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Soluling's Internationalization APIs and Localization Samples

Plurals, genders, abbreviated numbers, ordinal numbers, runtime language change, overlap and truncation checking, and many more.

Soluling has implemented a collection of internationalization (I18N) APIs for .NET, Angular and Delphi. Each API adds additional features to the standard I18N API of the platform — for example, support for grammatical numbers, grammatical genders, abbreviated numbers, and ordinal numbers. Library also includes APIs to perform runtime language switch of applications, or to select the initial language on runtime. The library also contains API that on runtime checks your user interface for issues such as truncated or overlapped controls. Finally, the Delphi library contains a proper localization resource for FireMonkey.

API Implementation

Each API is 100% native API. It means that it contains full source code and requires no additional files. .NET API contains only C# code and requires no other library or data files. In the same way Angular API contains only TypeScript code, and Delphi API contains only Delphi code. The rules used by the code have been extracted from CLDR into source code files that are part of the API source code. You don't need ICU library or CLDR XML files, but everything including logic and rules are compiled into your application file.

Grammatical numbers and genders

Most resource formats (e.g., .resx in .NET, .properties in Java, and resource strings in Delphi) only support plain strings. Grammatical numbers, and genders require structural data where there are several language-depend variants for a single string. For example, in English, "I have N cars" would require two variants:

Some platforms such as Android and Angular have built-in support for plurals, and that is why they also have a special resource format to hold multiple patterns. However, .NET, Delphi, and Java do not have such a resource format. This library uses ICU message format to store all related patterns into a standard resource string. The syntax is:

{parameter, kind, form1 {pattern1}[ form2 {pattern2}]...[ formN {patternN}]

where

kind is either plural, gender or select

form is the code for grammatical number form or for grammatical gender form.

The following table contains possible forms.

In addition of the above forms you can use operator with grammatical numbers. The operators are:

The car sample for .NET would be:

{plural, one {I have {0} car} other {I have {0} cars}}

Finnish version would be

{plural, one {Minulla on {0} auto} other {Minulla on {0} autoa}}

Japanese version would be

{plural, other {{0}車持っています}}

Japanese has only one form, universal, so the string contains only other pattern.

The pattern can contain text before and after the multi-pattern syntax. The following example contains "I have " before the multi-pattern and "." after the multi-pattern.

I have {plural, one {{0} car} other {{0} cars}}.

For Delphi the sample it would be

I have {plural, one {%d car} other {%d cars}}.

If your pattern need to have braces ({ or }) they have to be escaped using \. \ character must also be escaped. For example "I like skiing {alpine\s} however, I only have {0} pairs of skis" would be

other {I like skiing \{alpine\\s\} however, I only have {0} pairs of skis}

See samples in Samples\Delphi\VCL\Patterns, Samples\Delphi\FMX\Patterns, Samples\WindowsForms\Patterns and Samples\WPF\Patterns directories.

The classes also support the legacy multi pattern format

one;I have {0} car;other;I have {0} cars

However support for this legacy format has been deprecated. The ICU message format is the recommended format.

Multiple placeholders

The API supports multiple plural/gender enabled placeholders. In that case, you have split your string into parts, each containing one placeholder, and then chain the segments into a logical sentence. Use the next form to start a new part. For example, if I want to say "I have C cars and S skis" you will create the following string that contains two parts: one for car and another for ski. Each part contains two patterns: singular and plural.

.NET

I have {plural, one {{0} car} other {{0} cars}} and {plural, one {{0} ski} other {{0} skis}}.

The string contains two multi patterns: cars and skis.

Delphi

I have {plural, one {%d car} other {%d cars}} and {plural, one {%d ski} other {%d skis}}.

See Samples\Delphi\VCL\Patterns\Multi, Samples\Delphi\FMX\Patterns\Multi, Samples\WindowsForms\Patterns\Multi and Samples\WPF\Patterns\Multi samples.

Abbreviated numbers

If we need to show large numbers on a screen, it might be hard for the user to understand the magnitude of a number easily. For example, if we have number 144563217, how should we show it. We could format it according to the rules of the locale of the user. For example, in the USA it would be 14,456,217. Although this is easier to understand than the unformatted number, it still has few problems. The first one is that it requires some effort to understand the magnitude of the number. Secondly, it requires quite lot of space. One solution is to round it like 14,000,000. It is easier to understand. To make it even easier to understand, we can also abbreviate it like 14M. The abbreviated forms are getting more and more popular. Unfortunately, each language as its way to abbreviate. Most languages go by three digits. For example, English: K, M, G, T, etc. However, some Asian languages go by four digits. For example Japanese: 万 (10,000), 億 (100,000,000), etc.

CLDR contains rules to abbreviate numbers. The abbreviated number API uses those rules to format a number (integer or float) as a string. The result can either be a long string such as 14 million, short as 14M, or a currency string such as $14M.

Ordinal numbers

CLDR does not contain information on how to create ordinal numbers from a number. I have been collecting the rules from various sources. There are still many languages without proper rules. Help from a native speaker would be appreciated.

Runtime translation loading

Some platforms such as Angular do not have runtime translation loading. This API implements it. Using this API you can now make one compilation, one deployment and one URL that serves all languages.

Runtime language switch

Runtime language switch is a feature where the application can change the language of its user interface on runtime. This library contains code for that. The language change is implemented in such a way the there is not reload of forms or dialog, and the current state of the application remains unchanged.

Runtime language switch APIs are for Delphi VCL, Delphi FireMonkey, .NET Windows Forms, and .NET WPF.

User Interface Checker

When we translate strings to another language, there is always a possibility that the translation will be longer than the original string. This is especially true if the original language is English because English is a more compact language as for example, German or Finnish. When translated strings get longer, there is a risk that part of the string gets truncated or two or more strings get overlapped. Situations like these are hard to find. User interface checker API helps. It is an API that you temporary link to your code, and when you run the application is writing a report file with screenshots showing truncations and overlapped marked with clear colors. You can instantly see where a truncation or overlapping occurs.

User interface checker APIs are for Delphi VCL, Delphi FireMonkey, .NET Windows Forms, and .NET WPF.

.NET

Library\NET contains the .NET API. Library\NET\Standard contains a .NET Standard library that contains API for grammatical numbers, grammatical genders, abbreviated numbers, and ordinal numbers. Compile it and add that into your solution and finally add the library into the references of your project. Because the no UI part of the library is .NET Standard, it works with Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET, .NET Core, and Xamarin. You can also compile it using any .NET version starting with .NET 2.0.

You can get the API through NuGet.

Install-Package Soluling

Currently, we have samples for Windows Forms and WPF. We will add ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core samples soon.

Angular

Library\Angular contains the Angular API. The API requires Angular 9 or later. The easiest way to use it is through npm.

npm install @soluling/angular

To learn more about this API read its documentation.

Delphi

Library\Delphi contains the Delphi API. The easiest way to include them into your application is to add the path to the search path of your project. Library supports Delphi 7 or later. However, to get all the features you need Delphi XE2 or later.

FireMonkey

FireMonkey does not have a proper localization resource. If your target mobile platforms such as iOS or Android, you cannot use resource DLLs. Everything, including the localized resource, must be in the main application file. This library contains a solution for FireMonkey localization. It uses a special .ntres file format to store form (.fmx), string, image, and audio resources into a single .ntres file. The file contains the resources in all the languages you want to support. Finally, you add the .ntres file as a custom resource into your application and use the library's API calls to access the resources. You don't have to modify your existing application that much in order to make is multilingual. The only exception is the resource strings. You cannot use the. If you have hardcoded string, and you want to localize it, wrap it in _T function.

procedure TForm1.UpdateStrings;
begin
  Label1.Text := _T('Hello world');
end;

If you already have an existing resource string remove it and use the _T function. In addition you have to call _T for each form.

procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  _T(Self);
end;

See Samples\Delphi\FMX\Patterns\Simple sample first.

You can use .ntres resources also in VCL applications, but it is recommended to use the standard VCL localization method with resource strings and resource DLLs or localized EXE files.

C++Builder

C++Builder is not officially supported. All these codes should work with C++Builder but never tested.

Other programming languages

We chose .NET, Angular and Delphi as the first platform for a few reasons. First is that we love Angular, C# and Delphi. Secondly, both Delphi and .NET lack support for several I18N APIs, such as plurals and genders. The third is that both Delphi and .NET would also benefit from runtime language switch. Fourth is that Delphi is used to create mobile applications where the size matters. The fifth is that I believe that C# + .NET Core will have a bright future.

We are considering to implement similar classes for TypeScript (JavaScript comes in the process). However, TypeScript is mostly used with Angular that already has great support plurals and genders. We implemented the runtime translation loading for Angular. We will probably implement only abbreviated numbers API for TypeScript.

We can implement similar libraries for Java. There is already ICU implementation for Java, so if you use Java on the server-side, you can use it. If you use Java on the client-side, it will most likely be Android, and it supports plurals but not genders. We are still considering Java support. Let us know if it would be useful.

CldrToCode.exe

Bin\CldrToCode.exe is a tool that extracts rules from the CLDR XML files to C# and Delphi files. Normally you don't have to use it because the library already contains extracted files that contain rules in all CLDR languages. However, if you want to create rule files that contain only some languages, you can use CldrToCode.exe to create your own rules files. For example, if you want to create rule files that only contains English, German, and French use:

CldrToCode.exe -lang:en;de;fr D:\CLDR\common

This will create NtPluralData.pas, NtNumberData.pas, PluralData.cs and NumberData.cs.

With little effort we can make CldrToCode.exe to create Java, TypeScript and Python files too.

Samples

This repo also contains internationalization and localization sample application, files and databases. Soluling has dozens of samples covering several major programming platforms and file formats. Samples are up-to-date and using a recent version of their programming language.

Soluling contains samples for the following platforms:

• Access
• Android
• Angular
• ASP.NET
• ASP.NET Core
• Binary data files
• Blazor
• Delphi VCL
• Delphi FireMonkey
• DITA
• Excel
• Firebird
• Go
• HTML
• HtmlHelp
• Ini
• Interbase
• Java
• JSON
• JSP
• Lazarus
• Markdown
• MySQL
• PHP
• PO/GetText
• PostgreSQL
• PowerPoint
• Python
• Qt
• Rails
• React
• RTF
• SalesForce
• Script
• SQLite
• SQL Server
• SQL Server Compact Edition
• SRT subtitles
• Svelte
• SVG
• Text files
• TMX
• UWP (Universal Windows Platform)
• Vue
• WebVTT subtitles
• Wix installer
• Word
• WPF (.NET)
• Windows Forms (.NET)
• XLIFF
• XML
• XSL
• YAML

Localization

If you plan to localize your application using multiple patterns strings, you better use a localization tool that has support for grammatical numbers and grammatical genders. Soluling has excellent support for multiple patterns, and it supports ASP.NET, .NET, Angular, React, Blazor, Delphi, Python, Java, plus more than 100 other file and database formats.

Soluling supports continuous localization, machine translation, interactive fuzzy matching enabled translation memory, interactive terminology, import/export, build tools, and cloud translation.

You can download Soluling from here.

Note! At the moment, Soluling and SoluMake are Windows applications and work only on Windows. However, we plan to release a web-based version in future and port SoluMake to Linux and macOS.