4 replies to this topic

[FunDoo]

Hello Gurus,

I want to build a multilingual install but I do not want to use the bootstrap setup.exe or autorun.exe.

I could get it to work using the bootstrap exe which would check the locale & launch the MSI with appropriate language transform.

however I want to do it using a single MSI file only.
I have 2 or 3 localizable tables. I tried stuff like storing additional tables with te localized strings info.
then from a custom action during initialize try to copy the contents of one table to another based on locale. that does not seem to be working.

any ideas? is this doable. please help!
Thank you,
-Fundoo

[Stefan Krueger]

You could apply the appropriate languare transform using a command line parameter. Would that be a possible solution for you?

[FunDoo]

Actually I am trying to build a multilingual install using a single MSI file i.e.
without using any transforms & bootstrap exe.

I added dummy tables for each language e.g.
JaActionText,JaControl,etc. which contain the localized versions of these tables in corresponding languages
& in a custom action I am copying records/strings from these tables to the tables like ActionText, Control
etc.

it seems to be working except for a problem related to codepage.

when the codepage of the database is set to european languages those
get displayed ok however japanese install shows junk characters.
so I set the code page to Japanese.
now japanese install gets displayed ok; European languages show up
however since the code page is japanese sometimes the text goes
outside the install window; also special characters, symbols in languages like german, french do not
get displayed.

I would like to set the codepage of the MSI database within the
custom Action if that’s possible.
Even if it can be set temporarily that should serve the purpose (like one can add temporary rows to a table etc at runtime).

I cannot use database import/export with _ForceCodebase table as from within a custom
action since the MSI calls fail.

I tried setting the codepage to UTF-8/65001.
however japanese install still showed junk chars.
any idea why? anyone has used 65001 codepage before.

[Stefan Krueger]

I don't think you can change the codepage at runtime.

[FunDoo]

ok looks like 65001 codepage works for japanese & european languages as well.
for this to work japanese strings need to be encoded in UTF8 format/IDT files saved that way.
however you might need to use very specific fonts for japanese text getting displayed. I used default fonts for european languages however had to use "MS UI Gothic" font japanese chars to get displayed.
Thanks