[s7mx1]

I have written a script so when the user startup xbmc for the first time, the user will be prompted for a menu to select the desired language to use.

The current situation with XBMC (internationalize) is that an end user without knowledge of English will not able to use XBMC (with default settings) without any help. In my view, this is not good enough.

My script does not attempt to solve it, instead I would like to deliver a message that it can and should be done to improve experiences for non-English speaking users.

Screen shot:


I have tested on Ubuntu 8.10 with XBMC svn @19419. (found some bugs as a co-product of the script, which I will file tickets)

To have a demo Ubuntu 8.10 system you should:

• Set up a proper font
  You need a font that can display words/characters in user's desired language.
  
  For Chinese (simpled or traditional), you can try
  
  Code:

  sudo apt-get install ttf-wqy-zenhei
sudo cp -a /usr/share/fonts/truetype/wqy/wqy-zenhei.ttf /usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts/arial.ttf
  This will install wqy fonts and overwrite the arial.ttf installed by xbmc.
  
  
  
• install autoexec script
  copy from http://code.google.com/p/xbox-remote/sou...utoexec.py and save it to
  
  Code:

  /usr/share/xbmc/autoexec.py
  
  
• install select-language script
  copy from http://code.google.com/p/xbox-remote/sou...startup.py and save it to
  
  Code:

  /usr/share/xbmc/scripts/select-language.py
  
  
• install welcome.xml
  save the following code to /usr/share/xbmc/language/English/welcome.xml
  
  Code:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--$Revision: 19319 $-->
<strings>
  <!-- strings 30000 thru 30999 reserved for plugins and plugin settings -->
<string id="30000">English</string>
  <!-- strings 31000 thru 31999 reserved for skins -->
  <!-- strings 32000 thru 32999 reserved for scripts -->
</strings>
  
  save the following code to /usr/share/xbmc/language/Chinese (Simple)/welcome.xml
  
  Code:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--$Revision: 19319 $-->
<strings>
  <!-- strings 30000 thru 30999 reserved for plugins and plugin settings -->
<string id="30000">简体中文</string>
  <!-- strings 31000 thru 31999 reserved for skins -->
  <!-- strings 32000 thru 32999 reserved for scripts -->
</strings>
  
  
  
• Remove user setttings
  
  Code:

  rm -rf ~/.xbmc
  
  
• Startup XBMC in respawn mode
  copy from http://code.google.com/p/xbox-remote/sou...rt-xbmc.py and save it to start-xbmc.py. Run it with
  
  Code:

  python start-xbmc.py

[topfs2]

Really nice!

Could you open a ticket for this?, I see a great usage for this in XBMC Live but all ports for sure, but they could instead read the OS settings.

Cheers,
Tobias

[s7mx1]

Really nice!

Could you open a ticket for this?, I see a great usage for this in XBMC Live but all ports for sure, but they could instead read the OS settings.

Cheers,
Tobias

@tobias

Ticket was created: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/6348

I am bit worried about the font rendering engine in XBMC, I have not heard it's possible to use multiple fonts (i.e. one font for certain language(s) and another for another set of language(s) etc.). But even the font engine is not ready, we still can do some magic things like dynamic create symbolic (or just copy) of "arial.ttf" and point it to the right font according to what the end user choose.

There is one possible bug related with setting language through httpapi, could you have a look and possibly assign it someone?
http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/6341

Many thanks

[s7mx1]

Updated my code, now you can specify font file to be used for each language (set in welcome.xml file)

For anyone interested please get it form svn

Code:

svn checkout http://xbox-remote.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/select-language select-language

• copy the whole folder to your user's script folder
  
  Code:

  cp -a select-language ~/.xbmc/scripts/
  
  
• create user fonts folder
  
  Code:

  mkdir ~/.xbmc/fonts/
  and copy any fonts you want to use to the above folder
  
  
  
  
• Modify desired language welcome.xml inside ~/.xbmc/scripts/select-language/resources/language
  
  example welcome.xml for English
  
  Code:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--$Revision: 19319 $-->
<strings>
  <!-- strings 30000 thru 30999 reserved for plugins and plugin settings -->
<string id="30000">English</string>
<string id="30001">wqy-zenhei.ttf</string>
  <!-- strings 31000 thru 31999 reserved for skins -->
  <!-- strings 32000 thru 32999 reserved for scripts -->
</strings>
  The string id="30001" sets the name of the font to be used for that language.
  
  
  
  
• Create a symbolic link arial.ttf in xbmc default font folder
  
  Code:

  sudo rm /usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts/arial.ttf
sudo ln -s /usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts/arial.ttf ~/.xbmc/fonts/arial.ttf
  
  
• Run the script and select the desired language
  
  

The only challenge we are facing is to find a good unicode font that supports various language. "unifont" maybe a good start. Screenshot:

[s7mx1]

A lot progress has been made.

It's now very easy to test it out. If interested please go to following discussion on the form

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=48971

screen shots: