Namespace LrLocalization

This namespace allows you to localize your plug-in for use in multiple languages, using the Adobe ZString mechanism.

A ZString uniquely identifies a string usage within an application, allowing you to provide different language versions of the string, depending on the locale. A ZString has this format: 

"$$$/ZStringPath/StringKey=This is the English text value"

The ZString mechanism searches a string dictionary for the current locale, matching the path and identifier, then displays the language-specific text. You must supply translation dictionaries for supported languages as part of your plug-in. See the SDK Programmer's Guide for information on how to create translation dictionaries.

ZStrings in code should consist entirely of low-ASCII characters. The key should only contain characters in the set "a-ZA-Z0-9/". The value can contain any low-ASCII character.

ZStrings allow some common non-low-ASCII characters to be substituted for escape sequences in the strings. For example, the sequence ^C includes the copyright symbol in that location in the resulting string. The escape character followed by a number (^1) is a replacement point, that allows the sequence to be replaced by some other string supplied as an additional argument to LOC().

The following escape sequences are available:

  • ^r: carriage return
  • ^n: line feed
  • ^B: bullet
  • ^C: copyright
  • ^D: degree
  • ^I: increment
  • ^R: registered trademark
  • ^S: n-ary summation
  • ^T: trademark
  • ^!: logical not
  • ^{: left single quote
  • ^}: right single quote
  • ^[: left double quote
  • ^]: right double quote
  • ^': apostrophe
  • ^.: ellipsis ("...")
  • ^E: Latin small e with acute accent
  • ^e: Latin small e with circumflex
  • ^d: Greek capital delta
  • ^L: backslash (\)
  • ^V: vertical bar (|)
  • ^#: command key (in Mac OS only)
  • ^`: accent grave ("`")
  • ^^: circumflex ("^")
  • ^0 - ^9: Replacement point for string arguments.
  • ^U+1234: Encodes any arbitrary Unicode character by its code point (represented here by "1234"). The code point must always be expressed as four hexadecimal digits.

Summary

LOC( string, ... )
Finds a localized string by looking up the key in the dictionary for the current locale.
LrLocalization.currentLanguage()
Retrieves the language that is currently in use for translation.
LrLocalization.encodeUtf8Character( ch )
Converts a Unicode code point value into a UTF-8 string.
LrLocalization.translateForPlugin( pluginId, string, ... )
Finds a localized string by looking up the key in the plug-in's dictionary for the current locale.

Functions

LOC( string, ... )
Finds a localized string by looking up the key in the dictionary for the current locale. This function is an alias for LrLocalization.translateForPlugin(), which automatically provides the toolkit ID for the current plug-in.

First supported in version 1.3 of the Lightroom SDK.

Parameters

1. string
(string) The ZString value.
2. ...
placeholder values for substitutions ^1 through ^9

Return value

(string) The localized display string, if found. If no matching string is found for the current locale, returns the string value from the passed ZString.
LrLocalization.currentLanguage()
Retrieves the language that is currently in use for translation.

First supported in version 3.0 of the Lightroom SDK.

Return value

(string) The two-letter ISO code for the language currently in use. (such as 'en' for English, 'fr' for French).
LrLocalization.encodeUtf8Character( ch )
Converts a Unicode code point value into a UTF-8 string.

First supported in version 1.3 of the Lightroom SDK.

Parameters

1. ch
(number) The Unicode code point number.

Return value

(string) The UTF-8 string corresponding to that code point.
LrLocalization.translateForPlugin( pluginId, string, ... )
Finds a localized string by looking up the key in the plug-in's dictionary for the current locale.

First supported in version 1.3 of the Lightroom SDK.

Parameters

1. pluginId
(string) The identifying name for the plug-in. This is the value of the Lightroom-defined property key LR_exportServiceProvider.
2. string
(string) The ZString value.
3. ...
placeholder values for substitutions ^1 through ^9

Return value

(string) The localized display string, if found. If no matching string is found for the current locale, returns the string value from the passed ZString.