To support international text, PowerShell 2.0 includes the following features:
- A DATA section that separates text strings from code instructions.
- New $PsCulture and $PsUICulture automatic variables. $PsCulture stores the name of the UI language used on the system for elements such as date, time, and currency, while the $PsUICulture variable stores the name of the UI language used on the system for user interface elements.
- The ConvertFrom-StringData cmdlet that converts text strings into a dictionary-like hash table.
- The new .psd1 file type that is used to store text strings in language-specific subdirectories of the script directory.
- The Import-LocalizedData cmdlet that imports translated text strings for a specified language into a script at runtime.
Implementing Internationalization
Let's start with the following script that displays a hallway converstation
#File foo.ps1
Write-Host "Hi";
Write-Host "How are you?";
Write-Host "I'm great!";
Write-Host "Goodbye";
running this script results in the following output:
PS D:\dev\powershell\i18n> .\foo.ps1
Hi
How are you?
I'm great!
Goodbye
Setting up the internationalization of strings in your scripts involves the following steps:
1. Create subdirectories for each language you would like to support. In my example, I'll support English (en-US) and Traditional Chinese (zh-CHT).
PS D:\dev\powershell\i18n> New-Item -ItemType directory en-US > $null
PS D:\dev\powershell\i18n> New-Item -ItemType directory zh-CHT > $null
2. In each subdirectory, create a string table for the associated language in a file with the same name as the script and the extension of .psd1. The ConvertFrom-StringData cmdlet will convert a string containing one or more "name=value" pairs into a hash table.
#File en-US\foo.psd1
# culture="en-US"
ConvertFrom-StringData @'
S_HI = Hi
S_HOWAREYOU = How are you?
S_IMGREAT = I'm great!
S_GOODBYE = Goodbye
'@
#File zh-CHT\foo.psd1
# culture="en-US"
ConvertFrom-StringData @'
S_HI = Hi (In Chinese)
S_HOWAREYOU = How are you? (In Chinese)
S_IMGREAT = I'm great! (In Chinese)
S_GOODBYE = Goodbye (In Chinese)
'@
Since I'm working on a English based version of Windows, I'll leave it as an exercise to the user to add the actual translated strings into the zh-CHT\foo.psd1 language file.
3. Load the string table with the Import-LocalizedData cmdlet and reference the strings by their key names in the hash table.
# foo.ps1
param([string]$uiCulture = ($PsUiCulture));
Write-Host "$uiCulture";
Import-LocalizedData -bindingVariable stringTable -UICulture $uiCulture;
Write-Host $stringTable.S_HI;
Write-Host $stringTable.S_HOWAREYOU;
Write-Host $stringTable.S_IMGREAT;
Write-Host $stringTable.S_GOODBYE;
Write-Host "All Localization Table Entries";
$stringTable
By default the Import-LocalizedData cmdlet will query the $PsUiCulture automatic variable but I've added the ability to pass the culture code into the script via the uiCulture parameter. If one is not supplied, the value of the $PsUiCulture variable is used.
The Import-LocalizedData cmdlet will store the hash table in the $stringTable variable. You can act on that as you would any other hash table, except that the contents will be the language specific strings.
PS D:\Dev\PowerShell\i18n> .\foo.ps1
en-US
Hi
How Are You?
I'm great!
Goodbye
All Localization Table Entries
Name Value
---- -----
S_GOODBYE Goodbye
S_HI Hi
S_IMGREAT I'm great!
S_HOWAREYOU How Are You?
PS D:\Dev\PowerShell\i18n> .\foo.ps1 zh-CHT
zh-CHT
Hi (In Chinese)
How Are You? (In Chinese)
I'm great! (In Chinese)
Goodbye (In Chinese)
All Localization Table Entries
Name Value
---- -----
S_GOODBYE Goodbye (In Chinese)
S_HI Hi (In Chinese)
S_IMGREAT I'm great! (In Chinese)
S_HOWAREYOU How Are You? (In Chinese)