Many people are intimidated by localization (l10n) and internationalization (i18n) but they don’t have to be—Android provides many tools out of the box to aide you in global domination. Learn what to watch out for while coding your app that will make your life easier once you receive localized content. We’ll cover alternate resources, strings files, date and number formatters and other tips from Android Studio, Google, and third parties that will turn you into an i18n and l10n champion. This talk was given at Droidcon NYC on August 27th, 2015. These slides were revised for DroidKaigi in Tokyo, presented on February 19th, 2016.

1. Fearless
Internationalization and
Localization Across the
Nations
Siena Aguayo
Software Engineer at Indiegogo
@sienatime

2. @sienatime
• What are l10n and i18n?
Overview
• Why should I care?
• How do I internationalize my Android app?
• What other cool things can I do?

3. @sienatime

4. @sienatime

5. @sienatime
What are l10n and i18n?

6. @sienatime
localization
internationalization
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

7. @sienatime
Localization
• Displaying data (dates, numbers,
currencies, etc.) according to target region
• Adjusting branding according to target
culture
BUSINESS
• Translating content into target languages

8. @sienatime
Internationalization
• Preparing your app for localized content
• Defining alternate resource files
• Using number and date formatters
• Designing and implementing flexible
layouts
ENGINEERING

9. @sienatime
localization
internationalization
not just translation™

10. @sienatime
Why should I care?

11. @sienatime
EMPATHY

12. Android peeps made with androidify.com
Android is everywhere!
@sienatime

13. @sienatime
From a technical perspective...
• Separation of concerns
• Organization & readability

14. @sienatime
ya ain’t gonna need it
(you’re not going to need it)

15. @sienatime
How do I internationalize my
Android app?

16. @sienatime
How do I prepare my Android app
for localized content?

17. @sienatime
What content is localizable?
• Strings
• Numbers and currency
• Dates and time
• Images with text on them (avoid)
• Audio and video files

18. @sienatime
Resource Files Java
Strings
Images
Audio
Video
Numbers
Currency
Dates
Time

19. @sienatime
Resource Files
• Have a set of default resources
• Define alternates as you need them
res
values
strings.xml

20. @sienatime
Strings
• Don’t hardcode strings that face the user
• Use position placeholders %1$s %2$s
• Provide context for your translators to
help make their job easier
I need to %s interpolate %s I need to %1$s interpolate %2$s

21. @sienatime
Android Is on Your Side

22. @sienatime
<string name="app_name" translatable="false">
Indiegogo
</string>
Hey, Don’t Translate This
Helpful lint errors

23. @sienatime
<string name="campaign_ended_label"
note="example: Ended on January 21, 2014">
Ended on %s
</string>
XML Is Extensible

24. @sienatime
Numbers & Currencies
import java.text.NumberFormat;
NumberFormat numberFormat = NumberFormat.getInstance();
textView.setText(numberFormat.format(36965));

25. @sienatime
*.java
res.getQuantityString(
R.plurals.number_of_fb_friends,
count,
numberFormat.format(count)
);
strings.xml
<plurals name="number_of_fb_friends">
<item quantity="one">%s friend</item>
<item quantity="other">%s friends</item>
</plurals>
Plurals
beware of %d

26. @sienatime
Dates & Time
// DateFormat.getDateFormat (short)
// DateFormat.getMediumDateFormat
// DateFormat.getLongDateFormat
en_US
short: 08/07/2015
medium: Aug 7, 2015
long: August 7, 2015
en_AU
short: 07/08/2015
medium: 7 Aug 2015
long: 7 August 2015
DateFormat dateFormatter = DateFormat.getDateFormat(context);
Date now = new Date();
dateFormatter.format(now);

27. @sienatime
Custom Date Formats: API 18+
String formatString = DateFormat.getBestDateTimePattern(
Locale.getDefault(), "MMMMyyyy"
);
SimpleDateFormat dateFormatter = new
SimpleDateFormat(formatString);
Date now = new Date();
String dateString = dateFormatter.format(now);
en_US: August 2015
ja_JP: 2015年8月

28. @sienatime
Custom Date Formats: API <18
• ¯_(ツ)_/¯
• Collect date formats you need and keep
them in your resources
• ...but Android is still going to format
according to the user’s locale even if you
don’t support it
• Joda-Time

29. @sienatime
Multi-Format Spannables
Try to avoid
public void setSpan (Object what, int start, int end, int flags)
I’m some fancy spanned text!spanned

30. @sienatime
Multi-Format Spannables
Replace, if you can, with HTML in your
strings.xml (limited tag support)
textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(
res.getString(R.string.fixed_funding))
);
<string name="flexible_funding">
<![CDATA[
<b>Flexible Funding.</b> Campaign keeps all
funds raised.
]]>
</string>

31. @sienatime
Build Flexible Layouts
• Thank God for wrap_content
• Be mindful of line lengths
• What would happen if these two pieces of
data needed to be switched around?

32. @sienatime
What other cool things can I do?

33. @sienatime
Android Studio Translations Editor

34. @sienatime
Google Play App Translation Service

35. @sienatime
Google Play Developer Console → Statistics
• What languages and countries your users
are in
• How your app compares to others in your
category

36. @sienatime
Smartling
• Paid translation service
• API and Java SDK
• Update strings files with a push and a pull

37. @sienatime
Smartling: Push
$ ./smartling.sh push
Pushing strings.xml to smartling...
ApiResponse[data=UploadFileData[stringCount=207,wordCount=
506,overWritten=false],code=SUCCESS,messages=[]]

38. @sienatime
Smartling: Pull
$ ./smartling.sh pull
Pulling non-English locales from smartling...
pulling fr-Fr from smartling...
saved fr-Fr to /app/src/main/res/values-fr/strings.xml
pulling de-DE from smartling...
saved de-DE to /app/src/main/res/values-de/strings.xml
pulling es from smartling...
saved es to /app/src/main/res/values-es/strings.xml

39. @sienatime
Further Reading
● Localizing with Resources
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/
localization.html
● Localization Checklist
http://developer.android.com/distribute/tools/localization-
checklist.html
● Google Play App Translation Service blog post
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2013/11/app-
translation-service-now-available.html
● Smartling API http://docs.smartling.com/pages/API/v2/
● Smartling Java SDK
http://docs.smartling.com/pages/API/v2/SDKs/#Java

40. @sienatime
Go out and be fearless!
Any questions?
@sienatime