How LangString not translated can use a default language? - nsis

Question

My installation must be available for many languages but I cannot translate absolutely all messages. How can I use the a default language when a message has not been translated?
For example:
!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "English"
!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "Spanish"
!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "TradChinese"
!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "SimpChinese"
LangString EMBEDED ${LANG_ENGLISH} "Installation single user"
LangString EMBEDED ${LANG_SPANISH} "Instalación usuario único"
I would like that if installation is in TradChinese, EMBEDED string would use the english translation because there is not EMBEDED for chinese.

Answer 1

I asked the same question on NSIS forum without success. Finally I created an small Perl script that parses my NSIS code and detect included languages and all Langstrings, detect missing translations, and create Langstrings initialized to the default language:
#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# filltranslationgaps.pl
# Get list of included languages
my $tmp = uc(`grep "^!insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE" installer.nsi |grep -v ";" |cut -f2 -d\\"`);
my #lang = split(/\n/, $tmp);
my $DEFAULTLANGUAGE = $lang[0];
# Get langstrings
open( $fh, "<installer.nsi");
while (<$fh>) {
if (/LangString *(.*?) *\${LANG_(.*?)} *\"(.*)\"/) {
$phrases{$1}{$2}=$3;
}
}
close $fh;
# Foreach Langstring, check if it's defined in all included languages.
foreach my $k (keys %phrases) {
foreach my $j (#lang) {
if (not defined $phrases{$k}{$j}) {
#print "MISSING PAIR: $k\t$j\n";
print "LangString $k \${LANG_$j} \"$phrases{$DEFAULTLANGUAGE}{$j}\"\n";
}
}
}
My compile script:
#/bin/sh
perl filltranslationgaps.pl >missingphrases.nsi
makensis installer.nsi
In installer.nsi I need to include the generated nsi:
!include missingphrases.nsi
Hope it helps.

Answer 2

LangFile.nsh contains helper code to create language files with fallback support (Used by MUI etc) but each language has to be in a separate .nsh file.
If you want to keep all the translations in the .nsi you have to make your own custom macros:
!macro MyLangInit lnam nlf
!ifndef MYLANG
!define MYLANG ${lnam}
!ifndef MYLANG_${lnam}
!define MYLANG_${lnam}
LoadLanguageFile "${NSISDIR}\Contrib\Language files\${nlf}.nlf"
!ifndef LANG_${lnam}
!define LANG_${lnam} ${LANG_${nlf}}
!endif
!endif
!endif
!macroend
!define MyLangInit "!insertmacro MyLangInit "
!macro MyLangSet mode nam str
!ifndef MYLANG_${MYLANG}_${nam}
!define MYLANG_${MYLANG}_${nam} "${str}"
!else
!if ${mode} != 0
!ifdef MYLANG_${MYLANG}_${nam}
LangString ${nam} "" "${MYLANG_${MYLANG}_${nam}}"
!undef MYLANG_${MYLANG}_${nam}
!endif
!endif
!endif
!macroend
!macro MyLangLoad lnam
!define MyLangSet "!insertmacro MyLangSet 0 "
!insertmacro ${lnam}
!insertmacro ${MYLANG_FALLBACK}
!undef MyLangSet
!define MyLangSet "!insertmacro MyLangSet 1 "
!insertmacro ${lnam}
!insertmacro ${MYLANG_FALLBACK}
!undef MyLangSet
!undef MYLANG
!macroend
!macro English
${MyLangInit} English English
${MyLangSet} foo "bar"
${MyLangSet} bar "baz"
!macroend
!macro Bork
${MyLangInit} Bork Swedish ; Based on Swedish
${MyLangSet} foo "bork"
; Missing: ${MyLangSet} bar "barkz"
!macroend
!macro Danish
${MyLangInit} Danish Danish
; All strings are missing!
!macroend
!define MYLANG_FALLBACK English ; Language to use for missing strings
!insertmacro MyLangLoad Bork
!insertmacro MyLangLoad Danish
!insertmacro MyLangLoad English
Function .onInit
StrCpy $LANGUAGE ${LANG_BORK} ; TODO: Use LangDLL or some algorithm to select the language here
FunctionEnd
Section
SetDetailsView show
DetailPrint LangId=$LANGUAGE
DetailPrint "$(foo)"
DetailPrint "$(bar)"
SectionEnd