How to translate Swift Radio into any language

When you fork Swift Radio, the app should carry your station's name and speak your listeners' language. In v3, I moved the interface text into an Xcode String Catalog so you can change it without editing the views.

Most of the work happens in two places:

• Localizable.xcstrings: interface text, including screen titles, menu labels, About text, and error messages.
• Config.swift: shared settings such as your contact email, website, and feedback URL.

Station names and descriptions come from stations.json. Changing the app's language doesn't translate that station data.

Changing the default English text

Open SwiftRadio/Localizable.xcstrings in Xcode and select English. Each entry has a key, such as stations.title, and a value, such as Swift Radio. Edit the value to change what appears in the app.

Use the filter bar to find a group of strings: stations, about, or features, for example.

Common strings to customize:

Key	Default Value	Description
stations.title	Swift Radio	Main title at the top of the station list
about.title	About Swift Radio	About screen title
about.headerText	Swift Radio is a fully featured...	About screen description paragraph
about.shareText	Check out Swift Radio!	Text used when sharing the app
about.footerCopyright	Swift Radio	Copyright name in the About footer
about.footerAuthors	Fethi El Hassasna & Matt Fecher	Author names in the About footer
stationDetail.defaultDescription	You are listening to Swift Radio...	Fallback text on the station detail screen

For a station called City Radio, start by changing the value of stations.title to City Radio and about.title to About City Radio. Build and run to check both screens.

Keep the keys as they are. Content.swift looks them up by name, so changing stations.title itself would break that lookup.

Adding a new language

1. Select the SwiftRadio project in the navigator (the blue project icon, not the folder).
2. Go to the Info tab and find the Localizations section.
3. Click + and choose a language, such as French or Arabic.

Return to Localizable.xcstrings, select the new language, and enter the translations. The screenshots show English and Arabic side by side; the editor's layout can differ between Xcode versions.

You can also add a language from the String Catalog's sidebar in newer Xcode versions. Apple's String Catalog guide covers that workflow.

You can translate a few entries at a time and build to check them. Fill in the remaining entries before publishing that localization.

Testing the translation

Go to Product > Scheme > Edit Scheme > Run > Options and set App Language to the language you want to preview. Build and run. You can test the translation without changing the language of your device.

Check the station list, player menus, and About screen. Longer translations can expose cramped labels. For Arabic, check the right-to-left layout as well as the words.

Customizing links and contact info

Open SwiftRadio/Config/Config.swift and find the contact settings. Replace the project's values with your own, for example:

static let website = "https://yourwebsite.com"
static let email = "hello@yourwebsite.com"
static let emailSubject = "From \(Bundle.main.appName) App"
static let feedbackURL = "https://yourwebsite.com/contact"
static let licenseURL = "https://yourwebsite.com/licenses"

These values are shared across languages. After changing them, try the links and email action in the app too.

If you find interface text that you can't translate through the catalog, open an issue with the screen and text. I'd like to keep that work in one place.