Localizing Tunnelblick
This document gives an overview of how to localize Tunnelblick.
How Localization Work in Tunnelblick
Although some applications have elaborate structures to specify translations, Tunnelblick's is simple. Inside of Tunnelblick.app there is a folder for English, and a folder for each language that has been translated. Each of these folders contains files which are edited to provide the translations:
- A "Description.rtf" file for the language, which contains a description of the license under which Tunnelblick may be distributed.
- A "Credits.rtf" file for the language, which lists people who have contributed code or translations to Tunnelblick
- A "Localizable.strings" file for the language. That file is used "on-the-fly" to translate the Tunnelblick application's strings, which are in English, to the language specified in the user's System Preferences.
- A "NeedsTranslation.strings" file may also be present. It contains only the strings that have not been translated. "NeedsTranslations.strings" is not used by the program, but is a convenience for translators who prefer to work only on the strings that need translation, without the distraction of strings that have already been translated. Its size is an indication of how much more translation needs to be done.
Each language folder (except English) has as its name the ISO-639-1 two-letter abbreviation of the language and an extension of "lproj". For example, "JA.lproj" is the folder with Japanese strings, "ES.lproj" is the folder with Spanish strings, etc. The one exception is English, which is named English.lproj. That is because Tunnelblick's original development language was English.
NOTE: Prior to Tunnelblick versions 3.0b24, all .lproj folders had the English name of the language, instead of the ISO-639-1 two-letter abbreviation of the language.
Adding Your Translations to Your Copy of Tunnelblick
If you made the first translation of a language, here's how to put your modified Localizable.strings file into your copy of Tunnelblick:
- Look up the ISO 639-1 two-character abbreviation for the language. You can do that at http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
- Create a folder on your Desktop named with the two-character abbreviation followed by ".lproj" (e.g., "CA.lproj" for Catalan/Valencian)
- Put the Localizable.strings file that you have modified in the folder
- Get a fresh copy of Tunnelblick (one that has never been used; copy from a downloaded disk image file if necessary) and put it on your Desktop
- Right-click on the Desktop "Tunnelblick.app" and click on "Show Package Contents". A new Finder window will appear
- Double-click on "Contents" in the new window. The window should now show several items
- Drag the folder you created in step 2, above, and drop it on "Resources"
- Close the Finder window
You're done. The copy of Tunnelblick.app on your Desktop now has your translations.
If you edited an existing translation, here's how to put your modified .strings file into your copy of Tunnelblick:
- Put the Localizable.strings file that you have modified in the folder
- Get a fresh copy of Tunnelblick (one that has never been used; copy from a downloaded disk image file if necessary) and put it on your Desktop
- Right-click on the Desktop "Tunnelblick.app" and click on "Show Package Contents". A new Finder window will appear
- Double-click on "Contents" in the new window. The window should now show several items
- Double-click on "Resources". The window will now show several (different) items.
- Double-click on the .lproj folder of the language you have translated
- Drag the Localizable.strings file you have modified into the window. Tell Finder to replace the existing Localizable.strings file when you are asked
- Close the Finder window
You're done. The copy of Tunnelblick.app on your Desktop now has your translations.