Globalyzer Release Notes

Globalyzer 4.7 Release

Note: As of the 4.6 Release, Globalyzer requires Java 1.7. Please make sure that JDK 1.7 is installed on your machine before attempting to install the Globalyzer Client.

The following lists new features in this latest release.

The Globalyzer API: The Globalyzer API allows you to create Globalyzer projects and scans, execute scans, and generate reports from a java program. This enables projects to be created “on the fly.” For example, during code check-in, the check-in process could trigger the execution of a java program that calls the API to scan the source code, enabling timely feedback on its internationalization status. See the Globalyzer API reference page for more information on how to use this new feature.
LDAP for Enterprise Servers: The Globalyzer Server can be configured to use your company’s LDAP system. All Globalyzer user access and information is then managed by LDAP. Note: This feature requires special licensing. Please contact sales@lingoport.com.
Improved Rule Sets: Updated Globalyzer default rule sets, with specific attention on JavaScript and Objective-C.

Read the Press Release Here

Globalyzer 4.6 Release

Note: The 4.6 Release requires Java 1.7. Please make sure that JDK 1.7 is installed on your machine before running the 4.6 Client.

The following lists new features in this latest release.

Introducing String Operand Filters/Patterns: This feature (available for all languages except HTML) allows you to filter/retain string literals that are compared with, or assigned to, variables. For languages such as XML, you can use this to filter out string attributes.
Filter Strings used as Array Indices for C#, PHP, and JavaScript: C#, PHP, and JavaScript support Associative Arrays, where strings can be used to index arrays. String literals used in this manner are not user-facing and should be filtered. This filtering is now performed automatically; there is no Rule Set configuration work required. Note that this has only been implemented for C#, PHP, and JavaScript.
Managers can Assign Ownership of Rule Sets: Prior to this feature, only Rule Set owners could assign their Rule Sets to another user within the company. Now, managers can assign Rule Sets of team members to other users within the company.
Email False Positive Scan Results to Lingoport: Feedback from Globalyzer users regarding false positive Scan Results has been invaluable. To help facilitate this feedback, the Workbench now allows the user to select entries in Scan Results and email them to Lingoport via a menu selection. This information will help us further refine our default Rule Sets.
Improved JavaScript Rule Set: New filters have been added to the JavaScript Rule Set and help for JavaScript Locale-Sensitive Methods has been enhanced.
Secure HTTP: Globalyzer now supports the additional security of HTTPS for all data that passes between the Client and the globalyzer.com Server.
New version command for the Command Line Client: The Globalyzer Command Line Client now supports --version and -v to provide version information for both the Client and the Server.
String Method Filters/Patterns now filter/retain Strings within Nested Methods: If string literals are passed to a nested method, they will be filtered if the outer method is a String Method Filter, and retained if the outer method is a String Method Pattern.
Reason Field in Scan Results more Descriptive for Embedded Strings: In addition to displaying the pattern of the rule (that either filtered or retained the Embedded String), the Reason field now includes “Literal”, “Line”, “Method”, or “Operand”, to indicate the type of the rule.
Reorganization of Reference Section Help: The Reference Section Help has been organized into Command Line, Server, and Workbench Reference sections.

Should you encounter problems or have questions, please email support@lingoport.com.

Globalyzer 4.5 Release

Rule Set Inheritance: Rule Sets now support inheritance! A Rule Set can be created to extend an existing Rule Set. The new Rule Set inherits all the rules of the parent Rule Set and can add new rules and/or override inherited rules. This allows companies to centrally manage core Rule Sets and project teams can then inherit the modifications.
Comparing Rule Sets: Available from the Command Line Interface, Rule Sets defined on the server can now be compared, generating an HTML report with the differences.
Support for Android: The Java Rule Set has been enhanced to support android applications. New String Method Filters, String Literal Filters, and String Line Filters have been added to weed out false positive Embedded Strings.
Time Stamps in Console Output and in Show Log: Time Stamps have been added to the Console output as well as the Show Log HTML page.
Updated RESX Resource File: The generated RESX Resource File has been updated from version 1.3 to 2.0.

We skipped 4.4 as those are unlucky numbers in some parts of the world 🙂

Globalyzer 4.3 Release Notes

Shared Globalyzer Projects: Globalyzer project and scan configuration (without scan results) can now be shared. Instead of explicitly importing and exporting projects, Globalyzer manages these tasks automatically, enabling team members to work on the same project seamlessly. See the Shared Projects reference page for more information on how to use this new feature.
Import/Merge: When importing a Globalyzer project that already exists in your workspace, you now have the option to either Overwrite or Merge. Overwrite deletes your existing project before importing the new one; merge combines the imported project with your existing one.
Globalyzer Data Directory Location: During Client Installation, you are now prompted for the location of the Data Directory, where Globalyzer stores application data and log files as well as the optional HSQLDB database. The default is [userhome]/.globalyzer, but this can be set to another location.
Additional Help on Headless Globalyzer Install: The Client Installation download page includes instructions on how to install the Globalyzer Client via a script as opposed to a GUI. You’ll want to use this when installing Globalyzer to build machines where Globalyzer scanning can be part of the nightly build.
Suggested Rule Sets for Unsupported Languages: The Create Rule Set reference page provides Rule Set suggestions for currently unsupported languages.
File Inspector Report Line Counts: Line counts have been added to File Inspector Reports.

The following lists new features in the Globalyzer 4.2 release:

Objective-C Rule Set: We’ve added this important rule set to help you internationalize your iOS and other Objective-C applications. In addition to scanning for i18n issues in Objective-C source code, Globalyzer supports string externalization to Objective-C’s preferred text resource file type: strings
Ability to Assign Rule Sets to Others: Though team members can share rule sets, only the rule set owner can made modifications. This feature facilitates passing rule set ownership to another. Just edit the rule set and select a new owner in the Owner dropdown.
Launch Client without First Creating a Rule Set on the Server: This feature supports the natural process of using Globalyzer: first create a Project, then run File Inspector, then create Rule Sets and Scans.
Create Rule Sets from the Client: To facilitate rule set creation, Globalyzer now supports the ability to create new rule sets directly from the Client. You may still want do some customization on the Server, but it’s now even easier to create that first set of rule sets as you’re running the Client, creating your Globalyzer Project and looking at the results of your File Inspection report to determine which rule sets you’ll need for scanning your source code.
Additional default Scan Views: In addition to All Active, there are now default Scan Views for Priority 1, Priority 2, Priority 1 and 2, Ignore, Invalid, ToDo,Filtered, All, and All but Active and Filtered.
Notification of Newer Globalyzer Versions on Client Startup: On Client startup, a popup displays if there is a newer version of the Client available or if there is a Client/Server version mismatch; the popup includes a link to the latest Client download.
Demo Results displayed based on Priority: When a demo user executes scans, up to 100 active results are reported. This feature focuses on reporting mostly higher priority issues. It reports 50 Priority 1 issues, 30 Priority 2 issues, 20 Priority 3 issues, 5 Priority 4 issues, and 5 Priority 5 issues.

The following lists new features in the Globalyzer 4.1.1 release.

This release includes various bug fixes and the following new features.

Additional options when pseudo-localizing your resource files:
- Pseudo-localize all your base resource files at one time by using the new Localize All button.
- Use the new Start and End fields to specify characters to be displayed before and after each string. This helps you quickly identify layout issues where the full string is not fitting. For example [String]
- You can also specify that each character of the string itself be replaced by an accented character for easier differentiation from English strings. For example Šţŕîñĝ
Support for Delphi RC resource file type: The Delphi language requires its own version of the RC resource file type. Upon string externalization, a .pas file is created and updated, along with the .h and .rc files.
.NET Tutorial: To accompany our Java tutorial, the .NET tutorial takes your through the basic steps involved in internationalizing a simple .NET Web application.

The following lists new features in the Globalyzer 4.1 release.

With this release, we have added features to streamline the scanning and filtering process, enhance resource file management, and improve overall scanning efficiency.

Refine your Rule Set from within the Client: The Globayzer Client now allows you to create both filter and detection rules, rescan your code to see their effects, and update the Rule Set on the server when you are satisfied with the results. This Scan Result driven approach to fine-tuning your Rule Set should help you significantly streamline your scanning and filtering process.
Prioritize your internationalization work: Globalyzer now prioritizes its locale-sensitive method, general pattern, and static file reference detections (in addition to embedded string detections implemented in version 3.5), helping you focus on the most likely issues first. These priority settings can be customized. You’ll see the priority breakdown both on screen and in the many reports that are provided for you to track and manage your progress.
Retain and prioritize strings passed to specified methods: Rule Sets now include a new detection, called String Method Patterns. This feature allows you to specifically identify methods that are passed strings that would be displayed to the end user. For example, in javascript we have added confirm, in C# Show, and in java JLabel. By identifying these types of methods and configuring them in your Rule Set, you can set the priority for these string detections and ensure that they are addressed during your internationalization process.
Disable Scan Feature: Scans can now be disabled. Disabled scans can be configured but are not scanned (automatically or manually) and the scan results are not available/displayed. This feature is useful for limiting the amount of rescanning that occurs when configuring scans. The user can focus on one scan, disabling the others.
All resource types now support group mode: In group mode, externalized strings are grouped by file in the resource file.
All resource types now support comments: Comments can be added to resource files and will be preserved during subsequent string externalizations.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 4.0:

Globalyzer 4.0 takes advantage of the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment. Globalyzer 4.0 can be installed as a stand-alone application or as an Eclipse 3.7 plugin. This new architecture means you’ll be able to check out source, scan and fix internationalization issues with Globalyzer, build and run with your modifications, and check in your changes, all within your development environment!

Here are only some of the new capabilities you’ll have with Globalyzer 4.0:

Interact with source code repositories from the Workbench: CVS is included with the Globalyzer Workbench; plug-in for other source control systems can be easily added.
Manage multiple Globalyzer Projects from within the Workbench: Just click on each Globalyzer Project in the Explorer Window to switch projects.
More powerful searching: Search results are now in their own window for easy management.
New Resource File Editor: Create and edit your locale-specific resource files and check for duplicate, missing and unused resource keys.
Improved Globalyzer Help: To ensure that you have full use of Globalyzer, we’ve added several kinds of help – Context sensitive, Cheat Sheets, as well as an extensive online Help System – all within the Workbench.
More powerful Project Explorer window: With Eclipse’s underlying support, Globalyzer’s features can be applied at subdirectory and file levels, giving you much more flexibility in how you do your internationalization work.
Enhanced editing: Enjoy the full editing capabilities of an IDE from within Globalyzer.
Plug-in extensibility: Add additional functionality to your internationalization and application development environment using Eclipse’s plug-in support.

Be sure to check the help and run a tutorial to get a better idea of Globalyzer 4.0’s enhanced usability.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.7:

This is a minor release, with one particularly useful feature and a few bug fixes:

File Extension Filters: The new feature we’ve added for this small release allows you to filter files and directories from a scan by setting up File Extension Filters. The filters can be written using Ant patterns (useful when filtering directories) or regular expressions (useful when filtering files with common characters in their path).

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.6:

With this release, we have added some new programming languages, as well as support to help your team share the string externalization work.

Qt Rule Set: Qt is a C++-based cross-platform application framework that has good internationalization support.
ActionScript Rule Set: Globalyzer can now scan and externalize strings from ActionScript code, used in Flex and Flash applications.
XML Rule Set: Scan attribute and tag data using Globalyzer’s new XML Rule Set.
MXML Rule Set: Used in Flex applications, MXML is a variant of the XML Rule Set. Scan the CDATA sections using an ActionScript Rule Set.
Shared String Externalization: Share the work of externalizing strings. Set up in Preferences, Globalyzer prefaces each string ID with your Unique User ID, ensuring string key uniqueness across your team.
Internationalization Scorecard: While this feature currently must involve Lingoport’s service team for configuration, we have created a new scorecard system that provides a dashboard of internationalization status and progress using XML data collected via scan history using Globalyzer’s Command Line. Please email scorecard@lingoport.com for more details.
Globalyzer Scorecard webinar recording: We recently discussed the new i18n scorecard in a webinar presentation which also featured guest-speakers Mike McKenna, Sr. Manager, International Engineering, from Zynga, and Leandro Reis, Senior Globalization Program Manager, from Adobe Systems. Click the following link to view the webinar recording of: Is it Internationalized? A New Way to Keep Score.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.5:

With this new release, our focus has been on making your internationalization work as productive as possible.

Streamline your project creation: We’ve added Copy Scan to the Project Properties dialog box, allowing you to set up a first Scan with all its customized settings and then make copies which retain all your prior customization.
Prioritize your internationalization work: Globalyzer now prioritizes its embedded string detections, helping you focus on the most likely issues first. You’ll see the priority breakdown both on screen and in the many reports that are provided for you to track and manage your progress. Issues of other scan types can also be manually prioritized.
Quickly ignore false positives: With our new features, Ignore this Line and Ignore this Issue, you can now select one or more issues in the Scan Results table, and then choose to append NLS (National Language System) comments at the end of the corresponding source code lines, indicating that Globalyzer is to ignore these issues during its next scan. In combination with Globalyzer’s rule set filters, this is an efficient way to ensure that your scan results only contain valid internationalization issues for your team to address.
Divide and conquer your work: The Scan Results can now reflect parts of the entire project by clicking on a subdirectory or file in the Source Tree pane and choosing View Directory/File Scan Results. This is an easy way to partition the internationalization work among a development team.
Locale-Sensitive method grouping: In version 3.4, we added groups to the Globalyzer Server; now we show those groupings in our Quick Summary pane as well as various Globalyzer reports. This allows you to manage and track your internationalization efforts one locale-sensitivie area at a time.
Use Globalyzer’s new XML report: This latest reporting format rounds out Globalyzer’s extensive reporting capabilities.
Monitor and manage your globalization work as part of your build process: Globalyzer Command Line and Ant Clients now support an XSL reporting option, which gives you the ability to transform your Globalyzer data into customized layouts and file formats as part of your nightly build. Check out our new XSL Reporting help to learn more about this feature and about the default XSL files included with your Client installation.

With this new release, our Globalyzer Server has been overhauled for increased customization of Rule Sets, along with management features, such as support for teams within your company.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.4:

Should you encounter problems or have questions, please email support@lingoport.com.

With this new release, our Globalyzer Server has been overhauled for increased customization of Rule Sets, along with management features, such as support for teams within your company.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.4:

As a Team Member you can:
- Share Rule Sets with other team members
- Create and manage Groups of Locale-Sensitive Methods
- Add new Locale-Sensitive Methods to your Rule Sets, along with help links
- Save Rule Set data to the Globalyzer Server respository to either download to your local system or allow others to add to their set of Rule Sets
- All Rule Set data, including File Extensions, Filters and Detection Patterns can now have help associated with them
As a Manager you can also:
- Create Project Teams and assign Team Members
- View a team member’s Globalyzer Client scanning history and usage data which is now sent and available for viewing on the Globalyzer Server
In addition, as a Globalyzer Enterprise Administrator you can:
- Alter the default Rule Set data that newly created Rule Sets will have
- Modify and manage the Globlayzer Client’s File Inspector default groups

And here are some other important Globalyzer features that were available previous to this release:

File Inspector – Run this Globalyzer Client tool to get an inventory of your application files and their underlying programming languages. The File Inspector also helps you determine which Globalyzer Rule Sets you’ll need to create.
Batch scanning across multiple programming languages – Internationalization issues are quite different among programming languages, requiring Globalyzer to use different Rule Sets to detect the various internationalization issues. Use our batch scanning process across your multi-language code base. For example, for JSP’s you can combine HTML scanning with Java scanning in one effort.
Fast performance – How fast source is scanned depends a lot on the code you are scanning, but Globalyzer is running on well over a million lines of code in about the time it takes you to go get a cup of coffee. Subsequent scans are also much faster because of Globalyzer’s intelligence in not repeating work it has done already (e.g. skipping files that have not changed since the last scan).
Dictionary-based Filtering – Compares embedded strings found to dictionary entries, which helps further filter programmatic strings that should not be translated. This is particularly effective in isolating embedded strings for localization, while reducing the number of custom Rule Set filters to avoid false positive reporting. This feature can be enabled/disabled in the Edit=>Preferences dialog box.
Scan Results Reason – Scanning results list the filter or detection pattern used in categorizing an issue. For example, if the issue is filtered, the Reason column will display the Rule Set filter that was applied. In the case of a General Patterns scan, if the issue is not filtered, the Reason column will display the Rule Set’s General Pattern that was used to detect the issue.
Keeping track of issues you want to ignore – Besides Globalyzer’s great filtering capabilities for isolating complex internationalization issues, Globalyzer tracks your code line by line, so that you can elect to ignore, or even emphasize issues, and track and revisit them without Globalyzer needing to insert its own comments in your code. That keeps your code clean, just the way you like it.
Tight integration between Globalyzer Client and Server – You can quickly navigate to your Globalyzer Server account to access your Rule Sets, customizing them for more refined Globalyzer scan results.
Command Line, Ant and Maven Support – Command line and Ant integration offer tremendous power in supporting entire teams of developers in monitoring and measuring internationalization. With this integration, Globalyzer can be used in assessing world-wide readiness. Read Globalyzer’s Maven Integration help to assist you in setting up Maven to run Globalyzer Ant tasks.
Database enabling of Globalyzer Client – Globalyzer Client uses a database for project and scan data. It can use its own embedded (file system-based) database, or you have the option to create a database on an existing MySQL database server. This facilitates comparing Globalyzer results over time, tracking individual internationalization issues across scans and sharing results and fixes with your fellow developers.
Easy sharing of scan results for fixing i18n issues – Scan results can be quickly and easily exported and imported so that teams of developers can work together to fix internationalization issues efficiently.
String externalization – String externalization supports both grouped and appended resource files for incremental translation support.
Globalyzer Client PseudoJudo – Simulate another language for your resource files by adding non-English characters to grow each of your strings by a set percentage.
Globalyzer reports – With our extensive reporting functionality you can produce summary and detailed reports in various file formats (txt, csv, Excel) for sharing Globalyzer output with your colleagues.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.3:

New Aggregate Summary Report – The Quick Summary information from each of your scans can now be output to an Excel file, for an easy way to report on your overall scanning results.
New XML Detailed Report – In addition to Excel and CSV format for your scan results, Globalyzer now supports XML format.
Better PseudoJudo – Simulate another language for your resource files by adding non-English characters to grow each of your strings by a set percentage.
Maven Integration Help – Read Globalyzer’s Maven Integration help to assist you in setting up Maven to run Globalyzer Ant tasks.
Command Line and Ant Enhancements – Added support for Batch Scanning from the Command Line or Ant Clients.
Change your Globalyzer Client’s Data and Log File Directories – Read Globalyzer’s Command Line Client Help for detailed information on how to change the location of Globalyzer’s Data and Log files from its default [userhome] directory.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.2:

Dictionary-based Filtering – Compares embedded strings found to dictionary entries, which helps further filter programmatic strings that should not be translated. This is particularly effective in isolating embedded strings for localization, while reducing the number of custom rule set filters to avoid false positive reporting. This feature can be enabled/disabled in the Edit=>Preferences dialog box.
Scan Results Reason – Scanning results now list the filter or detection pattern used in categorizing an issue. For example, if the issue is filtered, the Reason column will display the Rule Set filter that was applied. In the case of a General Patterns scan, if the issue is not filtered, the Reason column will display the Rule Set’s General Pattern that was used to detect the issue.
General Patterns Line Filter – The General Patterns scan now supports a line filter which filters detections based on patterns found in the source code line.
.properties files – .properties files as a Resource File type are no longer restricted to only Java Rule Sets. Globalyzer now supports this key-value format for all programming languages, allowing more customization and flexibility during string externalization.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.1:

JVM max memory increased – The max memory for the JVM that Globalyzer runs in has been increased to 1024 MB. If you need to modify this (due to memory limitations or other reason) you will need to change the max memory startup argument (in the shortcut or startup script) from “-Xmx1024m” to another value (e.g. “-Xmx512m”).
File Inspector – You can run this utility to get an inventory of the programming languages you have within your source code, and help with which Globalyzer rule sets you’ll need to create.
Improved default rule sets on the Globalyzer Server – This gives you better results faster, increasing the number of default filters within many rule sets.
JavaScript enhancements – Added Unsafe Method support to JavaScript rule set, and string externalization to .JS resource files.
Client-Server rule set integration – Tighter integration of rule set creation on the Globalyzer server, with auto-updating on the Globalyzer Client.
String externalization enhancement – Enhancement of string externalization when appending existing resource files for incremental translation support.

The following lists some of the features that are new for Globalyzer 3.0:

Database enabling of Globalyzer Client – Globalyzer Client now uses a database for project and scan data. It can use its own embedded (file system-based) database, or you have the option to create a database on an existing database server (MySQL or PostgreSQL). This facilitates comparing Globalyzer results over time, tracking individual internationalization issues across scans and sharing results and fixes with your fellow developers.
Command-line and Ant integration – Command line and Ant integration offer tremendous power in supporting entire teams of developers in monitoring and measuring internationalization. With this integration, Globalyzer can now become the benchmark for localization readiness.
New reporting functionality – With the new reporting functionality you can produce summary and detailed reports in various file formats (txt, csv, Excel) for sharing Globalyzer output with your colleagues.
Easy sharing of scan results for fixing i18n issues – Scan results can be quickly and easily loaded into Globalyzer’s Client desktop interface so that teams of developers can work together to fix internationalization issues efficiently.
Single-pass scanning of large code volumes – Previous versions of Globalyzer were limited in the amount of source code that could be scanned in a single pass, so when you wanted to scan large applications you needed to break up the source. Now with Globalyzer, you can scan literally millions of lines of code at a time.
Batch scanning across multiple programming languages – Internationalization issues are quite different among programming languages, requiring Globalyzer to use different rule sets to detect the various internationalization issues. We’ve now allowed you to batch scanning processes across your multi-language code base. For example, for JSP’s you can combine HTML scanning with Java scanning in one effort.
Keeping track of issues you want to ignore – Besides Globalyzer’s great filtering capabilities for isolating complex internationalization issues, Globalyzer now tracks your code line by line, so that you can elect to ignore, or even emphasize issues, and track and revisit them without Globalyzer needing to insert its own comments in your code. That keeps your code clean, just the way you like it.
Faster performance – How fast source is scanned depends a lot on the code you are scanning, but Globalyzer is running on well over a million lines of code in about the time it takes you to go get a cup of coffee. Subsequent scans are also much faster because of Globalyzer’s intelligence in not repeating work it has done already (e.g. skipping files that have not changed since the last scan).
New look on the interface – We redesigned the Globalyzer Client’s UI, giving it an updated look and feel. We did this to enhance usability and provide flexibility for upcoming feature enhancements.
Improved programming language support – Globalyzer already supports a wide variety of programming languages, and we’ve enhanced the support.
Tighter integration between Globalyzer Client and Server – You can now quickly navigate to your Globalyzer Server account to access your rule sets, customizing them for more refined Globalyzer scan results.