to the development context for YaTiSeWoBe and the use of the Java language, the translation task is greatly simplified. For now, the application has been fully translated to English and French, and partly to Italian and Japanese. The most general parts are available in German, Spanish and Swedish.
To translate the application, you need to edit a set of text files that are located in the source tree and included in the compiled libraries. The file .properties format consists in a list of properties expressed as key=value pairs. At runtime, the Java language standard tools provide ways to access those files and use the information in the graphical user interface.
FIXME: add link to i18n documentation on java.sun.com
FIXME: description of the specific "cascading" resources
![[Note]](images/note.png) | Note |
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We are eager to collect any translation that you would like to contribute. You can contact us through the application homepage [57] to include your work in the main stream distribution. Along with documentation contributions, internationalization contributions are among the most important ones, and your work will be highly appreciated. | |
Due to the modular architecture of YaTiSeWoBe, the translation of the application is not centralized but spread over several files. The two main .properties files are org/nhrg/gui/resources/i18n/Standard.properties and org/nhrg/apps/rv/resources/i18n/RasterViewer.properties discussed separately in the next sections.
General terms in graphical user interfaces are available in the package org.nhrg.gui.resources.i18n. The Standard_locale.properties property files are the implementation of the translations found in "Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics" [7], (Appendix C: "Localization word lists"). Translations are available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish. Some keys need to be precised.