Adding localized files into a project

[frefol]

I have a project which until now is only a US only build. I am now tasked of building a localized version of the installation. I went through the documentation and understand how to add localized strings in the installation. One thing that is not clear is what to do with localized version of files that are already in the project. I want to use the same project that I have been using for the US build for my localized builds.

I have the following questions to start off with:

1. How do I include the localized files that have the same file names as the US files?
2. How can I make the install so that localized files are included only in the respective localized setup package and common files are included in all?

[gigi]

Hi,

How do I include the localized files that have the same file names as the US files?
How can I make the install so that localized files are included only in the respective localized setup package and common files are included in all?

I'm afraid that this cannot be done. Advanced Installer support only string localization. You need to create a package for each language in order to do that. Or if you add all the files in the same project they will be included in all resulting localized packages and then you can condition the installation of a file depending on the language by condition the associated component in the Organization page.

Best Regards,
Gigi
______________
Gheorghe Rada
Advanced Installer Team
http://www.advancedinstaller.com

[frefol]

Thanks for your reply.

Or if you add all the files in the same project they will be included in all resulting localized packages and then you can condition the installation of a file depending on the language by condition the associated component in the Organization page.

I figured this was my only choice.

I prefer to provide separate install packages since this will yield a smaller download. I realize that it would take some time to convert my existing English installation to another language, but the source is small enough that it is feasible. I do have one question, how can I take my custom strings and put it in a dictionary so it is easy to localize. Right now, my custom strings is in the AIP source file. I added a custom string in the ui_en.ail file and try to access it from a dialog box. I could not get it to work. I basically mimicked a standard entry such as

<STRING id="Property.ButtonText_Finish" value="&Finish"/>

and added my own entry such as

<STRING id="Property.ButtonText_Configure" value="&Configure"/>

I then used my string ID (ButtonText_Configure) in one of the dialogs. All I get is a blank entry where I expected the string.

Is this possible? How can I do this?

[frefol]

I played around with this some more and I found out that if I added an entry in the UI.aip file under the fragments folder, my custom string now shows up

<ROW Property="ButtonText_Configure" ValueLocId="Property.ButtonText_Configure"/>

Is this the right way of doing this? I was hoping to isolate user-defined strings in a separate file that I can check into source control with the rest of my setup components.

[gigi]

Hi,

We have some tutorials about how to create your project in other languages and how to create a new dictionary, please see:
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-g ... uages.html
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-g ... guage.html

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,
Gigi
______________
Gheorghe Rada
Advanced Installer Team
http://www.advancedinstaller.com

[Swan]

From the previous replys, I understand that the following entry into the Dictionary file will not work:

<ENTRY id="File.Product.chm">
<STRING lang="en" value="Product"/>
<STRING lang="de" value="C:\Development\Product\Installers\MSI Installer\de\Product.chm"/>
<STRING lang="fr" value="C:\Development\Product\Installers\MSI Installer\fr\Product.chm"/>
</ENTRY>

since AI cannot understand file references. Can someone confirm this behavior, please? If this is the case, is this a limitation of AI or of Microsoft's installation application? If it's a limitation of AI, are there plans to add this functionality?

[gigi]

Hi,

This is not yet supported by Advanced Installer. We have plans to introduce this is a future version of AI but in a different way. What I mean is multiple builds. And then you can specify different files for each language build.

Best Regards,
Gigi
______________
Gheorghe Rada
Advanced Installer Team
http://www.advancedinstaller.com

[Swan]

Thanks for your reply Gigi. We look forward to the future version of AI. For now, we'll create new projects for each language, as you suggest.