Localization of the User Interface

Oxygen XML Author comes with a user interface available in English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, and Italian. If you want to use Oxygen XML Author in other language you have to translate all the messages and labels available in the user interface (menu action names, button names, check box texts, view titles, error messages, status bar messages, etc.) and provide a text file with all the translated messages in the form of a Java properties file. Such a file contains message key - translated message pairs displayed in the user interface.

In order to add a new language for the user interface, follow this procedure. For simplicity sake, it is assumed that you are translating the user interface in Spanish, and you are using a standard oXygen XML Windows distribution.

  1. Identify the ISO code for the new language you wish to translate the interface. In this example the language code is es_ES.
  2. Extract the bundled English language properties file from oxygen.jar:
    1. Open a command prompt window.
    2. Change directory (create it if necessary) to a folder where you have write permissions:
      cd C:\Users\dan
      C:\Users\dan>mkdir localization
      C:\Users\dan>cd localization
    3. Identify the Oxygen XML Author XML installation directory (typically found in the default installation location on Windows C:\Program Files), and extract the following files from oxygenAuthor.jar:
      C:\Users\dan\localization>jar -xf "C:\Program Files (x86)\Oxygen XML Author\lib\oxygenAuthor.jar" languageList.properties C:\Users\dan\localization>jar -xf "C:\Program Files (x86)\Oxygen XML Author\lib\author.jar" Messages_en_US.properties
  3. Register the new language. The file languageList.properties contains the list of all the languages that Oxygen XML Author can use for its user interface. Open it with a text editor and add the entry that corresponds to the new language. You can also choose to remove the unneeded languages.
    ....
    French=fr_FR
    English=en_US
    Spanish=es_ES
    ....
  4. Translate the messages file:
    1. The file Messages_en_US.properties contains the English translation. You can use it as a template for the new language. Rename it to match the new language code.
      C:\Users\dan\localization>move Messages_en_US.properties Messages_es_ES.properties 
    2. Using a properties editor, like the one found here: http://propedit.sourceforge.jp/index_en.html, you can start customizing the text.
      For instance, the entry:
      File_New=New
      can be changed to:
      File_New=Crear un nuevo archivo
  5. Deploy the translation:
    1. Archive both languageList.properties and Messages_es_ES.properties into a jar file, with the name of the language code. In this case the name is es_ES.jar:
      C:\Users\dan\localization>jar -cf es_ES.jar Messages_es_ES.properties languageList.properties
    2. Copy the created jar file into the Oxygen XML Author installation folder, lib\endorsed subfolder (use a command prompt window with elevated rights if you are using Windows Vista or later).
      C:\Users\dan\localization>mkdir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Oxygen XML Author\lib\endorsed" C:\Users\dan\localization>copy es_ES.jar "C:\Program Files (x86)\Oxygen XML Author\lib\endorsed"
  6. Test the translation.
    1. Start Oxygen XML Author
    2. From the Global options panel, change the language using the Language combo box. Your new language is listed here.
    3. Restart Oxygen XML Author . Check that the translated messages are displayed in the interface.
Note:

Sometimes it is possible to miss the complete meaning of a message from the translation file. If you are in doubt, contact the Oxygen XML Author support team for further details.

Note: In case you want to distribute to the end users a localized version of the Oxygen XML Author XML, add to the distribution package the lib/endorsed directory, containing the new translation.