Question 1

What are some internationalization best practices?

Accepted Answer

Product internationalization is a pretty vast area and depending on the nature of your product & markets you are considering, i18n can comprise of different operations and best practices. However, you can learn more about software internationalization on our blog.

Few points about internationalization #️⃣

Take localization into account in the early stages of development. Introducing multilingual support once you are rolling requires extra work on your part and makes you more likely to forget something important. Think about localization throughout your product as a whole, e.g., don’t allow the backend to send untranslated messages.
Make sure you handle string interpolation correctly from the very beginning. For example, don’t concatenate but use placeholders instead. Manage strings with various plural forms properly etc
Use plurals the right way, e.g., don’t use plural zero for an empty check.
The previous two points will help you prevent the most common problems when you start implementing more “exotic” languages, such as RTL languages or those without plurals.
Double-check that you handle date formats etc., correctly as well. Unfortunately, this is something that we can’t do for you - it’s a matter of proper implementation within your code.
Separate configuration from localization
Make sure your design is ready

Question 2

What is i18n?

Accepted Answer

i18n stands for internationalization. Internationalization is a process of making the subject of internationalization ready for international markets. Abbreviation i18n is often used by software developers and digital product designers.

Question 3

How do you internationalize an app?

Accepted Answer

🥳️ You’re nearly at the finalization of your app, getting ready to deploy… but you want to reach an international audience? STOP! Don’t hit any other button before internationalizing your application to include translations for more than one language. How can you do this?

App internationalization is the process of allocating an application’s content into changeable interfaces and variables capable of presenting content in the chosen language with ease. Both iOS and Android app developers must follow similar processes to localize their content. 🚩

During this phase, the content is separated (or externalized) from the code into localizable files, which are then utilized according to the language users choose. Essentially, your app will display texts from external files called through the code. This makes adding new languages to your app simple, programmatically speaking, because you simply need to add new files with translated strings. And this is taken care of by Localazy automatically when you set everything up correctly 😀

See the general guide on How to prepare your app for internationalization and localization

Android app internationalization and localization #️⃣

📱 Your Android app can be ready for foreign markets in just three steps. We’ve made this easy with our state-of-the-art Android integration via our Gradle i18n plugin, making Android localization a breeze. Nothing is left untranslated when you use Localazy. And as a bonus, our users update their translations in Android apps in real-time by using OTA updates.

See our Case study on Android app localization

iOS app internationalization and localization #️⃣

What about an iOS app? How can you internationalize an iOS application? Apple has crafted a guide for app owners to prepare their app for localization. But basically, all you have to do is export your texts in Xcode, which will create a Localizable.strings file that you can then import to Localazy.

Localazy perfectly accompanies you after the internationalization of your iOS app and provides a localization solution without dealing with tedious file downloading and uploading.

Learn how How to translate iOS app with Localazy CLI/SDK

Question 4

Why is internationalization (i18n) an ongoing process?

Accepted Answer

The expansion of the international market is one of the most important characteristics of the economic development of companies around the world, which leads to the introduction of software products in international markets.

In this way, companies must make an arduous effort to adapt their processes, procedures, and products. Companies that strategically decide to internationalize face the challenge of ensuring that their products or services have an adequate linguistic, cultural, and legal transformation so that they can be adapted to different countries.

The development of internationalized products or services is a complex and expensive task due to the increased hours of work in design and coding, the need for additional tools and skills, and the effects on management and project architecture. The early detection of internationalization requirements by the architect and project leader influences the ease of implementation and the detection and correction of errors.

As we know, software internationalization (i18n) is the process of preparing a product at a technical level so that it can be feasibly adapted to multiple languages and cultural conventions without extensive redesign for each language. The i18n is shown as a process but also as the succession of steps integrated to create a global product, which is designed, developed, and quality guaranteed for the foreign market.

In the case of software, if a software product is not internationalized in advance, it is almost certain that an additional expense will be incurred during the localization process, which in some cases will make this process not feasible.

The degree of internationalization depends partly on the complexities of the languages to be introduced. If you will localize a product developed in English into French, Italian, German, and Spanish, the level of complexity is significantly lower than would it would be required if the product is to support Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Arabic, and Hindi, which require very special planning and design considerations.

Continuous Internationalization #️⃣

Internationalization as a continuous process is a new approach to global content, integrating with the CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Distribution) method companies use to deliver software to their customers frequently.

When adding new features or content, design teams should be aware of language-specific requirements such as bi-directionality (LTR/RTL) of languages and distribution of word lengths in various languages. To achieve this, effective and agile UX localization is a must.

Developers should rigorously follow best i18n practices such as string externalization, correct use of placeholders, plurals, and currency and date formatting.

Making internationalization and localization a tightly embedded part of the CI/CD workflow allows teams to shorten release cycles and deliver a multilingual experience seamlessly. Localization suites such as Localazy can help you with continuous internationalization, translation management, and global delivery of translated content.

The corporate value of continuous internationalization #️⃣

When implemented correctly, continued internationalization almost always results in higher team productivity, more collaboration, faster time to market, and lower risk than achieved by traditional approaches.

Fundamental steps to build the foundations of internationalization as a continuous process:

Improve your efforts with quality i18n engineering
Eliminate friction points between development and localization
Adopt technology that unites departments and adjusts to their workflows

Conclusion #️⃣

Continuous internationalization is the most efficient process for companies that frequently release localized updates to their apps, websites, and content. Continuous internationalization and localization help you in future-proofing your products while your organization expands its global focus.

Question 5

What are the stages of internationalization?

Accepted Answer

In software development, internationalization (i18n) should always be seen as an inseparable part of the main activities of the development process, such as the specification of requirements, design, implementation, and testing.

Learn how internationalization affects the four stages of the software development cycle:

STAGE 1 - Software Specification: #️⃣

Software requirements play a primary role in the development process of a software product. It is based on the needs raised by customers at a very general level, where the services or components of what you want to produce are discovered, documented, analyzed, and defined, in addition to the restrictions that the software product will have. Its main goal is to define the process to follow in software development and to facilitate understanding of the client’s requirements.

In the context of a development process aligned with i18n, it is the fundamental pillar in fulfilling the strategic objectives of the globalization of a product.

Important things to consider with regards to internationalization in the software specification stage are:

Current legislation.
Locales.
Complexity of the translated language, in which each introduces particular elements considered of less or greater difficulty for the i18n process.
Representation of the contents (User Interface).
Functional requirements of the business.
Technology Restrictions.

When it comes to a new market, Managers must thoroughly study all the necessary aspects associated with the culture in the destination market.

STAGE 2 - Software Architecture: #️⃣

Software architecture consists of making decisions about the logical organization of the software product. It is the process where the architecture, components, interfaces, and other characteristics of a system or software component are defined.

It involves the set of principles, concepts, and practices that lead to developing a high-quality system or product. Design principles establish a primary philosophy that will guide you in the design work.

This stage is where the architecture that will support the desired software product is defined.

Therefore, a set of elements must be taken into account, emphasizing the base architecture of the software, such as:

Achieve the decoupling of the different layers that make up the structure of the architecture.
Consider using the Unicode coding standard in all architecture layers and components used.
Maximize the architecture’s adaptability by incorporating business rules and workflow engines, as well as the adaptability of your object model.
Externalize the texts used within the application.
Create user interfaces capable of adapting to different languages.
Take into account the i18n and localization capabilities provided by each of the Database Management Systems to be used.
Consider a correct design of the database schemes attached to the different types of information related to the target market’s culture.
Select the internationalized COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) software to be integrated into architecture so that they can adapt to different markets.

STAGE 3 - Software Implementation: #️⃣

At this stage of software development, the most important artifacts of the software product are produced.

Things to consider during this stage are:

Proper documentation associated with the product, such as the online help, the user manual, and the installation manual, among others.
Careful implementation of the i18n best practices outlined in the architecture, implementation of i18n libraries, and standards.

STAGE 4 - Software Testing: #️⃣

The software testing process consists of the dynamic verification of the behavior of the developed product in a finite set of test cases against the expected behavior. In the case of the testing stage of internationalized software, it doesn’t differ from the conventional one. It only has a greater scope as there is a need to evaluate all those elements associated with i18n and those specified in previous stages.

At this stage, it is necessary to devote considerable effort because it is the stage where the result of an entire development process is evaluated, and its quality is guaranteed.

Conclusion #️⃣

The i18n of software is not an easy process to carry out. It takes time and funding to conduct in-depth research that helps create more competitive software products in the international market.

This fundamental process must be aligned with the conventional development cycle from the early stages to incorporate the characteristics associated with a software product appropriate to the needs of international markets.

Question 6

Does Localazy use language codes from ISO 639 when exporting translations?

Accepted Answer

ISO 639 language codes are internationally recognized codes for the representation of more than 500 languages or language families. Localazy follows the standards provided by Unicode CLDR which respects the ISO declaration.

You can see locale codes in the language table and you can also setup aliases in your CLI configuration to use different code for any given language you download from Localazy via CLI.

Learn more about Language Aliases on the blog

Question 7

How do plurals differ across languages, and why does it matter for localization?

Accepted Answer

Plural forms vary significantly across languages, going far beyond the simple singular/plural distinction in English.

Languages like Arabic have six different plural forms based on quantity (zero, one, two, few, many, other), while some Asian languages like Japanese or Chinese don’t pluralize nouns at all. Other languages like Russian or Polish use different forms based on the last digit of the number.

These differences matter tremendously for localization because using incorrect plural forms makes your software feel unprofessional or even confusing to users.

When a Polish user sees “5 wiadomość” instead of “5 wiadomości,” it’s immediately apparent that the software wasn’t properly localized. Proper plural handling is one of those subtle details that separates professionally localized software from amateur attempts.

Localazy follows the CLDR standard of pluralization rules, and provides you with an interface to correctly provide all plural forms needed for the target language.

Learn more about the plural rules in the documentation

Question 8

Why can't I just use simple if/else logic for handling singular and plural forms in my app?

Accepted Answer

While it might seem straightforward to code singular and plural forms with a simple if/else statement in English, this approach quickly falls apart when dealing with other languages. Different languages have drastically different rules for plurals - English only differentiates between one and many, but languages like Czech and Polish require different forms for 1, 2-4, and 5+ items, while Arabic has six different plural forms depending on the count.

Even seemingly simple cases get complex quickly. Russian changes forms based on the last digit of the number, except when the second-to-last digit is 1. These complexities mean that hardcoding plural logic creates a maintenance nightmare with nested conditions that break easily when adding new languages.

Building and maintaining these linguistic rules yourself essentially requires becoming an expert in dozens of language grammars rather than focusing on your core product. When expanding to new markets, you’d need to rewrite parts of your app for each language’s plural system, potentially delaying your international launches. Using a proper localization system that handles these rules automatically is both faster and more reliable.

Internationalization

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