Android Localization

In this tutorial I'll be showing you how android localization can be done simply and not without any difficulties. Android localization is a very important feature when you're going to publish your app globally across many countries.

Now let's start developing the Android localization project.

Step 1:

First create values-fr (fr means French) and values-it (it means Italian) in the res folder.
















Step 2:

Next declare the following statements in the following folders.

In values folder:

Strings.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<resources>

    <string name ="app_name" > Localization_Android </string>
    <string name ="action_settings" > Settings </string>
    <string name ="hello_world" > Hello world! </string>
    <string name ="text" > Hello! My name is Jei </string>
 
</resources>

In values-fr folder:

Strings.xml

< ?xml version ="1.0" encoding =" utf-8 "?>

< resources >
   
<string name = "text"> Bonjour! Mon nom est Jei  </string>

</resources>

In values-it folder:

Strings.xml

< ?xml version ="1.0" encoding =" utf-8 "?>

< resources >
   
<string name = "text"> Ciao! Il mio nome è Jei  </string>

</resources>


Step 3:

In main.xml declare these following components.

< LinearLayout  xmlns: android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns : tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android : layout_width="fill_parent"
    android : layout_height="fill_parent"
    android : orientation="vertical">

   <Spinner
        android : id="@+id/spinner1"
        android : layout_width="match_parent"
        android : layout_height="wrap_content">
</Spinner>
 
    <Button
        android : id ="@+id/button1"
        android : layout_width ="match_parent"
        android : layout_height ="wrap_content"
        android : text ="Submit" 
        android : onClick="onClick"/>

</LinearLayout>

Step 4: 

Create another xml file called text.xml to display localization text.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
< LinearLayout xmlns : android=" http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android "
    android : layout_width="fill_parent"
    android : layout_height="fill_parent"
    android : orientation=" vertical " >
 
    < AbsoluteLayout
        android : layout_width=" fill_parent "
        android : layout_height=" fill_parent ">
 
      < TextView
        android : id="@+id/textView1"
        android : layout_width="wrap_content"
        android : layout_height="wrap_content"
        android : text="@string/text"
        android : textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />

      </AbsoluteLayout >

</LinearLayout >

Step 5:

Now lets start coding the functionality in the MainActivity class. Now remember the most important functionality that we'll be using in this project is the locale function. Locales are used to alter the presentation of information such as numbers or dates to suit the conventions in the region they describe. So we'll be using the locale function to perform the localization for this project.

MainActivity.java

import java.util.Locale;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.content.res.Configuration;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.Spinner;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);

Spinner spinner=(Spinner) findViewById (R.id.spinner1);
spinner.setPrompt ("select language");

ArrayAdapter<String> adapter=new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item,languages);

adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
                 spinner.setAdapter(adapter);

spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new OnItemSelectedListener() {

@Override
public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> arg0, View arg1,
int pos, long arg3) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub

Configuration config=new Configuration();

switch(pos)
{
case 0:
config.locale=Locale.ENGLISH;
String languageToLoad="en";

break;

case 1:
config.locale=Locale.ITALIAN;
String languageToLoad1="it";

break;
case 2:
config.locale=Locale.FRENCH;
String languageToLoad2="fr";

break;

default:
config.locale=Locale.ENGLISH;
break;
}
getResources().updateConfiguration(config, null);
}

@Override
public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> arg0) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub


}


});
}

public void onClick(View v) {
startActivity(new Intent(getBaseContext(), TextActivity.class));
}

private String[] languages = { "English", "Italian", "French" };


}

TextActivity.java

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;

public class TextActivity extends Activity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.text);
}

public void onClickProceed(View view)
{
Intent intent=new Intent(TextActivity.this,TestingActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);

}


}

Screen Shots:

See you in the Next Tutorial. Take Care !