Multilingual File Generator (dotnet-mlgen)

A generator for .NET multilingual files for all native target platforms Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.

It can serve as a replacement for the Microsoft Multilingual App Toolkit.

Introduction

This tool can be used to generate multilingual files: Xliff and translated resource files.

This can be platform specific resource files for net8.0-android, net8.0-ios, net8.0-macos or Windows.

The Microsoft Multilingual App Toolkit no longer seems to support these specific native platforms.

Other advantages of using this dotnet tool:

• It's not necessary to use Visual Studio since it's a .NET tool. Also Visual Studio upgrades won't break this tool.
• It works on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).
• Since it needs to be triggered by hand it doesn't run every build which otherwise slows down the build since it updates files.
• It uses a config file, so there is no magic.
• The souce code is available at github.
• It's compatible with the Multilingual App Toolkit.

Workflow

A configuration file needs to be in the project directory (Multilingual.config), for more info see below.

The config specifies the source resource (e.g. English language). The tool will create and update Xliff's depending on changes in the source resource. It will also generated localized target resources based on the Xliff.

Xliff can be editted with any Xliff editor or the Microsoft Multilingual App Toolkit Editor, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/globalizing/multilingual-app-toolkit-editor-downloads.

Dotnet Tool

For more information about local/global .NET tools see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/global-tools

Installation

Global

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-mlgen 

Local

dotnet new tool-manifest # if you are setting up this repo

dotnet tool install --local dotnet-mlgen

Restore in repo:

dotnet tool restore

Usage

Update translation files

1. Go to project directory with Multilingual.config file.
2. On prompt: dotnet mlgen (mlgen = Multilingual generator)

OR: On prompt: dotnet mlgen <full path to config file>.

Create first sample config file

The sample config file contains translations for the Spanish (es) and Dutch (nl) language.

Android

dotnet mlgen create-sample-config android AppName

iOS

dotnet mlgen create-sample-config ios AppName

macOS

dotnet mlgen create-sample-config macos AppName

Windows

dotnet mlgen create-sample-config windows AppName

Config

Example config for android

{
  "SourceSettings": {
    "ApplicationName": "AppName",
    "SourceFileFormat": "android",
    "SourceLanguage": "en-US",
    "SourceFile": "Resources/values/Strings.xml"
  },
  "TargetSettings": {
    "TargetFileFormat": "android",
    "XliffBaseDir": "MultilingualResources",
    "ResourcesBaseDir": "Resources"
  },
  "Targets": [
    {
      "TargetLanguage": "es",
      "TargetXliff": "AppName.es.xlf",
      "TargetResource": "values-es/Strings.xml"
    },
    {
      "TargetLanguage": "nl",
      "TargetXliff": "AppName.nl.xlf",
      "TargetResource": "values-nl/Strings.xml"
    }
  ]
}

Config file description

All paths for file generation are relative to the location of the config file.

SourceSettings

Settings for the source, this file should already exist.

Name	Description
ApplicationName	Name of the application, used in the Xliff for generating id's
SourceFileFormat	Describes the type of multilingual input resource: allowed values "android", "apple" or "windows". Android = "strings.xml", apple = "Localizable.strings", windows = "resources.resx".
SourceLanguage	The source language
SourceFile	location of the source resource file relative to the multilingual.json location

TargetSettings

Settings that apply to all Targets

Name	Description
TargetFileFormat	Describes the type of multilingual input resource: allowed values "android", "apple" or "windows". Android = "strings.xml", apple = "Localizable.strings", windows = "resources.resx".
XliffBaseDir	Base directory for the Xliff files
ResourcesBaseDir	Base directory for the resource files

Targets

An array of target languages that need to be generated (Xliff and resouce in specific file format)

Name	Description
TargetLanguage	Target language
TargetXliff	Filename of the target Xliff
TargetResource	File name of the target resource

Automatic translation using OpenAI/ChatGPT

Untranslate strings can be automatically translated using OpenAI/ChatGPT API. The translated strings will get the status "NeedsReview". The model is now hardcoded to "gpt-4.1-mini"

To use these feature define a environment variable "OpenAIKey" with your OpenAI Api Key