Development/Tutorials/Localization/i18n

Writing Applications With Localization In Mind

Tutorial Series	Localization
Previous	Introduction to Unicode is recommended, though not required
What's Next	Avoiding Common Localization Pitfalls
Further Reading	n/a

Abstract

Reaching a broad audience of users and developers requires that your software can be translated and otherwise shaped at runtime to be linguistically and culturally relevant to whomever is sitting in front of the computer. This is the realm of localization and this tutorial steps you through what is needed to make your application localizable.

What is Internationalization and Localization?

Internationalization, or i18n ('i', followed by 18 letters, then an 'n'), is the process of writing your application so that it can be run in any locale. This means taking into account such things as:

textual messages that are displayed to the user
data input from the user, files and other sources
format of dates, numbers, currency, dates, etc.

Localization, or l10n ('l', followed by 10 characters, then an 'n'), is the process of taking an internationalized application and adapting it for a specific locale.

Generaly speaking, programmers internationalize their applications and translation teams localize them.

Why is This Important?

KDE development happens primarily in English as this allows the broadest reach into the development and translation communities. However, English is not the primary language of most people on the planet. In fact, fewer than 8% of humanity speaks English and less than 5% speak it as their mother tongue. Even on the Internet, only 35% people who are online use English as their primary language and as more and more of the world gets wired this number is only decreasing. Additionally most languages, including 9 out of the 10 most common languages, use non-ASCII characters in their written form. It is easy to see, then, why it has become a necessity to provide localized software.

As an international project that spans the globe, such localization is a core value within the KDE culture. In fact, while many KDE developers write their software in English they use the desktop in their native locale.

Translatable Code Using i18n()

To ensure your application is ready to be localized you have to follow a few simple rules. All user-visible strings in your application should be translated before they are displayed on the user's screen, exceptions to this being debugging messages, configuration keys and similar types of text data.

KDE provides the KLocale class as part of libkdecore to facilitate the technical details of localization. KLocale makes it as easy as possible for developers to make their code i18n aware, but there are some things you need to be aware of so that applications are usable in other languages and countries.

Access to a global KLocale object is provided via KGlobal::locale(). This KLocale object is created automatically by KInstance and takes care of all user i18n related settings. It is deleted automatically on application exit.

Translations are made possible by the QString i18n(const char*) method, defined in klocalizedstring.h, which you must wrap all strings that should be displayed in. The QString returned by i18n() is the translated (if necessary) string. This makes creating translatable widgets as simple as in this example:

include <klocalizedstring.h>

[...] QPushButton* myButton = new QPushButton(i18n("Translate this!"));

QString's native Unicode support ensures that all translations are represented correctly. All string handling done by your application should therefore use QString.

Tip

If the string to be translated contains any non-UTF8 characters, use the utf8() method to get a char*.

ki18n

The i18n() method requires that a KInstance (e.g. KApplication) has been created. For any strings that are created prior to this there is another method provided: ki18n(). This allows one to mark strings that should be translated later as such. The ki18n() will return a KLocalizedString, which can be finalized into a QString (i.e. translated for real) after the KInstance has been created, using its toString() method.

ki18n() is typically used for strings given to KAboutData, because it is constructed before the KApplication and you can use i18n() only after the construction of the KApplication. Other than these special cases, it is always safe to use i18n() if you are sure that the code will be executed after construction of KApplication or some other KInstance.

Adding Context

There is an extended version of i18n(), i18nc() which takes two const char* arguments. The first argument is an additional contextual description of the second string which will be translated. The first string is used to find the proper corresponding translation at run-time and is shown to translators to help them understand the meaning of the string.

Use i18nc() whenever the purpose of the text might be ambiguous without further context. For example, consider a context menu in a file manager with an entry called "View" which opens a viewer for the currently selected file. In this context "View" is a verb. However, the same application also may have a menu called "View" in the menubar. In that context "View" is a noun. In the English version of the application everything looks fine, but in most other languages one of the two "View" strings will be incorrect.

Additionally, translators sometimes need extra help in understanding what the text is actually referring to during the translation process.

In the file manager example above, one might therefore write:

contextMenu->addAction(i18nc("verb, to view something", "View")); viewMenu->addAction(i18nc("noun, the view", "View"));

Now the two strings will be properly translatable, both by the human translators and at runtime by KLocale.

Use this form of i18n whenever the string to translate is short or the meaning is hard to discern when the context is not exactly known. For example:

QString up = i18nc("Go one directory up in the hierarchy", "Up"); QString relation = i18nc("A person's name and their familial relationship to you.", "%1 is your %2", name, relationship);

Note

There is also a ki18nc("context","text") method for providing context to strings which are constructed before the KInstance. It returns a KLocalizedString, so use the toString() method afterwards to convert it into a QString.

Contexts can also be added when building forms in Qt Designer. Each widget label, including tooltips and whatsthis texts, has a "comment" attribute, which will serve the same purpose as first argument to i18nc() call.

Standard Context For Common Phrases

Below is a chart showing some common words and phrases in English and the context that must be used with them to ensure proper translation of them in other languages.

Standard Contexts
Phrase	Context	i18nc Call	Example
Busy	Refering to a person	`i18nc("A person is busy", "Busy")`
Busy	Refering to a thing	`i18nc("A thing is busy", "Busy")`
Color	Color mode, as opposed to Grayscale	`i18nc("Color mode", "Color")`
Creator	Refering to a person	`i18nc("A person who creates", "Creator")`
Creator	Refering to software	`i18nc("Software", "Creator")`
Display	Refering to hardware	`i18nc("Hardware display", "Display")`
Editor	Refering to a person	`i18nc("A person who edits", "Editor")`
Editor	Refering to software	`i18nc("Software", "Editor")`
Line	Refering to drawing	`i18nc("Draw a line", "Line")`
Line	Refering to text	`i18nc("Line of text", "Line")`
Name	Refering to a name of thing	`i18nc("A thing's name", "Name")`	In theme change dialog: i18nc("Theme name", "Name")
Name	Refering to first name and last name of person	`i18nc("Person's first and last name", "Name")`	In KAddessbook contact edit dialog: i18nc("Person's first and last name", "Name")
No	Answer to a question	`i18nc("Answer to a question", "No")`
No	Availability of a thing	`i18nc("Availability", "No")`
(Re)load	(Re)load a document, medium etc.	`i18nc("(Re)load a document", "(Re)load")`
(Re)load	(Re)start a program, daemon etc.	`i18nc("(Re)start a program", "(Re)load")`
Title	Refering to a person	`i18nc("A person's title", "Title")`
Title	Refering to a thing	`i18nc("A thing's title", "Title")`
Volume	Refering to sound	`i18nc("Sound volume", "Volume")`
Volume	Refering to a filesystem	`i18nc("Filesystem volume", "Volume")`
Volume	Refering to books	`i18nc("Book volume", "Volume")`
Yes	Answer to a question	`i18nc("Answer to a question", "Yes")`
Yes	Availability of a thing	`i18nc("Availability", "Yes")`

Plurals

Plurals are handled differently from language to language. Many languages have different plurals for 2, 10, 20, 100, etc. When the string you want translated refers to more than one item, you must use the third form of i18n, the i18np(). It takes the singular and plural English forms as its first two arguments, followed by any substitution arguments as usual, but at least one of which should be integer-valued. For example:

msgStr = i18np("1 image in album %2", "%1 images in album %2", numImages, albumName);

i18np() gets expanded to as many cases as required by the user's language. In English, this is just two forms while in other languages it may be more, depending on the value of the first integer-valued argument.

Note that this form should be used even if the string always refers to more than one item as some languages use a singular form even when referring to a multiple (typically for 21, 31, etc.). This code:

i18n("%1 files were deleted", numFilesDeleted);

is therefore incorrect and should instead be:

i18np("1 file was deleted",

    "%1 files were deleted",
    numFilesDeleted);

To provide context as well as pluralization, use i18ncp as in this example:

i18ncp("Personal file", "1 file", "%1 files", numFiles);

Formatting Dates and Numbers

When displaying a number to the user, your program must take care of the decimal separator, thousand separator and currency symbol (if any) being used. These symbols differ from region to region. In English speaking countries a dot (.) is used to separate the fractional part of a number, while in some European countries a comma (,) is used instead. Below is a short summary of functions that will help you format the numbers correctly, taking the local conventions into account for you.

Functions to Format Numbers
Formats a..	From a..	Function Prototype
Number	String	QString formatNumber( const QString & numStr )
Number	Integer, double	formatNumber( double num, int precision = -1 )
Money	String	formatMoney( const QString & numStr )
Money	Number	formatMoney( double num, const QString & currency, int digits = -1 )
Date	String	formatDate( const QDate & pDate, bool shortFormat=false )
Time	QTime	formatTime( const QTime & pTime, bool includeSecs=false)
Date and time	QDateTime	formatDateTime( const QDateTime &pDateTime, bool shortFormat = true, bool includeSecs = false )

Similar functions exist to read information provided by the user at runtime in their localized format, e.g. readNumber() or readMoney().

Calendaring

Developing applications dealing with dates and time, such as calendars, is a very complex area. Not only may the displayed string containing a date or time may look different based on locale, but one also has to take care of other aspects such as:

which day in the week is the first one (cf int weekStartDay())
how many months in a year there are
"era"-based calendars
whether to use 24-hour time format (cf bool use12Clock())

KLocale provides, among others, these methods:

Calendar Data Functions

Formats a..

From a..

Function Prototype

Date

QDate

formatDate( const QDate & pDate,
            bool shortFormat=false )

Time

QTime

formatTime( const QTime & pTime,
            bool includeSecs=false )

Date and time

QDateTime

formatDateTime( const QDateTime &pDateTime,
                bool shortFormat=true,
                bool includeSecs=false )

Warning

This section needs improvements: Please help us to

cleanup confusing sections and fix sections which contain a todo

provide more info on the different calendar systems

Avoiding Common Traps

There are a number of common problems that may prevent an application being properly localized. See Avoiding Common Localization Pitfalls to learn more about them, and how to avoid them.

Note

Thanks to Lukáš Tinkl, Matthias Kiefer and Gary Cramblitt for writing the original version of this tutorial.