Most folks know that MarcEdit 5.0 allows users to localize the application — and in some respects, it does this very differently then most applications. Most applications utilize a resource file to store strings/resources utilized by the application. MarcEdit 5.0 is different — MarcEdit 5.0 utilizes an xml-based language file (or files) and a custom language-engine to help render the language on the screen. Up until now, anyone could edit the language files or create new ones — essentially, they just needed to go to the language folder and edit the xml file that contained your particular language. However, users needed to be comfortable working with the XML file structure. To make this easier, I’ve added a utility that will provide a GUI editor to the language file. Its called the MarcEdit Language File Editor. The tool will allow users to customize language strings and even restore old language files, all from within the comfort of a GUI. Here’s an example of what the tool looks like:
So essentially, it breaks the XML document into a Tree. Users navigate the nodes, double click on the value and make their changes. The program will automatically normalize common characters (&, “, <>) — but this was part of the reason why the restore option was included — in case some invalid data is introduced.
I’m hoping some folks will give this a try and let me know what they think. I have a couple of more ideas on how to enhance this — but I’m definitely going to take suggestions.
Lastly, some of the language files have gotten out of date (in terms of updating them for new dialogs). I have a small program that I run to sync these files — but it does take a little bit of hands on work — so I’ll try to make time to get these files update. Also, I’m going back through the application to find the following:
- Values not in the language files
- controls that don’t resize correctly in certain cases (since I have a nearly complete russian and swedish language packs, its pretty easy to test most forms)
- Any invalid calls into the language files (I’ve made some structural changes to the language files — and for the most part, the engine just handled them…I just want to make sure that’s the case).
As always, the program can be downloaded from: MarcEdit50_Setup.exe
–Terry