SkinTranslations

Problem: Skin authors are often forced to hard code strings in their skins for the plugins that do not support localization or for the various strings they see fit in the skin but the string isn't available in standard MediaPortal localization strings. Being a skinner myself, i hated that, something had to be done.

Solution: SkinTranslations

This is a *very* simple plugin and I'm surprised no one has done it before (excuse me if I'm wrong). Basically it'll look for "Translations" folder in your skin folder, match localization from MediaPortal configuration and look for proper translation XML file. If that one doesn't exist, English is used as default (as always). You can then access the translated strings using GUI properties like this: #SkinTranslation.Translations.*FIELD*.Label where *FIELD* is to be replaced with the value from translation XML. Example translation XML looks like this:

Code (text):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Skin translation file -->
<!-- English (US) -->

<strings>
    <!--<string Field="ExampleTranslation">Example of translated string</string>-->
    <!--<string Field="ExampleTranslationFromMediaPortal">874</string>-->
    <!-- # -->
    <!-- A -->
    <!-- B -->
    <!-- C -->
    <!-- D -->
    <!-- E -->
    <!-- F -->
    <!-- G -->
    <!-- H -->
    <!-- I -->
    <!-- J -->
    <!-- K -->
    <!-- L -->
    <!-- M -->
    <!-- N -->
    <!-- O -->
    <!-- P -->
    <!-- Q -->
    <!-- R -->
    <!-- S -->
    <!-- T -->
    <!-- U -->
    <!-- V -->
    <!-- W -->
    <!-- X -->
    <!-- Y -->
    <!-- Z -->
</strings>

In that example, #SkinTranslation.Translations.ExampleTranslation.Label would give you "Example of translated string" in the skin and #SkinTranslation.Translations.ExampleTranslationFromMediaPortal.Label would give you "Episode" in the skin (the string is taken from MediaPortal language files.

If user changes skin or language using GUI settings, translations are updated accordingly.

As a skin author, this is what you have to do:

1. Create folder Translations in your skin root
2. Add translation files. Default translation file is "en-US.xml"
3. Add more translation files for different languages or ask users for translations

That's it. Check the attachment

Change log:
v0.7
english translations are now loaded first, user language translation after that; this ensures that even if language is out of date, english translations will still be loaded
language for mediaportal 1.2 is now read from correct place in MediaPortal.xml

v0.6
small logging fixes
added possibility for translations from MediaPortal language files

v0.5
initial release


Note: this plugin is not designed for the end users. It's created for skin authors to distribute it with their skins. End users will just enjoy the results

Re: SkinTranslations v0.5

Hi,

Good plugin idea, we have something similar built into the Config plugin for StreamedMP and was thinking it may have wider appeal but this does a better job.

One addition we have added and you may want to consider, if you enter a numeric as the translation then the plugin does a lookup on the MePo language file and set the property to that.

This gives you the ability to join MePo translations together, which is currently not possible if using just the numerics

eg

we have these in the StreamedMP translation files

Code (text):

<string Field="#StreamedMP.Episode">874</string>
<string Field="#StreamedMP.Series">3019</string>
 

which means we can do things like this

Code (text):

        <label>#StreamedMP.Series: #infoservice.recentlyAdded.series1.season #StreamedMP.Episode: #infoservice.recentlyAdded.series1.episodenumber</label>
 

Series and Episode are then translated to the correct language.


Thanks

Re: SkinTranslations v0.5

Hi trevor,

very nice suggestion. Plugin and documentation are now updated to version 0.6 with that functionality added.

Thanks,
SE

Hi, I have added new attachment in first post. This version is compatible with MediaPortal 1.2 Beta ONLY! There are no other changes.

Use v0.6 for stable MediaPortal 1.1.* versions or 1.2 Alpha.
Use new v0.6 for MediaPortal 1.2 Beta and above.

Hi, version 0.7 is released.

It includes fix for fallback translations that are missing from language files other than en-US.xml.