NewStory: Multi-language support

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The user-interface of the new DaisyReader apps needs to support as many 
languages as practical. We aim to support at least as many languages as the 
earlier app does. 

Because the app includes self-voicing i.e. it speaks to users, there may be 
restrictions on which languages we can support in the UI. For some languages 
the user may need to obtain the relevant voice data. Some providers charge for 
their material.  

Notes: 
   * We will ask for translations for most languages from supporters of this project. Most of the translations for the old app were provided by volunteers. 
   * One of the major commercial sources of TTS languages is Ivona https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=IVONA+Text-to-Speech&hl=en_GB 

Original issue reported on code.google.com by julianharty on 19 Jun 2013 at 6:37

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Implementation suggestions:
The following Wiki pages on this site provide some suggestions on how we can 
research good ways to add support for additional languages, particularly for 
the self-voicing aspects.

https://code.google.com/p/android-daisy-epub-reader/wiki/SkeletalApps

https://code.google.com/p/android-daisy-epub-reader/wiki/AndroidTTS

Original comment by julianharty on 19 Jun 2013 at 6:38

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[deleted comment]

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Hi Julian, 

For coming Sprints, we can start this story. Could you please help to review 
our current String values (in English) as well as help to translate to other 
languages?

The current String value file is in Github now: 
https://github.com/julianharty/new-android-daisy-reader/blob/master/DaisyBookLis
ter/res/values/strings.xml

Original comment by tranquangminhtan@gmail.com on 25 Jun 2013 at 10:29

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I will edit those strings and provide an update when I have done so. Thanks for 
the good suggestion.

Original comment by julianharty on 25 Jun 2013 at 8:20

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I've updated the strings and added strings for the UK English Locale. These 
have been pushed to github. 

See http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/localization.html for 
general info on localisation.

Original comment by julianharty on 15 Jul 2013 at 4:13

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks, I got it.

Original comment by tranquangminhtan@gmail.com on 18 Jul 2013 at 1:57

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In the mean time, we can start with the Vietnamese version and Korean (as I 
have a friend who can help on this). This is also a change for us to review our 
source code to make sure there is no issue when applying other languages.

Original comment by tranquangminhtan@gmail.com on 19 Jul 2013 at 6:04

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A commercial 'voice' is available for Korean from SVOX 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.svox.classic.langpack.kor_kor_
fem&hl=en 

As discussed separately, we're not aware of a 'voice' for Vietnamese so we need 
to consider embedding the audio for the Vietnamese UI within the App.

Original comment by julianharty on 24 Jul 2013 at 5:15

[GoogleCodeExporter]

There are a couple of examples online of how to use resource files containing 
pre-recorded speech. Here's an archived app from the eyes-free project called 
androidsays. The es code seems to be in SfxController.java

src/com/google/marvin/androidsays/SfxController.java 
src/com/google/marvin/androidsays/GameView.java 
src/com/google/marvin/androidsays/WidgetGameService.java 

A second archived app for an earlier incarnation of the tts engine also holds 
some clues:

https://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/source/browse/trunk/archived/tts/src/com/goo
gle/tts/GetSampleText.java and 
https://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/source/browse/trunk/archived/tts/src/com/goo
gle/tts/TextToSpeechBeta.java - which shows how to add audio resources for the 
TTS engine to use. 
https://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/source/browse/trunk/archived/tts/src/com/goo
gle/tts/src/com/google/tts/OldPrefsActivity.java - adds Hello in many languages 
including Vietnamese. 

These aren't ideal examples as they're both archived, however they may be 
enough to prime our investigations on how to support languages such as 
Vietnamese which aren't available as TTS engines.

Original comment by julianharty on 31 Jul 2013 at 9:25

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An interesting article on issues with changing the Locale that caused the font 
size to decrease 
http://adrianvintu.com/blogengine/post/Force-Locale-on-Android.aspx and how to 
address the problem by setting AnyDensity to true.

We'll need to consider how best to localize resources in third-party library 
projects such as ActionBarSherlock.

Original comment by julianharty on 14 Oct 2013 at 7:26