Internationalizing your Android Application

How MeetMe went international on Android. Presented in 2012 to Android Alliance Philadelphia: http://www.meetup.com/AndroidAlliancePhilly/events/84300832/

Transcript

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2. How  MeetMe  went  i18n  (on  Android)  
   Dallas  Gutauckis  
   @DallasGutauckis  
   Dallas@Gutauckis.com  
   DallasGutauckis.com  
   github.com/DallasGutauckis  
    
   

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3. DALLAS  GUTAUCKIS  
   

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4. Dallas  Gutauckis  (me)  
   §  Sr.  Architect  @  MeetMe  
   §  Amateur  photographer  and  
   designer  
   §  Programmer,  Developer,  
   Engineer,  Architect,  ScienFst  
   

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5. Why  interna=onalize?  
   §  MeetMe  sees  internaFonalizing  as  mutually  beneficial  
   –  Users  get  a  beKer  experience  with  naFve  language  support  
   –  Large  potenFal  market  outside  of  English-­‐speaking  market  
   

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6. CONTEXT  
   (before  and  aHer)  
   

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7. Before   AHer  
   

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8. Stringify  early,  stringify  oHen  
   §  Use  strings  liberally  
    
   Hello, World!
   

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9. Pluralize!  
   §  Got  a  string  that  has  a  variable  number  in  it?  Use  plurals!  
   
   Hello, one world!
   Hello, %d worlds!
   
   

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10. Strings  
    §  Use  ‘em  how  they’re  designed  to  be  used  (and  more)  
    –  Strings  
    –  Plurals  
    –  Arrays  
    –  (more)  Gender-­‐focused  OR  gender-­‐neutral  strings  
    §  First  thing  we  had  to  reconcile  out  of  the  gate  
    §  We  started  with  ~850  pre-­‐exisFng  strings  entries  (we  were  lucky  to  
    have  had  the  foresight  to  do  this  much)  
    §  Ended  with  ~910  
    

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11. Yeah…  
    

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12. Transla=ng  
    §  IniFal  translaFons  
    –  Machine  translate!  
    –  Prove  it  out.  Test  it.  
    

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13. Addressing  layout  issues  
    §  Designed  to  fit  
    –  Determine  ways  to  abbreviate.  Brevity  will  typically  
    benefit  you  anyway.  
     
    

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14. Addressing  layout  issues  
    §  Designed  to  flex  
    –  Update  the  layout  to  resolve  any  hard-­‐coded  
    dimensions  and  be  more  flexible  
    o  ScrollView  is  your  friend  
    o  HorizontalScrollView  too  
    o  AutoResizeTextView  (online)  
    

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15. Localizing  
    §  Dates  
    –  Calendar,  Date  
    –  DateUFls  
    §  Numbers  
    –  NumberFormat  
    o  Decimals  
    o  Grouping  (thousands)  
    o  Currency  
    o  Etc  
    §  Distances  
    

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16. On  depending  on  APIs  
    §  Success/error  messages  
    –  Whoops  
    –  Error  types  and  codes  corresponding  to  specific  errors  
    o  Invalid  credenFals?  AuthExcepFon#0x01  
    §  Huge  and/or  variable  lists  of  anything  
    –  Region  names  
    –  Random  quesFons  
    

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17. Human  Transla=ons  
    §  NaFve  speaker  translaFons  (outsourced)  
    §  NaFve  speaker  reviews  (in-­‐house)/QA  review  
    §  Iterate  
    §  In-­‐house  reviews  
    §  Release  
    

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18. Keeping  sane  
    §  TranslaFon  management  can  be  a  lot  of  work.  Automate.  
    §  Ongoing  development  includes  automated  translaFon  process  
    –  Keeps  developers  from  having  to  deal  with  logisFcs  of  translaFon  management  
    

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19. THINGS  YOU  SHOULD  
    BE  AWARE  OF…  
    

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20. 1.  EVERYTHING  
    

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21. Be  pessimis=c  
    §  Don’t  assume  you  understand  internaFonalizaFon  
    §  Quotes  
    §  Ellipses  
    §  Wikipedia  is  your  friend!  
    

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22. What  are  the  best  devices  to  confirm  with?  
    §  Nexus  One  
    §  Nexus  S  
    §  Galaxy  Nexus  
    §  Nexus  7  
    §  Nexus  4  
    

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23. FIN  
    

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25. Q&A  
    Dallas  Gutauckis  
    @DallasGutauckis  
    Dallas@Gutauckis.com  
    DallasGutauckis.com  
    github.com/DallasGutauckis  
     
    

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