This past weekend I attended a monthly Hacking with Swift session to build an app within two hours. Paul Hudson does these sessions as part of the paid “plus” service and usually recommends that someone clean up and/or complete the app and get it on the app store.
This is the first month where i decided to take him up on the challenge. Introducing “Quick Localizer”.
This app allows a developer to either start from scratch, or take an existing Xcode Localization strings catalog, and generate translations for Apple supported languages. The output can then be saved to a Localizable.xcstrings file to be included in your Xcode project.
Initial Features
The session on Saturday created a great frame work with the following features:
- A picklist of “supported” languages, based on macOS Sequoia’s
- Ability to create a .xcstring output file
- Ability to translate a list of strings to export
A few additions
While this was a great starting point, it wasn’t enough to ship the app. I spent time on Sunday then adding the following features:
- Ability to import an existing .xcstring file and display the source strings in the translation view
- A secondary screen that allows you to look at the translations for the strings. You can select which language you’ve translated
- A base set of instructions as the default view in the text editor
- A cool icon
Polishing it
Putting this all together I quickly submitted the app on Sunday night, only to discover Monday morning that it did not correctly handle two key errors:
- Loading an incomplete .xcstrings file, would silently not allow for translations
- Saving the file should defaults to Localizable.xcstrings
- Localized the application using the translations for all the supported languages.
- Don’t forget my privacy policy.
I’ve also decided to charge for this app. It’s a one time charge of only $4.99 in the US, with the appropriate amount in other countries.
I will post a new blog post when Apple approves the app.