Video (must be played in Safari): https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2016/201/

Formatters for Dates/Times

• Don’t use a set date format
• Chinese and English are opposite for example
• Can’t have a fixed format
• Use the predefined .shortStyle/.mediumStyle/etc.
• Works for both dates and times
• Automatically formats it for each language
• Can use a template for custom things
• But use .setLocalizedDateFormatFromTemplate(“mYd”)
• Will try and make it correct when it’s a different language
• https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSDateFormatter_Class/

Formatters for Names:

• Show names the correct way with PersonNameComponents()
• Ask for the .long/.medium/.short/.abbreviated format
• Will support different langauges
• Name parsing → full name to a set of components
• Uses a statistical model
• Not parsing based on a formula
• Supports multiple languages

Other:

• In labels, don’t clip lines — must have the entire character showing
• Multi-line labels, consider changing the line spacing
• UIFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: UIFontTextStyleBody)
• Automatically adjusts line height for different languages
• Icons are really important
• Avoid using words/numbers in icons
• “Photos” is a good example of an icon that doesn't tie it to a specific language
• Not left to right or right to left
• Good for all languages
• Create dedicated artwork for right to left languages
• But if you just want to flip the image, you can use the existing API
• App Store Names
• Users are most likely to download apps in their language
• Don’t always assume users will type in English
• They might run OS in English, use keyboard from another language
• Must test this before deploying
• Localized Screenshots
• Localized content/keyboard
• Want to see the experience they will have in their language
• Custom features — examples:
• Support for lunar calendar
• Templates for non-English/non-Western cultures

Types of Formatters:

1. ByteCountFormatter
2. DateFormatter
3. DateComponentsFormatter
4. DateIntervalFormatter
5. NumberFormatter
6. PersonNameComponentsFormatter
7. MeasurementFormatter

Posted in iOS Development with Swift, Xcode, Reflection