How to translate the NetBeans IDE

Understanding overall of localization

Please read carefully these 2 top level documentations to understand how NetBeans IDE is being localized.

• NetBeans IDE and Platform Localization 
• NetBeans 5.5 translation overview page

Getting the sources

First you need to get English sources for translation, a tarball that contains possible English files called ``l10n-kit'' is provided from our translation overview page. Once you get the sources, you can localize them in your favorite tool e.g. OmegaT.

• NetBeans 5.5 translation overview page

Translating Files

Basically there are 3 types of file to be localized in NetBeans IDE, .properties, .url, .xml and .html files. These files should be renamed to add _<yourlang> extension.

You can use your own tool for localization, but most users in this project are using OmegaT. Please try the page for your evaluation.

• How to translate NetBeans IDE using OmegaT

Once you translate them, put your files into translatedfiles/src/.

File Type	Localized File Name	Purpose	How to localize	Encoding
.properties	XXXX_<lang>.properties	Including messages for UI Menu, Button, also including error messages.	Either add the desired locale using the NetBeans property editor, or copy the original and insert the locale into the filename (eg Bundle.properties to Bundle_nl.properties for the Dutch locale). Translate the content. Convert the file to Unicode escaped format by executing native2ascii JDK commands.	UNICODE ascii (\uXXXX) Please don't forget to run native2ascii
.url	XXXX_<lang>.url	Including URL for web doc	Copy English file to XXXX_<yourlang>.url e.g. XXXX_ja.url for Japanese. If the location has the localized document, please change the URL	ASCII There is no need to include localized string in it.
.xml	XXXX_<lang>.xml	Help System	Copy English file to XXXX_<yourlang>.xml e.g. XXXX_ja.xml for Japanese. Localize the contents Make sure the file encoding is UTF-8	UTF-8
.html	XXXX_<lang>.html	Resource files, which will be displayed as short description on the text area on new file wizard	Copy English file to XXXX_<yourlang>.html e.g. XXXX_ja.html for Japanese. Localize the contents Add charset tag of your encoding, we recommend UTF-8	UTF-8 (recommend) Usually those html files does not contain charset tag. Please add the tag.

File location

Localized files should be located under

• translatedfiles/src/<module directory>

This directory should contain only localized files.

Build and Test

Once you translate files, you can build localized jar files in your locale environment. Please check these how-to pages to know how to build it.

• How to build Netbeans IDE in your own language
• How to build Netbeans 5.5 IDE in your own language on NetBeans

Once your files integrated, validation script will check the errors. Check the translation validation page, which is being updated daily.

• 5.5 translation validation page

Also you can understand the translation coverage - which files already translated, which files are missing. Check the translation status page, which is being updated daily.

• 5.5 translation status page

Contribute your files

If you have Developer role, you can commit your files of translatedfiles/src/ into cvs. If don't, please send zip file to  dev@translatedfiles.netbeans.org.

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