Mobile Strings Converter

A Python package that converts Android & iOS strings files to any supported file type.





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Table of Contents

• About the Project
  • File Types Supported
  • Project Structure
  • Built With
• Release Files
• Getting Started
  • Script Installation
  • Package Installation
• Usage
  • Run the Program
  • Use the Package in Your Project
  • Generate a Spreadsheet in Google Sheets
  • Script Flags
• Notes
  • Indic Languages Supported by PDF files
  • Indic Languages Not Supported by PDF files
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License
• Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Support

About the Project

I tried to do the whole process of converting a strings resource file into a spreadsheet in Google Sheets by hand and, even though you can do it with the option Data > Split text to columns, it involves wasting your time generating the spreadsheet manually. Due to that, I decided to build a time-efficient solution, which consists on running a Python script in order to achieve that with any file type.

Moreover, not only this script can be executed on its own, it also can be installed as a package via PyPI (more information here about how to install it).

File Types Supported

• Android strings format (*.xml)
• CSV
• Google Sheets support
• HTML
• iOS strings format (*.strings)
• JSON
• MD
• ODS
• PDF
• XLSX
• YAML

Project Structure

ASCII folder structure

│   .gitignore
│   .pre-commit-config.yaml
│   LICENSE
│   poetry.lock 
│   pyproject.toml
│   README.md
│   requirements.txt
│   requirements-dev.txt
│
├───.github
│   │   CONTRIBUTING.md
│   │
│   ├───ISSUE_TEMPLATE
│   │       bug_report_template.md
│   │       feature_request_template.md
│   │
│   └───PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE
│           pull_request_template.md
│
├───docs
│       icon.png
│
├───src
│   ├───mobile_strings_converter
│   │       console_style.py
│   │       converter.py
│   │       __init__.py
│   │       __main__.py
│   │
│   ├───assets
│   │       └───fonts
│   │               Aakar.ttf
│   │               AnekTelugu-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf
│   │               DejaVuSansCondensed.ttf
│   │               Eunjin.ttf
│   │               fireflysung.ttf
│   │               gargi.ttf
│   │               Gurvetica_a8_Heavy.ttf
│   │               Latha.ttf
│   │               Waree.ttf
│   │
│   ├───controller
│   │       main_controller.py
│   │       __init__.py
│   │
│   ├───model
│   │       transcription.py
│   │       __init__.py
│   │
│   ├───utils
│   │       constants.py
│   │       i18n.py
│   │       path_helper.py
│   │       __init__.py
│   │
│   └───view
│           main_window.py
│           __init__.py
│
└───tests   
    │   base_tests.py
    │   test_get_strings.py
    │   test_to_android.py
    │   test_to_csv.py
    │   test_to_html.py
    │   test_to_ios.py
    │   test_to_json.py
    │   test_to_md.py
    │   test_to_ods.py
    │   test_to_pdf.py
    │   test_to_xlsx.py
    │   test_to_yaml.py
    │
    └───files
        ├───input
        │       Localizable.strings
        │       strings.xml
        │
        ├───template-with-comments
        │       Localizable.strings
        │       strings.csv
        │       strings.html
        │       strings.json
        │       strings.md
        │       strings.ods
        │       strings.pdf
        │       strings.xlsx
        │       strings.xml
        │       strings.yaml
        │
        └───template-without-comments
                Localizable.strings
                strings.csv
                strings.html
                strings.json
                strings.md
                strings.ods
                strings.pdf
                strings.xlsx
                strings.xml
                strings.yaml

Built With

• openpyxl to generate ODS and XLSX files.
• gspread to generate spreadsheets in Google Sheets.
• protobuf is used by google.oauth2.credentials to authenticate to the user's Google account in order to create the spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
• PyYAML to generate YAML files.
• arabic-reshaper and python-bidi to add arabic characters support for PDF files.
• fpdf2 to generate PDF files.
• lingua-language-detector to recognize the value language when writing a PDF in order to know what font to use.

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Release Files

File	Description	Size
mobile-strings-converter.zip	Standard language support for PDF files (over 100 languages, including RTL)	0.32 MB
mobile-strings-converter-indic.zip	PDF file support for Indic languages (see list)	1.40 MB
mobile-strings-converter-zh-ja.zip	PDF file support for Japanese and Chinese (simplified and traditional)	7.17 MB
mobile-strings-converter-ko.zip	PDF file support for Korean	0.46 MB
mobile-strings-converter-th.zip	PDF file support for Thai	0.37 MB
mobile-strings-converter-all.zip	PDF file support for almost all languages (see exceptions)	8.43 MB

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Getting Started

Script Installation

1. Download the release that is best suited to your needs.
2. (Optional but recommended) Create a Python virtual environment in the project root. If you're using virtualenv, you would run virtualenv venv.
3. (Optional but recommended) Activate the virtual environment:

   # on Windows
   . venv/Scripts/activate
   # if you get the error `FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess`, run this:
   Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope Process
   # and then . venv/Scripts/activate
   
   # on macOS and Linux
   source venv/Scripts/activate

4. Open the command line and run pip install -r path/to/requirements.txt to install the required packages to run the script.

Package Installation

Install the PyPI package by running pip install mobile-strings-converter.

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Usage

Run the Program

For a basic usage, you can run the following command:

python path/to/mobile_strings_converter.py <*.xml | *.strings> -o <*.[SUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE]>

See Generate a Spreadsheet in Google Sheets to create a spreadsheet.

Use the Package in Your Project

Once you have followed the steps indicated in the Getting Started section, you just have to use the convert_strings function. Here is an example:

1. Import the package and the wrapper function you wish to use

   from mobile_strings_converter import [FUNCTION]

2. Use it in your package like this:

   # For example, using convert_strings function
   from mobile_strings_converter import convert_strings  
   
   convert_strings(
       input_filepath=Path("strings.xml"), 
       output_filepath=Path("strings-en.xlsx"), 
       should_print_comments=True
   )

Generate a Spreadsheet in Google Sheets

Set Up Google Account

Before going further into running the commands to do so, please note that you will have to generate a service_account.json file. You can do the following to get one:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console.
2. Create a new project or select an existing project.
3. Go to the APIs & Services page, click on Dashboard and then click on Enable APIs and Services.
4. Search for Google Sheets API and enable it.
5. Go to the Credentials page, click on Create credentials, and then choose Service account.
6. Give your service account a name and select a role. For this purpose, you can select Project -> Editor.
7. Click on the Create key button, select the JSON format and download the service_account.json file.
8. Share your Google Sheets file with the email address that is specified in the client_email field in the service_account.json file.

Alternatively, you can create a .xlsx file and open it in Google Sheets if you do not want to go through the hassle of generating the service_account.json file.

Once you have generated the service_account.json file, you can generate a spreadsheet in Google Sheets by running the following command:

python path/to/mobile_strings_converter.py <*.xml | *.strings> -g <SHEET_NAME> -c path/to/service_account.json 

If you want to generate an output file along with the spreadsheet, run this:

python path/to/mobile_strings_converter.py <*.xml | *.strings> -g <SHEET_NAME> -c path/to/service_account.json -o <*.SUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE>

Using the to_google_sheets Function in Your Project

from mobile_strings_converter import to_google_sheets

to_google_sheets(
    input_filepath=Path("path/to/strings-file"),
    sheet_name="MyProject strings",
    credentials_filepath=Path("path/to/service_account.json"),
    should_print_comments=True,
)

Script flags

Flag	Description
-h or --help	Displays help text for the program
-o or --output-filepath	Specifies the filepath for storing the converted file. The file extension can be chosen from the list of supported file types mentioned here.
-g or --google-sheets	Followed by the name of the sheet, creates a new Google Sheets spreadsheet with the specified name.
-c or --credentials	Followed by the path to your service_account.json file is mandatory if you want to generate a spreadsheet in your Google account.
-p or --print-comments	The output file will include any commented strings present in the original file.

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Notes

Indic Languages Supported by PDF files

• Hindi
• Marathu
• Oriya
• Tibetan
• Gujarati
• Telugu
• Tamil
• Punjabi

Indic Languages Not Supported by PDF files

• Bengali _{(not possible to print correctly using fpdf2)}
• Dhivehi _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Kannada _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Khmer _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Lao _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Malayalam _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Meiteilon (manipuri) _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Myanmar burmese _{(not possible to print correctly using fpdf2)}
• Odia (Oriya) _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Sinhala _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}
• Tigrinya _{(not recognized by lingua-language-detector)}

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Roadmap

• Add support for multiple .xml/.strings files input.
• Add support for converting a file (not .xml nor .strings) to a strings resource file.
• Make a web version.

You can propose a new feature creating an issue.

Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated. Please, read the CONTRIBUTING.md file, where you can find more detailed information about how to contribute to the project.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Authors

• HenestrosaDev henestrosadev@gmail.com (José Carlos López Henestrosa)

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

Acknowledgments

I have made use of the following resources to make this project:

• How to create a Python package

Support

Would you like to support the project? That's very kind of you! You can go to my Ko-Fi profile by clicking on the button down below.

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