Localization and CocoaPods

Question

I have a project that uses CocoaPods. As a result, I have a workspace which contains two projects: mine and Pods.

Pods contains code which I'd like to localize, and I've created .strings files in Pod. However, NSLocalizedString fails to load these strings. I suspect this happens because the .strings file is not in the main bundle, but there's no Pod bundle, because it is compiled into a static library.

Is there a better way to localize code in a CocoaPods project than in my main project?

Answer 1

NSLocalizedString just invokes NSBundle's localizedStringForKey:value:table: so I wrote a NSBundle category to enable looking into several bundles (which in iOS are just folders):

NSString * const kLocalizedStringNotFound = @"kLocalizedStringNotFound";

+ (NSString *)localizedStringForKey:(NSString *)key
                              value:(NSString *)value
                              table:(NSString *)tableName
                       backupBundle:(NSBundle *)bundle
{
    // First try main bundle
    NSString * string = [[NSBundle mainBundle] localizedStringForKey:key
                                                               value:kLocalizedStringNotFound
                                                               table:tableName];

    // Then try the backup bundle
    if ([string isEqualToString:kLocalizedStringNotFound])
    {
        string = [bundle localizedStringForKey:key
                                         value:kLocalizedStringNotFound
                                         table:tableName];
    }

    // Still not found?
    if ([string isEqualToString:kLocalizedStringNotFound])
    {
        NSLog(@"No localized string for '%@' in '%@'", key, tableName);
        string = value.length > 0 ? value : key;
    }

    return string;
}

Then redefined NSLocalizedString macro in my prefix file:

#undef  NSLocalizedString
#define NSLocalizedString(key, comment) \
[NSBundle localizedStringForKey:key value:nil table:@"MyStringsFile" backupBundle:AlternativeBundleInsideMain]

The same for other macros if needed (i.e. NSLocalizedStringWithDefaultValue)

Answer 2

@Rivera Swift 2.0 version:

static let kLocalizedStringNotFound = "kLocalizedStringNotFound"

static func localizedStringForKey(key:String,
                                  value:String?,
                                  table:String?,
                                  bundle:NSBundle?) -> String {
    // First try main bundle
    var string:String = NSBundle.mainBundle().localizedStringForKey(key, value: kLocalizedStringNotFound, table: table)

    // Then try the backup bundle
    if string == kLocalizedStringNotFound {
        string = bundle!.localizedStringForKey(key, value: kLocalizedStringNotFound, table: table)
    }

    // Still not found?
    if string == kLocalizedStringNotFound {
        print("No localized string for '\(key)' in '\(table)'")
        if let value = value {
            string = value.characters.count > 0 ? value : key
        } else {
            string = key
        }
    }

    return string;
}