I had to help someone internationalize their RCP application today and I didn’t really have a straight forward simple example to point them to so I figure I’d share something here for everyone’s benefit. I’ll use the famous RCP mail example to get things started. The first step in internalization is making sure our strings are externalized so translators can actually do something with them. For Eclipse plug-ins, there will be two places you need to externalize strings:

• Java artifacts (ie., .java)
• Plug-in related artifacts (MANIFEST.MF and plugin.xml)

Within Java files, the wonderful JDT tooling provides an Externalize Strings wizard (Source->Externalize Strings…):

Within plug-in artifacts, PDE also provides an Externalize Strings wizard (PDE Tools->Externalize Strings or click the hyperlink on the Overview page):

Once we have all our strings externalized, we need to create a fragment (e.g., org.eclipse.mail.nl1) to store our translations (File->New->Fragment Project):

From the screenshot above, you should see that the translated properties files are co-located in the same respective location of the original file. The translated properties files also have a naming convention of name_locale.properties (e.g., messages_es.properties).

So now that we have some translated properties file, how do we test our translations? PDE provides an easy way to set the locale you’re developing against… similar to the way you define a target platform. In the target platform preference page, head over to the Environment tab and choose the language you’re interested in:

Once you do that, simply launch like you normally would to test out the fancy translations:

That’s it! Also, if you need translations for Eclipse.org plug-ins… check out the Babel project!

Here is the code used in this tip if you need to take a test drive at home. Hope this helps.

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1. Create a LabelProvider that returns different images based on the expanded state of an element:
   

   class NodeLabelProvider extends LabelProvider {   
     // ...
     public Image getImage(Object element) {
       Image result = LEAF;
       Node node = (Node) element;
       if (node.hasChildren()) {
         result = viewer.getExpandedState(node) ? NODE_EXPANDED : NODE_COLLAPSED;
       }
       return result;
     }
   }



2. Create a TreeListener to update the image when the users clicks on the plus or minus icon in the tree:
   

   class UpdateIconTreeListener implements TreeListener {
   
     public void treeCollapsed(TreeEvent e) {
       updateImage((TreeItem) e.item, true);
     }
   
     public void treeExpanded(TreeEvent e) {
       updateImage((TreeItem) e.item, false);
     }
   
     private void updateImage(TreeItem item, boolean isCollapsed) {
       Image image = isCollapsed ? NODE_COLLAPSED : NODE_EXPANDED;
       item.setImage(image);
     }
   
   }



3. Tree elements can be expanded/collapsed via Java code by calling methods such as viewer.expandToLevel(Object, int) and viewer.collapseToLevel(Object, int). Remember to manually trigger an update of the element's label (i.e. the image and text) in those cases:
   

     viewer.expandToLevel(node, 1);
     viewer.update(node, null);
   

Hi all!

Larry from IBM, another member of the Connectivity team, was kind enough to provide the answer. It resulted in this chunk of code:

So there you have it! Not that many people have a need for such a thing, but it's handy just in case!

From October 15th - 17th, the second workshop on model driven software development "MDSD Today" will take place in Elmshorn near Hamburg, Germany.

The goal of this conference is to provide a platform for professionals (managers, architects and engineers alike) in the field of model driven software development to meet and exchange ideas.

The three day will be organized into the following major blocks:

1. Management Day
2. Research Papers and Industrial Reports
3. MDSD Tutorials

The management day will feature keynotes by Dr. Axel Uhl (Chief Development Architect with SAP) and Ed Merks (of Eclipse Modeling fame).

Tutorials on various MDSD-related topics (such as model-to-model transformations, model-to-text transformations, external textual DSLs) will be delivered by members of the Eclipse Modeling Project on day 2 and day 3 of the conference.

If you use model driven software development in your daily work, please consider giving a presentation.

If you do not use MDSD and would like to hear about other's experiences, you should consider participating in the conference and take the chance to attend the MDSD tutorials. At EUR 350 for three days, that's a real bargain.

The CfPs and more information on the conference can be found here (english) and here (german).

Hope to see you there!

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