Web Update Wizard Language Files

The default language of the Web Update Wizard is English. 'Out of the box', you can provide your own Message and FinalMessage text, but you are limited to a single language.

However, it is possible to fully localise the Web Update Wizard so that all dialog boxes and prompts are in the language of the logged on user. This section shows you how to achieve this.

In addition, if you are simply interested in 'improving' the in-built English prompts, you will find this section of help.

Overview

There are 2 elements to language localisation:

Providing the in-built Web Update Wizard prompts and dialogs in the language of the logged on user.
Providing language-specific Message and FinalMessage text, (where you may have users with many different languages).

The Web Update Wizard solves the first element by allowing you to provide any number of additional language files with your Web Update Wizard installation.

Each time the Web Update Wizard is called it checks the Windows Regional Settings for the current language on the user's computer. If it finds a language file matching the Regional Settings language on the user's computer it loads and uses this. If it cannot find the specific language for that user, it then checks whether the installation has a default language file. If it exists it loads and uses this. If a default language file cannot be found the Web Update Wizard continues with 'PowerProgrammer English' (i.e. the built-in strings).

The second element, Message and FinalMessage text, is solved by providing separate Message and FinalMessage keyword lines in your script file - one for each specific language you wish to support (plus a default language).

Detail - Web Update Wizard Language Files

Language files allow you to offer all Web Update Wizard interactions in the language of the logged on user.

The Web Update Wizard uses the Windows GetLocaleInfo API to obtain the Locale ID of the logged on user on the host computer. GetLocaleInfo returns an IS string containing the Locale ID of the language. The list of Locale IDs is here, or you can link to the latest list according to Microsoft here . (Use the column headed "LCID Hex".)

The Web Update Wizard then looks for a language file name built by combining the Locale ID and the folder your application is running from. For example, if the host computer is running "English_United_States" GetLocaleInfo returns "0409" as the hex locale ID. If your application is running from the folder "C:\Program Files\MyApp" then the Web Update Wizard will look for the language file: "C:\Program Files\MyApp\0409.tab". If this file exists the Web Update Wizard loads it and uses the language strings from the file in place of the built in strings.

If it cannot find this file, it then looks for the file "deflang.tab" in your application's folder. If it exists it loads it and uses the language strings from the file in place of the built in strings.

If "deflang.tab" does not exist, it uses the existing, built-in strings (i.e. 'PowerProgrammer English').

Web Update Wizard language files are tab delimited text files, where the first field is the string ID which identifies the string to the Web Update Wizard at run time and the second field is the actual string which will be displayed.

We have included a sample language file in the 'Languages' subfolder of your Web Update Wizard installation folder, 'deflang.tab', which you can use as a template for your own language file. If you have installed the Web Update Wizard into the default installation path, 'C:\Program Files\WebUpdateWizard\Languages' you should be able to open this file for editing by clicking on this link.

Here is a snippet from a language file:

Key points to note:

The first 2 rows are comments. They are not required and can be deleted. You can add comment lines anywhere in the file without any problems.
A tab character ("" in the screenshot) is used to separate the ID in column 1 from the text in column 2
Do not change the IDs in column 1!
The parameter substitution fields, such as "%s", "%d" and "%ld" must be retained in alternate language files. Use the supplied "deflang.tab" file as the model for this, as omitting a parameter substitution field or changing its type may cause the Web Update Wizard to be unstable.
If you are just 'tuning' the PowerProgrammer English you can remove any lines which already meet your requirement. The Web Update Wizard checks whether a string has been supplied in the language file first, and uses it if it has. Otherwise it uses the built in string.

That is all that is required to language localise the Web Update Wizard. In summary:

Provide language files for every language you want to support and install them on the client computer in the same folder as your running application.
If you want to override the Web Update Wizard's built in strings, install your version of "deflang.tab" in the same folder as your running application.
When you create your language files, ensure that you follow the key points listed above.

You can ascertain whether a language file has been used to process a script by inspecting the WebUpdateSvc4.log log file, which you will find in the same folder as WebUpdateSvc4.exe. (Note: a log entry is only made if a language file is actually used!)

Language-specific Message and FinalMessage text

You can provide language specific Message and FinalMessage text by prepending your messages with the localeID of the language concerned, as shown in this example:

[5]
Filename=http://www.mycompany.com/updates/MyApp.exe
Message=Hello <USERNAME>,<p>Would you like this update?
Message=<040c>Bonjour <USERNAME>,<p>Vous aiment cette mise à jour?
Message=<0407>Guten tag <USERNAME><p>Wurde Sie mögen dieses Update?
Importance=Optional
FinalMessage=Finished! Have a nice day!
FinalMessage=<040c>Fini! Ayez un beau jour!
FinalMessage=<0407>Beendet! Haben Sie einen schönen Tag!

(N.b. translations provided by Google!)

The first "Message=" line is the default message, which will be displayed if no subsequent language match against the user's language is found.

The second and third "Message=" lines provide language localised messages for user who's language locale is "<040c" (French Standard) and "<0407>" (German Standard).

The order of the "Message=" lines is not significant. You can put the default message at any place in the script.

The same applies to the "FinalMessage" lines. That is, to provide a language specific message, start the message with the locale ID enclosed in 'chevron' characters:

FinalMessage=<0407>Beendet! Haben Sie einen schönen Tag!