iPad App - Change languages programmatically

Question

I have an app that requires 2 languages, English and French.

I have already set up the Localizable.strings files in their respective "en.lproj" and "fr.lproj" folders ... and when I change the iPad's language (in the native settings app), then launch my app, it does in fact load the correct text (i.e. either English copy or French copy).

I need to have a UISegmentedControl toggle between the 2 languages without having to restart the app.

How do I get the app to change the (current) language so that when I call a method that (re)sets all the UILabels' text and UIImageViews' images they read from the opposite .lproj folder's Localizable.strings file?!?

I know how to use UISegmentedControl, and that is not my question. I'm looking more for a line of code that sets the application's bundle language or locale or something (as I'm quite new to internationalization.localization).

-

Example of how I set the image for a UIImageView:

myUIImageView1.image = [UIImage imageNamed:NSLocalizedString(@"myUIImageView1", @"comment for the translator")];

Example of how I set the text of a UILabel:

myLabel1.text = NSLocalizedString(@"myLabel1", @"comment for the translator");

perhaps [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6150576/change-ios-apps-language-on-the-fly)? — Dima, Aug 27 '12 at 18:22
This is a pretty good answer to your question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1669645/how-to-force-nslocalizedstring-to-use-a-specific-language — Brayden, Aug 27 '12 at 18:23
Ok, so this does work, but the change is only reflected when I restart the app. How do I get it to update the .xib on the fly? I read the instruction but didn't really understand. — Chris Allinson, Aug 27 '12 at 18:52
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34130853/how-to-force-an-app-to-change-language-in-ios-objective-c/34131794#34131794 — user3182143, Dec 09 '15 at 04:25

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

FOUND THE SOLUTION!!!

The following test app had a function that read the desired string from the correct 'Localizable.strings' file (based on the language selected): https://github.com/object2dot0/Advance-Localization-in-ios-apps

-

I took this code, and the code required to set the app's primary language (found in the above answer posted by Brayden: How to force NSLocalizedString to use a specific language), and put them together.

Here's what my code looks like now (note - my UISegmentedControl calls a function in it's view's viewController [when the UISegmentedControl's 'Value Changed' method is triggered] that then calls the toggleLanguage function in the parent viewController):

    -(void)toggleLanguage:(NSString *)primaryLanguage secondaryLanguage:(NSString *)secondaryLanguage
    {
        //set app's primary language
        defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
        [defaults setObject:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:primaryLanguage,secondaryLanguage,nil] forKey:@"AppleLanguages"];
        [defaults synchronize];

        //update UILabel and UIImageViews
        [self setLanguageSpecificItems];
    }
    -(NSString *)languageSelectedStringForKey:(NSString *)key
    {
        //read primary language
        NSArray *appleLanguagesArray = [defaults objectForKey:@"AppleLanguages"];
        NSString *currentLanguage = [appleLanguagesArray objectAtIndex:0];

        //get the path to the desired lproj file
        NSString *path;
        if(currentLanguage==@"en")
        {
            path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"en" ofType:@"lproj"];
        }
        else
        if(currentLanguage==@"fr")
        {
            path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"fr" ofType:@"lproj"];
        }
        NSBundle* languageBundle = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:path];

        //find and return the desired string
        NSString* str=[languageBundle localizedStringForKey:key value:@"" table:nil];
        return str;
    }
    -(void)setLanguageSpecificItems
    {
        myUIImageView1.image = [UIImage imageNamed:[self languageSelectedStringForKey:@"myUIImageView1"]];
        myLabel1.text = [self languageSelectedStringForKey:@"myLabel1"];
    }

-

Thanks for the help everyone!!!

-Chris Allinson

iPad App - Change languages programmatically

1 Answers1

Linked