id: maxgui.localization title: MaxGUI.Localization
MaxGUI.Localization is a simple yet powerful localization engine that you can use to localize your applications. Although the module is designed primarily for use with the MaxGUI toolkit, it is self-contained and so can be imported into other BlitzMax games and applications separately, without the overhead of the rest of MaxGUI.
It is recommended that you read through the command set below to familiarize yourself with the module before use.
Whenever applicable, MaxGUI coders should use the LocalizeGadget command in MaxGUI.MaxGUI in favour of LocalizeString to ensure that gadgets are updated when the language or localization settings are changed.
Function CreateLanguage:TMaxGuiLanguage( name$ )Create a new empty language to be used with MaxGUI's localization system.
This function is provided in case it is necessary to create a new language from scratch. In the majority of cases, languages should instead be loaded from INI files using LoadLanguage.
Use the DefineLanguageToken, RemoveLanguageToken and ClearLanguageTokens commands to add to and modify the returned language. SetLanguageName and LanguageName may also be useful.
See Also: LoadLanguage, SetLocalizationLanguage, LocalizeString and LocalizeGadget.
' createlanguage.bmx
Strict
Import MaxGUI.Drivers
' Enable the localization engine, and automatically localize gadgets when they are created
SetLocalizationMode(LOCALIZATION_ON|LOCALIZATION_OVERRIDE)
Global window:TGadget = CreateWindow("{{window_title}}",100,100,320,240,Null,WINDOW_TITLEBAR|WINDOW_STATUS)
Global btnEnglish:TGadget = CreateButton("{{btn_english}}",5,5,100,30,window,BUTTON_RADIO)
Global btnFrench:TGadget = CreateButton("{{btn_french}}",5,40,100,30,window,BUTTON_RADIO)
SetButtonState( btnEnglish, True )
' Create a new 'English' language
Global lngEnglish:TMaxGUILanguage = CreateLanguage("English (English)")
DefineLanguageToken( lngEnglish, "window_title", "My Window" )
DefineLanguageToken( lngEnglish, "btn_english", "English" )
DefineLanguageToken( lngEnglish, "btn_french", "French" )
' Create a new 'French' language
Global lngFrench:TMaxGUILanguage = CreateLanguage("Fran�ais (French)")
DefineLanguageToken( lngFrench, "window_title", "Ma Fen�tre" )
DefineLanguageToken( lngFrench, "btn_english", "Anglais" )
DefineLanguageToken( lngFrench, "btn_french", "Fran�ais" )
' Set the default language
SetLocalizationLanguage( lngEnglish )
Repeat
SetStatusText window, LanguageName( LocalizationLanguage() )
Select WaitEvent()
Case EVENT_GADGETACTION
Select EventSource()
Case btnEnglish
SetLocalizationLanguage( lngEnglish )
Case btnFrench
SetLocalizationLanguage( lngFrench )
EndSelect
Case EVENT_APPTERMINATE, EVENT_WINDOWCLOSE
End
EndSelect
Forever
Function LoadLanguage:TMaxGuiLanguage( url:Object )Load a language from an INI text stream.
url can be a filepath or any other readable TStream object.
The INI text stream must contain, at minimum, an INI section labelled '[LanguageDefinition]' and a 'LanguageID' token which should be assigned an appropriate language name.
A typical language INI file may look something like:
[LanguageDefinition]
LanguageID = Fran�ais (French)
LanguageVersion = v0.1
LanguageAuthor = Various Sources
; Toolbar Tips
tb_new = "Nouveau"
tb_open = "Ouvrir"
tb_close = "Fermer"
tb_save = "Enregistrer"
tb_cut = "Couper"
tb_copy = "Copier"
tb_paste = "Coller"
...
tb_home = "Page d'Accueil"
tb_back = "Pr�c�dente"
tb_forward = "Suivante"
; Tabs
tab_help = "Aide"
tab_output = "Sortie"
tab_locked:%1 = "construction:%1"
; Time Format, by example: 13:09:02
; h = 1 (12 hour clock) hh = 13 (24 hour clock)
; m = 9 (without leading 0) mm = 09 (including leading 0)
; s = 2 (without leading 0) ss = 02 (including leading 0)
; pp = {{pm}} (or '{{am}}' from 00:00 -> 11:59)
longtime = hh:mm:ss pp
shorttime = {{longtime}} ; We want short time to be formatted exactly like {{longtime}}
; Date Format, by example: 9th June 2009
; d = 9 dd = 09 ddd = {{Wed}} dddd = {{Wednesday}}
; m = 6 mm = 06 mmm = {{Jun}} mmmm = {{June}}
; yy = 09 yyyy = 2009 oo = {{9th}}
longdate = dddd oo mmmm dddd ; e.g. Wednesday 9th June 2009
shortdate = dd/mm/yy ; e.g. 09/06/09
; AM / PM
am = AM
pm = PM
; Ordinals
1st = 1e
2nd = 2er
3rd = 3e
4th = 4e
; etc.
; Days of the week
Monday = "Lundi"
Mon = "Lun"
Tueday = "Mardi"
Tue = "Mar"
Wednesday = "Mercredi"
Wed = "Mer"
Thursday = "Jeudi"
Thu = "Jeu"
Friday = "Vendredi"
Fri = "Ven"
Saturday = "Samedi"
Sat = "Sam"
Sunday = "Dimanche"
Sun = "Dim"
````
Note how a semicolon ';' is used to mark the start of a line comment.
INI files support the following escape sequence characters:
<table><tr><td> <b>INI Escape Sequence</b></td><td><b>BlitzMax Equivalent</b></td></tr><tr><td> \\</td><td>\�</td></tr><tr><td> \r</td><td>~r</td></tr><tr><td> \n</td><td>~n</td></tr><tr><td> \t</td><td>~t</td></tr><tr><td> \#</td><td>#</td></tr><tr><td> \;</td><td>;</td></tr><tr><td> \:</td><td>:</table>
The bottom three escape sequences are only strictly required if the value of the INI key is not enclosed
in quotes. For example, the following definitions are expected to evaluate to the same string ( #;: ).
MyToken = #\;: MyToken = "#;:" MyToken = "#\;:"
Use the [DefineLanguageToken](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-definelanguagetoken-language-tmaxguilanguage-token-value), [RemoveLanguageToken](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-removelanguagetoken-language-tmaxguilanguage-token) and [ClearLanguageTokens](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-clearlanguagetokens-language-tmaxguilanguage) commands to add to and
modify the returned language. [SetLanguageName](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-setlanguagename-language-tmaxguilanguage-name) and [LanguageName](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-languagename-language-tmaxguilanguage) may also be useful.
To construct a new language from scratch, use the [CreateLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-createlanguage-tmaxguilanguage-name) command instead.
See Also: [SetLocalizationLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-setlocalizationlanguage-language-tmaxguilanguage), [SaveLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-savelanguage-language-tmaxguilanguage-url-object), [LocalizeString](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-localizestring-localizationstring) and [LocalizeGadget](../../maxgui/maxgui.maxgui/#function-localizegadget-gadget-tgadget-localizationtext-localizationtooltip).
<br/>
### `Function SaveLanguage( language:TMaxGuiLanguage, url:Object )`
Saves a language as an INI section to the supplied stream.
<b>url</b> can be a filepath or any other writable [TStream](../../brl/brl.stream/tstream) object.
If <b>url</b> is a string ending in "/" or "\", it is assumed that <b>url</b> is a directory path and a default filename
will be appended like so:
```
url = String(url) + LanguageName(language).Split(" ")[0] + ".language.ini"
WARNING: This command will automatically overwrite any existing file at the supplied/resulting file path.
See Also: LoadLanguage, SetLocalizationLanguage, LocalizeString and LocalizeGadget.
Function SetLanguageName( language:TMaxGuiLanguage, name$ )Redefine a language's name.
See Also: LanguageName, LoadLanguage, CreateLanguage and SetLocalizationLanguage.
Function LanguageName$( language:TMaxGuiLanguage )Returns a language's name.
See Also: SetLanguageName, LoadLanguage, CreateLanguage and SetLocalizationLanguage.
Function DefineLanguageToken( language:TMaxGuiLanguage, token$, value$ )Define a language-specific value for a localization token.
Localization tokens are case insensitive, and if a token definition already exists in the language the token value will be overwritten with this most recent value$.
See Also: LoadLanguage, CreateLanguage, SaveLanguage and SetLocalizationLanguage.
Function LanguageTokenDefinition$( language:TMaxGuiLanguage, token$ )Look-up the value of a token for a specific language.
Localization tokens are case insensitive, and are either loaded in with the language or defined using the DefineLanguageToken command.
If an explicit token definition is not found in the language, the token$ string is returned as it was passed.
See Also: LoadLanguage, CreateLanguage, SaveLanguage and SetLocalizationLanguage.
Function RemoveLanguageToken( language:TMaxGuiLanguage, token$ )Remove a token definition from a language.
The only token which cannot be removed is 'LanguageID' as every language requires this one token to be defined - it defines the language name. If a matching token isn't already defined, then the command returns silently.
Note: Localization tokens are case insensitive so the following commands are all requesting the same token to be removed:
RemoveLanguageToken( language, "WelcomeMessage" )
RemoveLanguageToken( language, "WELCOMEMESSAGE" )
RemoveLanguageToken( language, "welcomemessage" )
RemoveLanguageToken( language, "WeLcOmEmEsSaGe" )
````
See Also: [ClearLanguageTokens](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-clearlanguagetokens-language-tmaxguilanguage), [DefineLanguageToken](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-definelanguagetoken-language-tmaxguilanguage-token-value), [LoadLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-loadlanguage-tmaxguilanguage-url-object), [CreateLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-createlanguage-tmaxguilanguage-name), [SaveLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-savelanguage-language-tmaxguilanguage-url-object) and [SetLocalizationLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-setlocalizationlanguage-language-tmaxguilanguage).
<br/>
### `Function ClearLanguageTokens( language:TMaxGuiLanguage )`
Removes all the tokens defined in a language.
The only token which will not be removed is 'LanguageID' as every language requires this one token to be defined -
it defines the language name.
See Also: [RemoveLanguageToken](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-removelanguagetoken-language-tmaxguilanguage-token), [DefineLanguageToken](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-definelanguagetoken-language-tmaxguilanguage-token-value), [LoadLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-loadlanguage-tmaxguilanguage-url-object), [CreateLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-createlanguage-tmaxguilanguage-name), [SaveLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-savelanguage-language-tmaxguilanguage-url-object) and [SetLocalizationLanguage](../../maxgui/maxgui.localization/#function-setlocalizationlanguage-language-tmaxguilanguage).
<br/>
### `Function LocalizeString$( localizationstring$ )`
Returns the localized version of a string.
This function takes one parameter: <b>localizationstring$</b>.
A localization string is just like any other string except that any phrase enclosed in a double pair of
curly-braces is identified as a localization token. For example, the following examples all use valid
localization strings.
LocalizeString("{{welcomemessage}}") 'Localization token(s): welcomemessage LocalizeString("{{apptitlelabel}}: {{AppTitle}}") 'Localization token(s): apptitlelabel, AppTitle LocalizeString("Current Time: {{CurrentTime}}") 'Localization token(s): CurrentTime ````
Localization tokens are case insensitive, and may be made up of any combination of alphanumeric characters. Firstly, the token is tested to see if it is a reserved word. The following tokens are currently reserved (although more maybe added in the future):
| Localization Token | Token Will Be Replaced With... | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AppDir | The value of the [AppDir](../../brl/brl.blitz/#global-appdir-bbappdir) global constant. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AppFile | The value of the [AppFile](../../brl/brl.blitz/#global-appfile-bbappfile) global constant. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AppTitle | The value of the [AppTitle](../../brl/brl.blitz/#global-apptitle-bbapptitle) global constant. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LaunchDir | The value of the [LaunchDir](../../brl/brl.blitz/#global-launchdir-bblaunchdir) global constant. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| GCMemAlloced | The value returned by the [GCMemAlloced](../../brl/brl.blitz/#function-gcmemalloced-int) function (at the moment the token is parsed). |
| Localization Token | Default Format | Sample Output | ||||||
| ShortTime | "hh:mm pp" | 02:36 {{pm}} | ||||||
| LongTime | "hh:mm:ss" | 14:36:51 | ||||||
| ShortDate | "dd/mm/yy" | 04/08/09 | ||||||
| LongDate | "dddd oo mmmm yyyy" | {{Monday}} {{4th}} {{August}} 2009 |
| Constant | Meaning |
| LOCALIZATION_OFF | Any localized gadgets will display their localizedtext$ as their actual text. |
| LOCALIZATION_ON | Localized gadgets will use the current language to display their text. |