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Table of Contents

Firefox

Firefox is the web browser that was born our of the Mozilla project. It is now their default target and is renowned for its security.

You should read this in conjunction with the Mozilla pages as there are some things shared between Firefox and Thunderbird localisation

FIXME this is a work in progress as we combine various bits of information. A lot of this duplicates the Mozilla wiki so we should point their instead.

Resources

Translating

Firefox like Mozilla is traditionally localised with Mozilla Translators. But for those who invest in in PO files and would rather spend time translating then learning another tool ... here are the instructions for creating a Firefox localisation.

FIXME Generate PO files. There are links elsewhere for doing exactly that

FIXME {omgs: how to get po files from CVS from Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5 is in the new mozillacvs page}

Packaging

Note moz2po has advanced quite a bit and should cover most of your packaging requirements.

Releasing

There are some requirements which stem from the trademark policy (yes them again).

Firefox and Mozilla can be released as either an official build or a community release.

Requirements for official build

Locale Switcher

This multi locale switcher is best for use in cases where you will have more than one language to install. Even with two it is much cleaner then other locale switchers available.

Settings

These are configurations not customisations. These are things that you must change.

  1. file: toolkit/defines.inc.po
    • entry: MOZ_LANG_TITLE
    • use: Used in the language .xpi in file install.rdf. Its added to ‘%s Langauge Pack’
    • action: Set to the English name for your language
  2. file: browser/defines.inc.po
    • entry: MOZ_LANGPACK_CREATOR
    • use: Used in install.rdf’s creator tag
    • action: Set to the name of the language pack translator eg a group, company or person
  3. file: browser.inc
    • entry: MOZ_LANGPACK_CONTRIBUTORS
    • use: Credit those who helped create the language pack
    • action: you need to edit this file directly ie not the PO file. Uncomment the MOZ_LANGPACK_CONTRIBUTORS line and make changes as needed.
  4. file: toolkit/chrome/global/intl.properties.po
    • entry: general.useragent.locale
    • use: FIXME assume this is the locale the browser publishes
    • action: change to your locale xx-YY (language-COUNTRY) leave out country if you don’t need that for your language
  5. file: toolkit/chrome/global/intl.properties.po
    • entry: intl.accept_languages
    • use: tells a website what languages you prefer your content in
    • action: set the various language settings you require
  6. file: browser/chrome/browser-region/region.properties.po
    • entry: general.useragent.contentlocale
    • use: unsure
    • action: change it to your country code

Dialogue Sizes

Various dialogues are sized within the XUL work. Often they have entries in the DTD which allow you to change the size of the dialgue. It is a very timesconsuming process, but hopefully the bookmarklet and instructions created by Axel Hecht will help you quickly get the correct size to enter into your final files.

For reference (as the site seems down now)

javascript:(function(){var p=2;var cs=window.getComputedStyle(document.documentElement,null);var fs=cs.getPropertyCSSValue(’font-size’).getFloatValue(5);var w=cs.getPropertyCSSValue(’width’).getFloatValue(5);var h=cs.getPropertyCSSValue(’height’).getFloatValue(5);prompt(’Dialog size:’, ‘width: ‘+Math.ceil(w/fs*p)/p+’; height: ‘+Math.ceil(h/fs*p)/p+’;’);})();