Creating a Language File

If you would like to create a language file yourself you must first download the English Reference File. This file is a regular XML file in the UTF-8 code page and has the following structure.

<Approach_Localization version="1">
  <Summary>
    <Locale>en_US</Locale>
    <Titles>
      <Title locale="en_US">English</Title>
      ...
    </Titles>
    <Created_Bys>
      <Created_By locale="en_US">Created by KO Software</Created_By>
      ...
    </Created_Bys>
    <Comments>
      <Comment locale="en_US">The standard KO Approach localization</Comment>
      ...
    </Comments>
  </Summary>

  <Strings>
    <String id="IDS_MYSTRINGID">General</String>
    ...
  </Strings>

  <Metrics>
    <Metric id="IDS_MYMETRICID" factor="X">#,#,#,#</Metric>
    ...
  </Metrics>
</Approach_Localization>

Each Language file has one root element, Approach_Localization, which has the only attribute, version. Currently the supported version is 1. The Approach_Localization element has three child elements:

Developers must make changes to each of the sections according to the information provided for each specific section. Click the links above to find out more.

Entity Inheritance

Although developers work with the Reference file while making a Language file, Approach behaves differently. The default localization, US English, is hard-coded into the program module. This enables entity inheritance for other language files that either contain errors or are incomplete.

When loading a String or a Metric Approach first tries to locate the entity in the current Language file. If the entity is not present there or an error occurs during loading Approach uses the US English localization to load the entity.