[Ruby-GNOME2 Project Website] create - tips_libglade_i18n (ruby-gnome2-doc-cvs) - Ruby-GNOME2

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REMOTE_ADDR = 218.231.161.82
REMOTE_HOST = 
REMOTE_USER = ruby-gnome2-hiki
        URL = /hiki.cgi?tips_libglade_i18n
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TITLE       = Supporting internationalization (i18n) in Ruby/Libglade
KEYWORD     = 
= Supporting internationalization (i18n) in Ruby/Libglade

== Introduction

This tutorial will show how to have Ruby/Libglade take advantage of gettext
translated strings. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of gettext,
reading the ((<manual|URL:http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual>)) is probably
a good idea. Also Ruby-GetText-Package has ((<an API referrence and tutorials|URL:http://ponx.s5.xrea.com/hiki/ruby-gettext-dev.html>)).

Before starting, make sure you have both of Ruby-GNOME2 and ((<Ruby-GetText-Package|URL:http://ponx.s5.xrea.com/hiki/ruby-gettext.html>)) installed.

== Creating the interface in Glade

The first step is to create the interface with 'glade-2'. Every time you create
a widget with a text field, the XML generated will have a 'translatable="yes"' 
field added to it.

== Creating the translations

Next you'll want to create the main translation file. To do this, use the following
command:

  rgettext myapp.glade myapp.rb lib/lib.rb -o myapp.pot

foo.glade is genereated by glade-2. myapp.rb and lib/lib.rb are the script files for your application  which you created.

Look inside of this file. You should see the glade strings listed. 

This .pot file should be sent to the translators. Once they get the file, they should
create a .po file. As an example, to create a German translation they would use:

  LANG=de_DE msginit

This will create de.po, where the translated strings should be entered. The translation
file needs to be converted to a binary format before use:

  rmsgfmt de.po -o myapp.mo

This file should then be placed in the appropriate directory. On my machine,
this would go in /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/

== Writing your code

Now to tell Ruby/Libglade to load the locale files. Normally you would have a line
in your code similar to this:

  @glade = GladeXML.new('myapp.glade') { |handler| method(handler) }

To get the translated strings to load, you need to specify a locale name to glade so
it knows which file to load the strings from. Change the above code to:

  @glade = GladeXML.new('myapp.glade', nil, 'myapp') { |handler| method(handler) }

The third parameter, 'myapp', will tell glade to look for 'myapp.mo'. Now to load the
application:

  LANG=de_DE ruby myapp.rb

The translated strings should appear. That's all there is to it.

== Auto-generating the template file

ruby-glade-create-template is a helper tool which creates a template script from a .glade file.

 ruby-glade-create-template myapp.glade > myapp.rb

Check myapp.rb. You can find GladeXML.new and signal handlers as the template.

== Auto-generating the binary translation file

((*Note*)) this section is based on code included with Masao Mutoh's ((<ruby-gettext
distribution|URL:http://ponx.s5.xrea.com/hiki/ruby-gettext.html>)).

For every translation file, you'll need to create a new .mo file. With Minero
Aoki's ((<install.rb|URL:http://i.loveruby.net/en/setup.html>)) this becomes very easy
to automate. 

For this example we will pretend we have German and Spanish translations already
created, named de.po and es.po, respectively.

  cd $PROJECTROOT
  mkdir po
  mkdir po/de
  mkdir po/es
  cp de.po po/de/myapp.po
  cp es.po po/es/myapp.po

Then, in your main directory, create a file named post-setup.rb which contains:

  require 'gettext/rmsgfmt'
  GetText.create_mofiles

You may also want to create the following pre-clean.rb:

  Dir.glob("data/**/*.mo").each do |file|
      File.delete(file)
  end

Now, when 'ruby install.rb setup' is run, the translation files will be generated.
On 'ruby install.rb install' they will be installed to the correct place.

== Conclusion

I hope this all was decently clear. If people run into problems, feel free to
contact me and I will try to help out. I would like to improve this document,
so also contact me with corrections, etc.

== Author

Zachary P. Landau (kapheine AT hypa DOT net).

The reader should be warned that I am far from an expert on the subject. I only
very recently started trying to add internationalization support to one of my
projects. While searching for information, I found only bits and pieces that
had to be put together. I wrote this tutorial in attempt to keep other people
from having to do the same.

That being said, I'd be very happy to incorporate additions and corrections from
people who know more about the subject. Please contact me with any information
you have.

== ChangeLog
:2005-10-12 ((<Masao>))
 Use Ruby-GetText-Package's new method (GetText.create_mofiles)
:2005-08-05 ((<Masao>))
 Revised to use ruby-glade-create-package, rgettext and rmsgfmt.

:2004-03-20 Zachary P. Landau
 Initial release

Ruby-GNOME2

[ruby-gnome2-doc-cvs] [Ruby-GNOME2 Project Website] create - tips_libglade_i18n