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Set up your MeeGo* Device to Test Internationalized Applications

Submitted by danielholmlund on March 15 2011 02:37:30 PM
The process of changing your systems default language is the same no matter which language you are changing to. Some of the more common languages that AppUp support include English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Chinese which are respectively, en-US, fr-FR, it-IT, de-DE, es-ES and zh-CN.

You've probably heard the the Intel AppUpSM developer program has expanded to include more languages and markets, including French, German and Spanish. Here are some useful tips for testing applications on MeeGo* with multiple languages.

Character Sets

MeeGo* uses UTF-8 character sets by default. So you do not need to worry about displaying accented characters such as "é", "ö", "ß", "ç" or "ñ".

You can find the locale on your MeeGo* device by typing in the terminal:

echo $LANG


Know Your Localization API

I won't write much about localization APIs other than to point you in the direction of the two that are most used on MeeGo*. The MeeGo* Touch Reference Documentation has an page for MeeGo* i18n APIs. You can also use Qt APIs to internationalize your application.

Both of these sets of APIs will allow you to get the current system locale of your MeeGo* device and then launch your application in the appropriate language.


Change Language Setting in the Intel AppUpSM Center Client

Change Files

In order to change the language setting, the following file must be changed:

sudo vi /etc/opt/com.intel.appup-netbook/config_public.ini

The section that should be changed looks like this:

[Locale]

Language=en-US

Allowed values are as follows: en-US, fr-FR, it-IT, de-DE, es-ES and zh-CN

sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/i18n

The line that should be changed looks like this:

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

The allowed values are the same as above except notice the "_" instead of a "-".

Intel AppUpSM Center Client

Afterwards, restart the Intel AppUpSM Center Client and its backend

killall ismagent

killall com.intel.appup-netbook

or

killall com.intel.appup-tablet -> in case of Intel AppUpSM Center 2.5 Alpha for MeeGo* Tablet

Cached Data

Afterwards, the cached data needs to be cleared:

sudo rm -fr /var/opt/com.intel.appup-netbook/*.bin*

sudo rm -fr /var/opt/com.intel.appup-tablet/*.bin* -> In case of Intel AppUpSM Center 2.5 Alpha for MeeGo* Tablet


Set the Locale on Your MeeGo* Device

To change the local on a MeeGo* netbook device go to the Application tab and then to Accessories.



Click on Settings -> Languages




Logout

Finally select the language that you are interested in. I will use French in this example. You will need to logout and log back in for the new languages settings to take effect.






Launch Your Application

Now launch your application and visually inspect the title, description and the your application's text. In most cases, if the text and images are displaying correctly then you are most of the way done. Here are some other items that you should check.

Application resources such as images and icons need to be checked to ensure they are appropriate for the new locale.

Hot-keys should be changed to reflect the new language.

Help documentation and error messages should be provided in the localized language.

Check the usability of the application UI in the new language. Be sure that if a particular piece of text is longer than the UI isn't clipping it in an odd way.


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