Running File2xliff4j with a Graphical User Interface on Fedora Linux

Weldon Whipple <weldon@lingotek.com>
Revised 15 June 2007


Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Setup and Configuration
  3. Install OpenOffice.org with YUM
  4. Checkout and Build file2xliff4j
  5. Convert HTML or Java Properties Resource Bundle to XLIFF
  6. Converting Word, Excel, PowerPoint and RTF to XLIFF
  7. Afterword

  8. 1. Introduction

    When I inherited ownership of file2xliff4j in early 2006, the only way to invoke it (outside of a custom-built application that used the file2xliff4j classes) was with the Java convert command. I have never been very happy with that interface, so in the spring of 2007 I tried my hand at a Swing graphical user interface for the tool. It worked inside my JavaBeans IDE, but wouldn't work outside. I recently got it to work outside the IDE, so I decided to write a short tutorial on how I make it work.

    2. Setup and Configuration

    Here is my current setup:

    3. Install OpenOffice.org with YUM

    Issue the following yum (YellowDog Update Manager) commands to install OOo:

    If your conversions will be limited to HTML, MIF, Java Property Resource Bundles and XML DTDs, you probably don't need to install OpenOffice.org.

    4. Checkout and Build file2xliff4j

    In an empty working directory of your choice (I use ~/work), issue these commands:

    
    $ svn checkout https://file2xliff4j.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/file2xliff4j/trunk
    $ cd trunk
    $ ant
    

    Notice the jar file created in the build/guijar subdirectory: file2xliff4j-gui-<yyyymmdd>.jar

    5. Convert HTML or Java Properties Resource Bundle to XLIFF

    You don't need to start OpenOffice.org running in the background if your conversions will be limited to HTML, Java Properties Resource Bundles, MIF or XUL DTDs. Just change to the build/guijar subdirectory (beneath the trunk directory where you were in the previous step). Then issue the following command and follow the prompts:

    
    $ java -jar file2xliff4j-gui-<yyyymmdd>.jar
    

    6. Converting Word, Excel, PowerPoint and RTF to XLIFF

    In order to convert Microsoft documents to XLIFF, you will first need to start OpenOffice.org running in the background. Issue this command:

    $ /usr/lib64/openoffice.org2.0/program/soffice -headless -norestore -invisible "-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;" &
    

    Then run file2xliff4j as instructed in step 5.

    7. Afterword

    The file2xliff4j capabilities described on this page should be considered experimental (pre-alpha). Hopefully these tips will help you.