LangAgent Workshop Reference

LangAgent Workshop is the main program. It performs the following tasks:

• Creates/modifies LangAgent projects. Normally, it should be done only one time for one project.
• Creates tasks for translators - LA scans the source files and builds the task files for translation (phase 1 on the diagram).
• Builds an output message file - LA builds output message files (phase 2 on the diagram).
• Performs additional tasks such as report generation.

There are two operating modes in LangAgent Workshop: you can run it as a plain application and you can call it using the command line.

You can manually run LangAgent Workshop as soon as all the texts in your application are ready, create tasks for translators, send them for translation. As soon as the translation is done, copy the task files back to the project and build the output message file. However, you can forget to invoke Lang Agent after the changes are made to the texts. So, we recommend you to add a call to Lang Agent Workshop from the post-build step of your project (LangAgent Workshop supports the command line mode as well). In this case every time you translate the project, LangAgent Workshop will create task files and the output message files. As long as the translation is not completed and the task files contain untranslated strings, you will receive a warning at compilation. As soon as the translation job is done and the translated task files are copied into the project, LangAgent will stop the warning. Now you can build the final build and deploy it. This approach guarantees that the output message file will be up to date. Just make sure that at the final build there is no warning from LangAgent! On the other hand LangAgent will be called every time you build the project even if it is not necessary.

LangAgent Workshop stores project configuration in a file having the same name as the project. The configuration file type is .LAPRJ. When you create or modify Lang Agent configuration you should specify the following information:

Company name, Company email

Information about your company. This information is included into the task files and is available for the translators.

Project name

Name of the project.

Project language

Original project language (the language all messages are written in).

Project folder

Path to the folder that contains configuration information and task files. You may use the same folder as for your VC++ project or you may want to create a special folder for LangAgent

Folders with source files

List of folders with source files. LangAgent will scan all these folders for the text messages. If you develop a single project that resides in a single folder, this list will contain just a single item. However, if your product is more complex and contains either DLL subprojects and/or shared source files, you should list all source folders here.

Dictionary

Path to a folder that contains dictionaries. The dictionary is a file with the .xmd file extension that contains predefined translations. LangAgent updates dictionaries automatically. Dictionaries work like "cache", they can significantly reduce the required translation volume. LangAgent is shipped with some dictionaries, so that the standard MFC messages could be translated automatically.

Encryption password

You can specify a password to encrypt the message file. Project's password must match to the password specified in the call to the LaInit function. This option is not available in the TRIAL mode. You should always set the password; if the password is empty, runtime will run in the TRIAL mode. The default password is LangAgent

File types to scan

Select the file types for LangAgent to scan. By default it scans .cpp, .c, .h, but you can add custom file types.

Scan resource files

Normally, you should keep this checkbox checked.

List of languages 

Create the list of languages to support. For each language you should specify the following information:

Language

Select the language from the list.

Optional information about translator
We recommend you to fill this in so that LangAgent would be able to send task files to translators automatically.

As soon as the project is created and the information is filled in, you can:

Create task for translators

Scan source files and create or update task files for translators (phase 1 on the diagram).

Create message file

Build the output message file from the task files (phase 2 on the diagram)

Create report

Create a report that contains statistical information about the project.

Send tasks to translators

Send task files that require translation to translators (by email).

Options

Set LangAgent options such as default settings for projects.

The command line mode is designed for using LangAgent Workshop from Developer's Studio. Normally, you should add the post-built step to your LangAgent-enabled project.

Command-line options:

la.exe ConfigurationFile [/msgfile] [/taskfiles] [/all] [/console]

ConfigurationFile

Full path to the configuration file created by LangAgent Workshop.

/msgfile

/taskfiles

/all

combination of /msgfile and /taskfiles.

/console

Write out all messages to a console (useful while running LA from Microsoft Visual Studio IDE).