[Guide]: How to translate/localize Aurora

[Swizzy 2083]

Hi!

I'm the guy responsible for keeping the translations you find in this forum somewhat good-quality, meaning without any major issues and seemingly accurate (i cannot verify each translation to 100% accuracy as i do not speak all languages you guys translate to!)

So, here's a short tutorial on how to translate Aurora into your own language, i will be posting images on the various parts, and at the end add some tips 'n' tricks for you that may help

Let's get started shall we?

First things first; you'll want to download the English XML document containing the original strings, you can find those here: http://www.realmodscene.com/index.php?/topic/4295-language-packs/#entry33658 i would recommend going for the latest version as that's the one most ppl will be using anyways

Now, you have a few options:

1. You can translate using nothing more then a text editor (this is rather advanced if i may say so, but... it's doable even for someone that doesn't understand XML very well)

2. You can use my tool i've written for this very purpose: https://github.com/Swizzy/AuroraTranslationTool/blob/master/AuroraTranslationTool.exe?raw=true

3. You can use any tool designed to handle .resx documents (this is a very common format actually, so there might be plenty of tools out there that supports this, when saving make sure the output is saved as UTF-8, otherwise it won't work...)

Which ever path you choose is up to you, i'll explain how to do it below:

Let's start with the easy one (my tool):

Download it from the link above, and open start it, you'll be presented with a window that looks something similar to this:

First thing you want to do is open up the original, so press the button in the top left corner of the application ("Load Original"), this will bring up a dialog that lets you choose the original xml, just select it and let the app do the rest

Great! now you can get started with the translation process:

Double click on any line in the bottom section of the program and it'll copy the original string to the box marked "original", the Translation box will be empty at this point, so, what you'll do is write your translation into this box, once done, press "Save Current Line" isn't it simple? just do this over and over for every part of the translation and you'll soon have your translation ready! (NOTE: Some translations occur multiple times with the exact same meaning, check the tips 'n' tricks part for some tips on how to translate all of those in 1 go)

Once you have translated everything you can press the button in the top right corner which says "Save Translation", doing so will save a new XML with your translation, i recommend naming it with the name of your language

If you feel tired and want to go do something else, just save your translation as mentioned above, and come back later, if you closed the application you'll be presented with the same thing as before, so what you'll want to do is load the original again then you'll want to load the translation you've done so far, that's what the second button is for

If you want to go the slightly more advanced route, read this one, below i'll explain how to translate using nothing more then a text editor:

Start by opening up the English XML document you downloaded earlier, you can now choose to replace everything in here or create a copy of it with your translation... the choice is yours. Either way, you'll need to understand a few things:

The XML Document looks something like this:

<data name="Aurora_FileManager.FileManager.FileManagerTabScene.Tab2.ActionButton.PointSize"><value>-1.000000</value></data>
<data name="Aurora_FileManager.FileManager.FileManagerTabScene.Tab2.ActionButton.Text"><value>Open</value></data>

To a beginner this looks very complicated, but it's actually very simple, as long as you don't change anything outside of <value>Text</value> you're safe

Some entries will be split on multiple lines, don't remove those lines, they're important!

There isn't really much to say for this method, except... you have to be careful not to cahnge the "name" part, and not to remove any < or > as they're what makes up the XML structure!

Ok, so, now you know what to do? great! Here's some warnings for you:

DO NOT translate anything that starts with $ they're place holders for specific data, you may move them around, but you may NOT translate them!

Everything that contains %s, %d or similar is a place holder for some kind of variable input, these shall NOT be removed, and they cannot be re-arranged either!

Please also make sure to translate "DynamicStrings.IDS_LOCALE_TRANSLATIONBY", this should be "Translation by: <insert name here>" by default this is hidden in my tool, just uncheck the "Hide empty" checkbox and you'll see it!

Ok! now that that's out of the way, how do you get this awesome translation of yours to actually work with Aurora?

Well, for that you need to download my tool, or have someone else help you compile the translation for you (i can do this, but it's nice to know how to do this on your own isn't it?)

Well, below is a guide for how to do this, what you will be needing is 3 tools from the Microsoft Xbox 360 Development Kit, also refered to as "The Xbox 360 XDK"

The tools you need are:

• xuipkg.exe
• resxloc.exe
• resx2bin.exe

You don't have to extract them or anything (if you have the XDK installed it'll find them on it's own) but, if you don't have them there, you have to put them in a folder named "bin" next to the application.

Ok, so when you've clicked on this button you'll be asked to select your translated xml, so just do that... next you'll be presented with the compiler window which looks like this:

In the top left corner of this window you'll see "Icon", select a pre-defined flag icon from the dropdown list or press the Custom button to load a custom icon, this icon will be resized to 64x64 pixels automatically for you.

Below this you'll find "Language (Display Name)", here you can etheir select a pre-defined display name with every known language from windows or type one in yourself, if you select a pre-defined one it'll copy the information from it to both this box and the Language Code box

In the top right corner you will want to put in your name, by default this field contains your username in windows, which may or may not be correct.

Ok, now you've got pretty much all the important information out of the way, you can now save this information to be used later on, i'd recommend doing so.

To actually compile the language pack you simply press the Compile button, this will take all the required steps to convert your translated xml document to the format Aurora expects the language pack to be in, it'll be saved next to the xml document with the same name as the xml except with the extension "xzp"

The files i want you to send me if you want your translation to be listed in the language packs thread are these:

language.xml <- Your translation

language.dat <- Information about your translation, what language is this? who are you? etc.

icon.png <- If you selected a custom icon this will be required aswell, i won't have your icon otherwise!

[Swizzy 2083]

Some tips and tricks follow below:

If your translation is longer then the original string (you can't see all of it in Aurora once you've compiled your translation) you can change any entry which has a name ending with "PointSize" to a different value, the lower the value the smaller the text, -1 means that it should be using whatever is defined in the skin (most entries have this)

If you are using my tool here are some shortcuts for you:

Speedy translation of similar words:

Open up the translation as usual, instead of pressing "Save Current Line", you press Ctrl + Shift + A, this will make the app ask you if you want to save all similar as this, selecting yes saves all translations with the same word to whatever you just specified, isn't that just great?!

Looking for a specific value?

You can using my tool search ALL items, to do this, press Ctrl + F, you'll be presented with a Search window with a bunch of options, what this does is filter based on your settings to only show matching translations