IzPack standalone compiler: Custom langpacks

See my first post for a general introduction.

In this post, I discuss how to include custom langpacks in the installer when using the standalone-compiler.jar.

NOTE: The IzPack documentation talks about custom langpacks and how to reference them in your installation file. However, these langpacks are limited, and do not provide the ability to customize all the text strings used by an IzPack-based installer and uninstaller.

If you use the normal IzPack installation to create your installer, to customize the text strings for a given language, you edit/replace the appropriate XML file under bin/langpacks/installer of the IzPack installation. When creating an installer with IzPack, IzPack copies the files in that location into the the installer jar created, and if an uninstaller is created, they will be included in it also. Which files are copied is based upon the langpack setting(s) in your installation file.

For standalone-compiler.jar usage, all that is required is create the sub-tree bin/langpacks/installer in some directory, and place your customized language files in it.

If you are using the izpack ant task, just include the directory that contains the sub-tree in the classpath when defining the task, and you are good to go. For example:

<taskdef name="izpack"
classname="com.izforge.izpack.ant.IzPackTask">
<classpath>
<pathelement location="${project.build.rc-install}"/>
<pathelement location="${contrib.izpack.dir}/standalone-compiler.jar"/>
</classpath>
</taskdef>

In the above, ${project.build.rc-install} represents the pathname to the directory containing the bin/langpacks/installer sub-tree.