Introduction

The androidI18n gradle plugin automaticallly generates strings.xml resources files from a given translations (i18n) source file.

The plugin provides the following gradle tasks:

• androidI18nImport: imports the i18n translations from the source file and generates the android resources for each supported locale:

  • values/strings.xml
  • values-fr/strings.xml
  • values-es/strings.xml

• androidI18nExport: export the android resources for all locales to a XLSX file in the build directory of the current module. The path of the generated XLSX file is displayed in the build output:

  ./gradlew app:androidI18nExport
  [...]
  > Task :app:androidI18nExport
  Resources were exported to:
  /path/to/app/build/i18n.xlsx
  [...]
  

Installation

Follow the instructions described here.

Configuration

Simply add this configuration block to your build.gradle file:

androidI18n {

   // Source file containing i18n translations.
   sourceFile = '/path/to/source/file.xls'
   
   // Default android locale corresponding to 'values' directory.
   defaultLocale = 'fr'
}

An empty (or blank) sourceFile simply disabled plugin execution (convenient for Continuous Integration).

Usage

Single module Gradle projects

When applied to the configuration of a single module eg app, the plugin operates in single module mode.

In this mode, the export task androidI18nExport will create an Excel spreadsheet with one sheet named android-i18n that contains all translation keys and the corresponding texts for each language.

$ ./gradlew app:androidI18nExport > Task :app:androidI18nExport Resources were exported to: /path/to/project/app/build/i18n_2020-09-15_11-50-50.xlsx BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 6s
project └── app └── src └── main └── res ├── values │   └── strings.xml └── values-en └── strings.xml	⇒

The import task androidI18nImport will take an Excel spreadsheet and generate a single set of strings.xml files (one file by language) into the directory structure of the single module.

$ gradlew app:androidI18nImport -PandroidI18n.sourceFile=/path/to/project/build/i18n_2020-09-15_11-50-50.xlsx BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 28s
	⇒	project └── app └── src └── main └── res ├── values │   └── strings.xml └── values-en └── strings.xml

Multi module gradle projects

When applied to a project with several child modules, the plugin operates in the multi module mode.

In this mode, the export task androidI18nExport will create an Excel spreadsheet with several sheets named after the child modules. Each sheet corresponds to a child module and contains all the translation keys of this module and the corresponding texts for each language.

$ ./gradlew :androidI18nExport > Task :androidI18nExport Resources were exported to: /path/to/project/build/i18n_2020-09-15_14-13-00.xlsx BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 7s
project-multi ├── app │   └── src │   └── main │   └── res │   ├── values │   │   └── strings.xml │   └── values-en │   └── strings.xml └── features     └── feature1     └── src     └── main     └── res     ├── values     │   └── feature1_strings.xml     └── values-en     └── feature1_strings.xml	⇒

The import task androidI18nImport will take an Excel spreadsheet and generate several sets of strings.xml files (one set by module, then one file by language) into the directory structure of each child module.

$ ./gradlew :androidI18nImport -PandroidI18n.sourceFile=/path/to/project/build/i18n_2020-09-15_14-13-00.xlsx BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 4s
	⇒	project-multi ├── app │   └── src │   └── main │   └── res │   ├── values │   │   └── strings.xml │   └── values-en │   └── strings.xml └── features     └── feature1     └── src     └── main     └── res     ├── values     │   └── feature1_strings.xml     └── values-en     └── feature1_strings.xml

Supported sources

Supported URI

Samba URI

Pattern: smb://<domain>;<login>:<password>@<host>/<path_to_file>

The plugin uses jcifs to establish a connection with the remote samba URI.

Jcifs client properties can be provided through gradle project properties using prefix androidI18n.*:

androidI18n.jcifs.smb.client.dfs.disabled=true
androidI18n.jcifs.smb.client.responseTimeout=5000

Windows UNC

Pattern: \\<host>\<path_to_file>

Supported file types

For the moment, the plugin only supports .xls and .xlsx source file types. Files must respect following structure:

key	fr	en	es
home_text_1	Bonjour le monde !	Hello world!	¡Hola Mundo!
home_text_2	Avec un argument : #	With an argument: #	Con un argumento : #
plurals_key:one	Voiture	Car	Coche
plurals_key:other	Voitures	Cars	Coches

Publish plugin to the Gradle Plugin Portal

Official guide

https://guides.gradle.org/publishing-plugins-to-gradle-plugin-portal/

TL;DR

The following configuration should be set in your ~/.gradle/gradle.properties file:

gradle.publish.key=<api_key>
gradle.publish.secret=<secret>

Then simply run following command:

$ ./gradlew publishPlugins

Develop

To make changes to this plugin and test them in your project, you can use Gradle's composite build feature:

1. Clone this repository

2. Add this to settings.gradle in your project:

   includeBuild('/path/to/gradle-android-i18n') {
       dependencySubstitution {
           substitute module("gradle.plugin.com.github.gradle:android-i18n") with project(':')
       }
   }

3. Now you can launch the androidI18nImport as usual from your project:

   cd /path/to/your/project
   ./gradlew app:androidI18nImport