Translations

This page describes how to translate BaseX into other (natural) languages.

Thanks to the following contributors, BaseX is currently available in 10 languages:

• Dutch: Huib Verweij
• English: BaseX Team
• French: Maud Ingarao
• German: BaseX Team
• Hungarian: Kiss-Kálmán Dániel
• Indonesian: Andria Arisal
• Italian: Massimo Franceschet
• Japanese: Toshio HIRAI and Kazuo KASHIMA
• Mongolian: Tuguldur Jamiyansharav
• Romanian: Adrian Berila
• Russian: Oleksandr Shpak and Max Shamaev
• Spanish: Carlos Marcos

It is easy to translate BaseX into your native language! This is how you can proceed:

Working with the sources

If you have downloaded all BaseX sources via Eclipse or Git, you may proceed as follows:

All language files are placed in the src/main/resources/lang directory of the main project:

1. Create a copy of an existing translation file (e.g., English.lang) and rename it to your target language (e.g. Hawaiian.lang).
2. Enter your name and contact information in the second line.
3. If you are using Eclipse, refresh the project (via Project → Refresh); if you are using Maven, type in mvn compile. Your new language file will be automatically detected.
4. Start the BaseX GUI, choose your language via Options → Preferences... and close the GUI.
5. Translate the texts in your language file and restart BaseX in order to see the changes.
6. Repeat the last step if you want to revise your translations.

If new strings are added to BaseX, they will automatically be added to your language files in English. The history view in GitHub is helpful to see which strings have recently been updated to a file.

Updating BaseX.jar

You can directly add new languages to the JAR file. JAR files are nothing else than ZIP archives, and all language files are placed in the lang directory into the JAR file:

1. Unzip an existing translation file (e.g., English.lang) and rename it to your target language (e.g. Hawaiian.lang)
2. Enter your name and contact information in the second line and translate the texts
3. Update your JAR file by copying the translated file into the zipped lang directory. Your new language file will be automatically detected.
4. Start BaseX.jar, choose your language via Options → Preferences... and restart BaseX to see the changes

You can also directly assign a language in the .basex configuration file, which is placed in your home directory. The language is assigned to the LANG option.