VI. How to: Internationalize Templates

How to make an i18n Template File

To create an internationalization template file, sometimes called an i18n file, you’ll need a text editing program such as TextMate and the sample YAML file. Furthermore a copy of Checkout will be required to install the YAML file to the application for use and the name must match the predefined list of acceptable languages below, ending in the .yml file extension.

To get started, first download a copy of the sample YAML file.

To edit the file, you will want to open it with the text editor of your choice. This can be done by dragging the sample YAML file over your text editor, such as TextMate or referring to the software documentation that comes with the editor. When opening this file, you will see a dictionary of English words on the left hand side of the screen separated by a colon with the translated word to the right of the colon. For each English word on the left hand side, translate it to the right of the colon. Please note that the quotations around the English dictionary words and translated words are required when making these changes.

When all English words are translated, refer to this table on what name and extension to give your file when saving.

Installing the Template File

After the file has been saved with the appropriate name and .yml file extension, the file is ready to be added to the application. Please note that a copy of this file should be saved to another location on your computer for a backup, as updating Checkout will replace any installed files with the contents found in the updated application. For that reason, we recommend sending a copy of the translated file so we can compile it with our future updates.

To install the YAML file to the application, control-click the Checkout.app, located inside of Applications, and choose ‘Show Package Contents….’ from the contextual menu that appears. Inside of the finder window, open the Contents folder, then open the folder called Resources. A list of items will appear in your finder window, and you will want to scroll down and open the folder labeled Template_i18n. Inside of this folder will be the default YAML files that come packaged with the shipping application. Simply drag and drop the translated .yml file into the Template_i18n folder, and your file is ready to be used by Checkout. More information on changing between template languages can be found in Chapter 13.