Get current localization of XMetaL Author from JScript

[FloPes]

Is there a way to get the current localization that XMetaL Author (7.0.0.111) is running from JScript, so I can use it in my macros to determine in what language I should display user messages?

[Derek Read]

There is no API for this, but starting with version 7.0 the following key is set in the registry for the particular version of XMetaL Author Essential or XMetaL Author Enterprise you have installed.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SoftQuad\XMetaL 7.0\Install_Language
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SoftQuad\XMetaL 8.0\Install_Language

You can use the standard Windows "WScript.Shell" ActiveX object to read from the registry, so a script similar to the following JScript example should give you what you need:

Code:

//XMetaL Script Language JScript:
function registryReadKey(regKey) {
try {
var wShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
var keyVal = wShell.RegRead(regKey);
wShell = null;
return keyVal;
}
catch(e) {
//no value set or something else went wrong, fail silently
}
}
var xmVersion = Application.VersionNumber;
var xmLocale = registryReadKey("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\SoftQuad\\XMetaL " + xmVersion + "\\Install_Language");
Application.Alert(xmLocale);

I believe standard two letter localization values are used such as EN, DE, FR and JP.

[Derek Read]

Note that on a 64-bit installation of Windows there will likely be an additional key, used by Microsoft's "Windows on Windows" layer (WOW64), like this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SoftQuad\XMetaL <version>\Install_Language

...but Windows magically redirects the call from RegRead to the right Wow6432Node subkey, so the script should work regardless of processor architecture (which makes sense because this stuff is supposed to be automatically handled by Windows when running 32-bit applications).