i18n Platform

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

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.

Formally, to get a document translated into other languages, all you had to do, was send it to a translation office and receive the translation within a few days in exchange for a fee. When speaking of translating software, the process is different. 😅

Software programs are written in programming languages that translators don’t understand. Considering that even a simple comma can ruin the entire software’s functionality, no programmer likes having translators put their hands on the code. 

So, translating software without hazards requires content to be separated from the code. You can translate your software by extracting the content into separate files (e.g., JSON, XLIFF, XML, etc.) and then sending it to translators. 

An even better way to do it is to use a translation management system, such as Localazy, which takes care of the translation process and seamlessly integrates with your software. Making updates and working with professional translators on sophisticated software is not difficult and maybe even enjoyable with Localazy. Localazy also offers 50+ integrations, and one of them is an API that you can use to exchange data between your app and Localazy and handle everything programmatically.

Localazy API integrates into your software to remove the need to deal with translation files outside the development once and for all.

Besides rapid updates, what makes using our API exceptional are multiple possible integrations and the human touch offered by real translators when you go for the Continuous Localization Team services. 😉

Further reading #️⃣

• Guide: How to prepare your application for i18n & l10n
• Cheatsheet: Getting started with Software Localization

Software internationalization (known as i18n) is the process of preparing software for localization and translation. Engineers and software developers are in charge of optimizing the software to implement translations from other languages. 👨‍💻

🌐 Internationalization is concerned not simply with making the software adaptable for other languages but also adapting it for different data formats, settings, interfaces, and local customs. For achieving this, four points are essential:

• Appropriate design and development. Developers should prepare the website to present no challenges to localization. Some examples are: ensuring legacy character encoding is done correctly, allowing Unicode, concatenating strings properly, utilizing less code for user-interface string values, etc.
• Supporting features needed only for localization. Some elements should be implemented even if they’re not used for other processes besides localization. Such features include adding CSS support for non-Latin typographic or vertical text and DTD for bidirectional text support and language identification.
• Preparing code to display local data formats. Developers should identify patterns of data formats from previous localization data, libraries, or users’ responses. This assists in showing addresses, names, local calendars, and numbers, among other details, in a familiar format for users.
• Separation of localizable elements. Localizable features should be implemented, but developers must ensure they aren’t displayed unexpectedly when not needed. For this, it’s best to distinguish these elements beforehand in the source code to trigger them only when needed.

🤔 For instance, postcodes and ZIP codes have different formats depending on the country. In a Canadian version of the site, postcodes are presented in X0X 0X0 format (X - letter and 0 - number). The UK version has X00 0XX format, and the Brazilian version is 00000-000.

Not paying attention to these features could prevent users from placing orders from their country. Internationalization takes care of such distinctions.

Localazy API is prepared to handle adequately internationalized projects with multiple locales, and with the API, developers can automate the following l10n and translation process for multilingual adaptation of each feature. 😎

🥳️ 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