How to force NSLocalizedString to use a specific language iOS APP内国际化

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1669645/how-to-force-nslocalizedstring-to-use-a-specific-language?lq=1

on iPhone NSLocalizedString returns the string in the language of the iPhone. Is it possible to force NSLocalizedString to use a specific language to have the app in a different language than the device ? ios  objective-c  cocoa  localization  internationalization share improve this question edited Jan 7 at 9:25 Meet Doshi 939 8 27 asked  Nov 3 '09 at 19:33 CodeFlakes 1,337 3 14 23
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up vote 177 down vote accepted

NSLocalizedString() (and variants thereof) access the "AppleLanguages" key in NSUserDefaultsto determine what the user's settings for preferred languages are. This returns an array of language codes, with the first one being the one set by the user for their phone, and the subsequent ones used as fallbacks if a resource is not available in the preferred language. (on the desktop, the user can specify multiple languages with a custom ordering in System Preferences) You can override the global setting for your own application if you wish by using the setObject:forKey: method to set your own language list. This will take precedence over the globally set value and be returned to any code in your application that is performing localization. The code for this would look something like: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"de", @"en", @"fr", nil] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; //to make the change immediate This would make German the preferred language for your application, with English and French as fallbacks. You would want to call this sometime early in your application's startup. You can read more about language/locale preferences here: Internationalization Programming Topics: Getting the Current Language and Locale share improve this answer edited Jan 20 at 6:01 chancyWu 3,915 3 26 43 answered  Nov 3 '09 at 22:23 Brian Webster 8,880 3 33 51

3   This does not work for me, it will use the default language no matter what. –  quano  Feb 22 '10 at 17:41 2   This didn't work for me, so I used, [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject: [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"el", nil] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; –  Panagiotis Korros  Mar 8 '10 at 13:32 38   Denniss; It seems to work better if you set the language preference before the app is launched. I do it in the main() function, before UIApplicationMain() is called. Once it is actually running, it won't change the used language, but just set the preference for the next time. –  geon  Sep 1 '10 at 21:44 3   You have to set the language before you initialize UIKit and you must specify a complete language+region locale - check this out for a complete example blog.federicomestrone.com/2010/09/15/… –  fedmest  Apr 21 '11 at 9:16 10   setting AppleLanguages will change a language at runtime if done in main() - true! but... the FIRST TIME the app is installed, the nsuserdefaults are initialized AFTER UIApplicationMain() is called, which will ignore the previously set AppleLanguages and will require an ugly force-restart of the app to see the desired language.–  JohnPayne  Sep 9 '13 at 1:02  show 10 more comments

up vote 111 down vote

I usually do this in this way, but you MUST have all localization files in your project. @implementation Language static NSBundle *bundle = nil; +(void)initialize { NSUserDefaults* defs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults]; NSArray* languages = [defs objectForKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; NSString *current = [[languages objectAtIndex:0] retain]; [self setLanguage:current]; } /* example calls: [Language setLanguage:@"it"]; [Language setLanguage:@"de"]; */ +(void)setLanguage:(NSString *)l { NSLog(@"preferredLang: %@", l); NSString *path = [[ NSBundle mainBundle ] pathForResource:l ofType:@"lproj" ]; bundle = [[NSBundle bundleWithPath:path] retain]; } +(NSString *)get:(NSString *)key alter:(NSString *)alternate { return [bundle localizedStringForKey:key value:alternate table:nil]; } @end share improve this answer answered  Nov 17 '09 at 6:11 Mauro Delrio 1,223 1 7 9

1   +1. This is a really nice trick that I haven't seen anywhere else. By creating a "sub bundle" from one of the localization folders, you can get the string stuff to work fine as long as you wrap NSLocalizedString with something that detours here. –  Ben Zotto  Jun 28 '10 at 15:44 4   Excellent Mauro. I noticed that it can also work for files out of your project. If for some reason (as in my case), you need to download strings files from network, and store them in your 'Documents' directory (with the folder structure Documents/en.lproj/Localizable.strings, Documents/fr.lproj/Localizable.strings, ...). You can even though make a NSBundle. Just use this code for path : NSString *path = [NSHomeDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"/Documents/%@.lproj", l, nil]]; –  arnaud del.  Feb 6 '12 at 21:13  1   Seems to me that this is the best approach, along with the contribution from Alessandro below. It's not so intrusive and shouldn't require a restart. –  PKCLsoft  Feb 29 '12 at 3:37 1   What am I doing wrong? I made a Language class, inheriting NSObject, put this in the implementation, put the method names in .h, then put [Language setLanguage:@"es"]; in my Change Language Button, code runs(button method gets called, and goes to Language class), but does nothing. I have my localizable.strings (Spanish) set up too. But it seems to be working for a lot of other people. Please someone dumb it down for me. –  KKendall  Nov 19 '12 at 23:37 1   @KKendall you call it like this: [Language setLanguage:@"es"]; NSString *stringToUse = [Language get:@"Your Text" alter:nil]; –  Mikrasya  Sep 28 '13 at 19:08  show 7 more comments

up vote 82 down vote

I had the same problem recently and I didn't want to start and patch my entire NSLocalizedStringnor force the app to restart for the new language to work. I wanted everything to work as-is. My solution was to dynamically change the main bundle's class and load the appropriate bundle there: Header file @interface NSBundle (Language) +(void)setLanguage:(NSString*)language; @end Implementation #import <objc/runtime.h> static const char _bundle=0; @interface BundleEx : NSBundle @end @implementation BundleEx -(NSString*)localizedStringForKey:(NSString *)key value:(NSString *)value table:(NSString *)tableName { NSBundle* bundle=objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &_bundle); return bundle ? [bundle localizedStringForKey:key value:value table:tableName] : [super localizedStringForKey:key value:value table:tableName]; } @end @implementation NSBundle (Language) +(void)setLanguage:(NSString*)language { static dispatch_once_t onceToken; dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^ { object_setClass([NSBundle mainBundle],[BundleEx class]); }); objc_setAssociatedObject([NSBundle mainBundle], &_bundle, language ? [NSBundle bundleWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:language ofType:@"lproj"]] : nil, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC); } @end So basically, when your app starts and before you load your first controller, simply call: [NSBundle setLanguage:@"en"]; When your user changes his preferred language in your setting screen, simply call it again: [NSBundle setLanguage:@"fr"]; To reset back to system defaults, simply pass nil: [NSBundle setLanguage:nil]; Enjoy... share improve this answer answered  Nov 28 '13 at 4:12 Gilad 2,009 1 18 35

4   Hi @Wirsing , this works great for me so far. I've even uploaded one app to the store and no complains by Apple. –  Gilad  Mar 25 '14 at 18:04  4   This is a great solution, I've also referencing this here: medium.com/ios-apprentice/905e4052b9de –  James Tang  May 6 '14 at 8:34 1   Hi @JamesTang , Thanks for the reference and your post - I found a lot of useful information there regarding localization. –  Gilad  May 7 '14 at 3:55 1   @Gilad your method works perfect for dynamic strings (strings that i defined in localizable.strings) but as for storyboard buttons and labels it only work at main method only. so can you extend your answer to include UI controls localization? i mean how to refresh (without closing) storyboard after i invoke [NSBundle setLanguage:@"??"];? –  Jawad Al Shaikh  May 14 '14 at 9:09 1   Thanks for the solution, But its not working with xib views –  mohammad alabid  May 14 '14 at 20:31 show 14 more comments

up vote 36 down vote

Do not use on iOS 9. This returns nil for all strings passed through it. I have found another solution that allows you to update the language strings, w/o restarting the app and compatible with genstrings: Put this macro in the Prefix.pch: #define currentLanguageBundle [NSBundle bundleWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:[[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0] ofType:@"lproj"]] and where ever you need a localized string use: NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"GalleryTitleKey", nil, currentLanguageBundle, @"") To set the language use: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObject:@"de"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; Works even with consecutive language hopping like: NSLog(@"test %@", NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"NewKey", nil, currentLanguageBundle, @"")); [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObject:@"fr"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; NSLog(@"test %@", NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"NewKey", nil, currentLanguageBundle, @"")); [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObject:@"it"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; NSLog(@"test %@", NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"NewKey", nil, currentLanguageBundle, @"")); [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObject:@"de"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; NSLog(@"test %@", NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"NewKey", nil, currentLanguageBundle, @"")); share improve this answer edited Oct 14 '15 at 17:00 Alex Zavatone 1,588 11 25 answered  Oct 28 '11 at 18:40 Tudorizer 2,937 4 26 46

1   Does this work with changing strings setup in xibs though? –  powerj1984  Oct 30 '12 at 14:28 Nice one! Thank you! –  Mikael  Nov 28 '13 at 19:21 1   @powerj1984: no, it will change only the strings in your source files. If you want to change the xib languages, you have to reload the xibs by hand, from the bundle of your selected language. –  gklka  Jan 23 '14 at 21:57 @gklka I have follow the steps given by Tudozier but my XIB's are not changing the language , as you told reload XIB by hand , what tis actually mean to reload XIBs ? –  Dk Kumar  Feb 22 '14 at 8:55 1   This is horribly broken in iOS 9, returning the null for all strings. –  Alex Zavatone  Oct 14 '15 at 16:25 show 5 more comments

up vote 30 down vote

As said earlier, just do: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject: [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"el", nil] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; But to avoid having to restart the app, put the line in the main method of main.m, just before UIApplicationMain(...). share improve this answer edited May 1 '13 at 5:19 Paras Joshi 15.1k 6 32 53 answered  Jun 25 '10 at 12:44 Frédéric Feytons 369 4 6

1   +1 great suggestion! –  Dave DeLong  Jun 25 '10 at 21:20 2   Very helpful answer! P.S. May sound obvious to non-beginners, but you should insert that line afterNSAutoreleasePool * pool .. or a few autoreleased objects will leak. –  pt2ph8  Jul 18 '11 at 16:52  1   IMPORTANT: This won't work if you call [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:withExtension:]before. –  Kof  Jul 30 '13 at 8:31 Worked Great for me.. +1... –  Mitesh Khatri  Sep 5 '14 at 9:20 1   What about if using Swift, then there is no main.m? –  turingtested  Nov 24 '15 at 18:22 add a comment

up vote 30 down vote

The trick to use specific language by selecting it from the app is to force the NSLocalizedString to use specific bundle depending on the selected language , here is the post i have written for this learning advance localization in ios apps and here is the code of one sample app advance localization in ios apps share improve this answer edited Jun 19 '13 at 13:26 NANNAV 3,307 3 17 39 answered  May 1 '11 at 17:33 object2.0 743 9 11

1   This is excellent. I wish I could give you more upvotes! –  Luke  May 13 '11 at 3:01 It works on iOS7 as well, I have to switch from Brian's solution to this as it seems like iOS overrides the languages option again thus I stuck with the first-time setting of language. Your solution works like a charm! –  haxpor  Dec 28 '13 at 12:59 add a comment

up vote 11 down vote	I like best Mauro Delrio's method. I also have added the following in my Project_Prefix.pch #import "Language.h" #define MyLocalizedString(key, alt) [Language get:key alter:alt] So if you ever want to use the standard method (that uses NSLocalizedString) you can make a quick syntax substitution in all files. share improve this answer answered  Jan 27 '11 at 12:38 AlessandroDN 145 1 8
	1   I also like his method and I add a method to load png images: +(UIImage )imageNamed:(NSString *)imageFileName{ NSString fullPath = [bundle pathForResource:imageFileName ofType:@"png"]; UIImage* imageObj = [[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:fullPath]; return [imageObj autorelease]; } –  Jagie  Jul 11 '11 at 13:04 add a comment

up vote 9 down vote

As Brian Webster mentions, the language needs to be set "sometime early in your application's startup". I thought applicationDidFinishLaunching: of the AppDelegate should be a suitable place to do it, since it's where I do all other initialization. But as William Denniss mentions, that seems to have an effect only after the app is restarted, which is kind of useless. It seems to work fine if I put the code in the main function, though: int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; // Force language to Swedish. [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObject:@"sv"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; int retVal = UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, nil); [pool release]; return retVal; } I'd appreciate any comments on this. share improve this answer edited May 1 '13 at 5:20 Paras Joshi 15.1k 6 32 53 answered  Sep 1 '10 at 22:04 geon 3,035 18 27

in my implementation it's a user-settable thing – so I just pop up a dialog telling them they'll need to restart :) –  William Denniss  Sep 4 '10 at 1:41 It Works, almost for all - except for the localized Default.png image. –  Lukasz  Nov 30 '10 at 7:40 1   If you're letting users set a language and then telling them to restart the app, just remember that the NSUserDefaults might not be saved if they restart too quickly. Most users aren't this fast, but when you're testing the app you might be too fast and see inconsistent behavior as a result. It took me a couple hours to realize why my language switch was sometimes working and sometimes not! –  arlomedia  Jan 4 '13 at 7:21  1   That's not an issue, just use [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; after callingsetObject:forKey: –  einsteinx2  Feb 1 '13 at 1:38 add a comment

up vote 7 down vote

I came up with a solution that allows you to use NSLocalizedString. I create a category of NSBundle call NSBundle+RunTimeLanguage. The interface is like this. // NSBundle+RunTimeLanguage.h #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> @interface NSBundle (RunTimeLanguage) #define NSLocalizedString(key, comment) [[NSBundle mainBundle] runTimeLocalizedStringForKey:(key) value:@"" table:nil] - (NSString *)runTimeLocalizedStringForKey:(NSString *)key value:(NSString *)value table:(NSString *)tableName; @end The implementation is like this. // NSBundle+RunTimeLanguage.m #import "NSBundle+RunTimeLanguage.h" #import "AppDelegate.h" @implementation NSBundle (RunTimeLanguage) - (NSString *)runTimeLocalizedStringForKey:(NSString *)key value:(NSString *)value table:(NSString *)tableName { AppDelegate *appDelegate = (AppDelegate *)[UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate; NSString *path= [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:[appDelegate languageCode] ofType:@"lproj"]; NSBundle *languageBundle = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:path]; NSString *localizedString=[languageBundle localizedStringForKey:key value:key table:nil]; return localizedString; } @end Than just add import NSBundle+RunTimeLanguage.h into the files that use NSLocalizedString. As you can see I store my languageCode in a property of AppDelegate. This could be stored anywhere you'd like. This only thing I don't like about it is a Warning that NSLocalizedString marco redefined. Perhaps someone could help me fix this part. share improve this answer edited Apr 30 '14 at 19:14 Ugo 1,928 2 16 22 answered  Apr 30 '14 at 18:53 qman64 111 1 3

1   Add #undef NSLocalizedString just before #define to disable the warning –  beryllium  May 3 '14 at 19:02 Thanks beryllium!!! –  qman64  Aug 19 '14 at 21:55 Does this work on localization for xib file ? I have .xib file and .strings to translate UIs name in particular language. I tried and it does not work with XIB but I am not sure if I have done things correctly –  Kong Hantrakool  Mar 1 '15 at 18:18 Kong sorry for the delayed response. This works where ever you use NSLocalizedString. So it will not work directly in an XIB. You would need IBOutlets to the strings in the XIB and then would have to programmatically set the string values in code. –  qman64  Oct 12 '15 at 23:29 add a comment

up vote 5 down vote

NSLocalizedString() reads the value for the key AppleLanguages from the standard user defaults ([NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults]). It uses that value to choose an appropriate localization among all existing localizations at runtime. When Apple builds the user defaults dictionary at app launch, they look up the preferred language(s) key in the system preferences and copy the value from there. This also explains for example why changing the language settings in OS X has no effect on running apps, only on apps started thereafter. Once copied, the value is not updated just because the settings change. That's why iOS restarts all apps if you change then language. However, all values of the user defaults dictionary can be overwritten by command line arguments. See NSUserDefaults documentation on the NSArgumentDomain. This even includes those values that are loaded from the app preferences (.plist) file. This is really good to know if you want to change a value just once for testing. So if you want to change the language just for testing, you probably don't want to alter your code (if you forget to remove this code later on ...), instead tell Xcode to start your app with a command line parameters (e.g. use Spanish localization): No need to touch your code at all. Just create different schemes for different languages and you can quickly start the app once in one language and once in another one by just switching the scheme. share improve this answer answered  Sep 10 '14 at 10:28 Mecki 52.4k 21 108 150

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up vote 4 down vote

In file .pch to define: #define currentLanguageBundle [NSBundle bundleWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:[[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0] ofType:@"lproj"]] #define NSLocalizedString(str,nil) NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(str, nil, currentLanguageBundle, @"") share improve this answer edited Jun 19 '13 at 13:26 NANNAV 3,307 3 17 39 answered  Mar 13 '13 at 15:19 MrPiliffo 41 1

How do I get rid of the warning 'ovverride...'? –  Idan Moshe  Feb 19 '14 at 13:33 Simple solution does everything I need. Was able to use this as a guide to solve my problem. If pathForResource returns nil because I don't have a localization file then I use pathForResource:@"Base" since nothing else I have tried pulls strings from the base localization. Thank you. –  GRW  Sep 19 '14 at 5:44 add a comment

up vote 4 down vote

In a nutshell : Localize your application It's the first thing you have to do is to localise your app with at least two languages (english and french in this example). Override NSLocalizedString In your code, instead of using NSLocalizedString(key, comment), use a macro MYLocalizedString(key, comment) defined like this : #define MYLocalizedString(key, comment) [[MYLocalizationSystem sharedInstance] localizedStringForKey:(key) value:(comment)]; This MYLocalizationSystem singleton will : Set langage by setting the right localized NSBundle user asks for Returns the localized NSString according to this previously set language Set user language When user changed application language in french, call [[MYLocalizationSystem sharedInstance] setLanguage:@"fr"]; - (void)setLanguage:(NSString *)lang { NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:lang ofType:@"lproj"]; if (!path) { _bundle = [NSBundle mainBundle]; NSLog(@"Warning: No lproj for %@, system default set instead !", lang); return; } _bundle = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:path]; } In this example this method set localized bundle to fr.lproj Return localized string Once you've set the localized bundle, you'll be able to get the right localised string from him with this method : - (NSString *)localizedStringForKey:(NSString *)key value:(NSString *)value { // bundle was initialized with [NSBundle mainBundle] as default and modified in setLanguage method return [self.bundle localizedStringForKey:key value:value table:nil]; } Hope this will help you. You'll find more details in this article from NSWinery.io share improve this answer edited Apr 23 '15 at 10:49 answered  Apr 22 '15 at 18:31 user3465357 41 2

We ask that you not just link to a solution in your answer; the link might stop working some day. While you don't have to remove the link from your answer, we do ask that you edit your answer to include a summary of the relevant section of the linked article. –  Oblivious Sage  Apr 22 '15 at 18:51 add a comment

up vote 3 down vote	You could build a sub-bundle with the set of localized strings that you want to do this with, and then use NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle() to load them. (I'm assuming that this is content separate from the normal UI localization you might be doing on the app.) share improve this answer answered  Nov 3 '09 at 19:51 Sixten Otto 12.2k 3 34 55
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up vote 3 down vote

Maybe you should complement with this (on .pch file after #import ): extern NSBundle* bundle; // Declared on Language.m #ifdef NSLocalizedString #undef NSLocalizedString // Delete this line to avoid warning #warning "Undefining NSLocalizedString" #endif #define NSLocalizedString(key, comment) \ [bundle localizedStringForKey:(key) value:@"" table:nil] share improve this answer answered  Aug 4 '11 at 15:22 D33pN16h7 1,755 9 18

/Users/pwang/Desktop/Myshinesvn/Myshine/viewController/OrientationReadyPagesView‌​.m:193:31: Use of undeclared identifier 'bundle' –  pengwang  Mar 12 '13 at 4:08 add a comment

up vote 2 down vote

for my case i have two localized file , ja and en and i would like to force it to en if the preferred language in the system neither en or ja i'm going to edit the main.m file i 'll check whether the first preferred is en or ja , if not then i 'll change the second preferred language to en. int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] removeObjectForKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; NSString *lang = [[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0]; if (![lang isEqualToString:@"en"] && ![lang isEqualToString:@"ja"]){ NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:[NSLocale preferredLanguages]]; [array replaceObjectAtIndex:1 withObject:@"en"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:array forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; } @autoreleasepool { return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([AppDelegate class])); } } share improve this answer answered  Apr 2 '14 at 8:40 chings228 1,347 15 18

Thanks @chings228 it is usefull for me, but this not change the default launch image (splash) for the app I have diferents splashs for each language. do you know how to apply for this?? –  JERC  Jun 4 '14 at 18:13 i think the splash runs before the main program start to run , so i don't know how to override it , may be plist can help but it may work for next time the app opens –  chings228  Jun 5 '14 at 1:12 add a comment

up vote 2 down vote	swift version NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setObject(["fr"], forKey: "AppleLanguages") NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().synchronize() share improve this answer answered  Dec 28 '14 at 13:04 daaniaal 113 8
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up vote 1 down vote

This function will try to get localized string for current language and if it's not found it will get it using english language. - (NSString*)L:(NSString*)key { static NSString* valueNotFound = @"VALUE_NOT_FOUND"; static NSBundle* enBundle = nil; NSString* pl = [NSLocale preferredLanguages][0]; NSString* bp = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:pl ofType:@"lproj"]; NSBundle* b = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:bp]; NSString* s = [b localizedStringForKey:key value:valueNotFound table:nil]; if ( [s isEqualToString:valueNotFound] ) { if ( !enBundle ) { bp = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"en" ofType:@"lproj"]; enBundle = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:bp]; } s = [enBundle localizedStringForKey:key value:key table:nil]; } return s; } share improve this answer answered  Jun 17 '13 at 8:41 Cherpak Evgeny 891 7 19

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up vote 1 down vote

You can do something like this: NSString *bundlePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Localizable" ofType:@"strings" inDirectory:nil forLocalization:@"es"]; NSBundle *spanishBundle = [[NSBundle alloc] initWithPath:[bundlePath stringByDeletingLastPathComponent]]; NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"House", nil, spanishBundle, nil): share improve this answer answered  Nov 17 '14 at 20:59 JERC 630 2 9 23

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up vote 0 down vote

whatever you all do, the best way is to take the short_name for the specified language, i.e.: fr, en, nl, de, it, etc... and assign the same to a global value. make a picker view to pop up like a drop down menu (combination of a button on click of which a picker view appears from below with a list of languages) and select the language you desire. let the short name be stored internally. make a .h + .m file named LocalisedString. Set the global value of short_name to be equal to the obtained value in LocalisedString.m When the required language is selected assign the NSBundlePath to create project sub-directories for the needed language. for eg, nl.proj, en.proj. When the particular proj folder is selected call the localised string for the respective language and change the language dynamically. no rules broken. share improve this answer answered  Aug 12 '11 at 11:17 Abhijeet 34 2 8

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up vote 0 down vote

I wanted to add support for a language that isn't officially supported by iOS (not listed in Language section under system settings). By following the Apple's Internationalization Tutorial and few hints here by Brian Webster and geon, I came up with this piece of code (put it in main.m): int main(int argc, char * argv[]) { @autoreleasepool { // Grab regional settings locale, for Slovenian this is either sl_SI or en_SI NSLocale *locale = [NSLocale currentLocale]; NSString *ll = [locale localeIdentifier]; // sl_SI // Grab the first part of language identifier NSArray *comp = [ll componentsSeparatedByString:@"_"]; NSString *ll1 = @"en"; if (comp.count > 0) { ll1 = comp[0]; // sl, en, ... } // Check if we already saved language (user can manually change it inside app for example) if (![[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"SelectedLanguage"]) { // Slovenian (Slovenia), Slovenia if ([ll isEqualToString:@"sl_SI"] || [ll isEqualToString:@"en_SI"]) { ll1 = @"sl-SI"; // This is the part of localized path for Slovenian language that Xcode generates } // Add more unsupported languages here... [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:ll1 forKey:@"SelectedLanguage"]; // Save language } else { // Restore language as we have previously saved it ll1 = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"SelectedLanguage"]; } // Overwrite NSLocalizedString and StoryBoard language preference [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:ll1, @"en", @"fr", nil] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; // Make sure settings are stored to disk [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([AppDelegate class])); } } This works well for both Storyboard and NSLocalizedString code. The code assumes that user will have an option to manually change language inside app later on. Of course, don't forget to add proper Storyboard translations and Localizable.strings translations (see link to Apple page above for how to do that). share improve this answer answered  Oct 9 '13 at 19:23 frin 2,835 1 14 15

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up vote 0 down vote

Here is a decent solution for this problem, and it does not require application restart. https://github.com/cmaftuleac/BundleLocalization This implementation works by tweaking inside NSBundle. The idea is that you override the method localizedStringForKey on the instance of NSBundle object, and then call this method on a different bundle with a different language. Simple and elegant fully compatible with all types of resources. share improve this answer answered  Apr 16 '15 at 19:24 Corneliu Maftuleac 83 6

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Based on Tudorizer's answer to change language without leaving or restarting the application. Instead of a macro, use a class for accessing the preferred language in order to check if a specific language code is present. Below is a class used to obtain the current language bundle that is working for iOS 9: @implementation OSLocalization + (NSBundle *)currentLanguageBundle { // Default language incase an unsupported language is found NSString *language = @"en"; if ([NSLocale preferredLanguages].count) { // Check first object to be of type "en","es" etc // Codes seen by my eyes: "en-US","en","es-US","es" etc NSString *letterCode = [[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0]; if ([letterCode rangeOfString:@"en"].location != NSNotFound) { // English language = @"en"; } else if ([letterCode rangeOfString:@"es"].location != NSNotFound) { // Spanish language = @"es"; } else if ([letterCode rangeOfString:@"fr"].location != NSNotFound) { // French language = @"fr"; } // Add more if needed } return [NSBundle bundleWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:language ofType:@"lproj"]]; } /// Check if preferred language is English + (BOOL)isCurrentLanguageEnglish { if (![NSLocale preferredLanguages].count) { // Just incase check for no items in array return YES; } if ([[[NSLocale preferredLanguages] objectAtIndex:0] rangeOfString:@"en"].location == NSNotFound) { // No letter code for english found return NO; } else { // Tis English return YES; } } /* Swap language between English & Spanish * Could send a string argument to directly pass the new language */ + (void)changeCurrentLanguage { if ([self isCurrentLanguageEnglish]) { [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:@[@"es"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; } else { [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:@[@"en"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"]; } } @end Use the class above to reference a string file / image / video / etc: // Access a localized image [[OSLocalization currentLanguageBundle] pathForResource:@"my_image_name.png" ofType:nil] // Access a localized string from Localizable.strings file NSLocalizedStringFromTableInBundle(@"StringKey", nil, [OSLocalization currentLanguageBundle], @"comment") Change language in-line like below or update the "changeCurrentLanguage" method in the class above to take a string parameter referencing the new language. [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:@[@"es"] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"];