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XlocaleData (an excerpt from the Developers Guide I18n chapter)

[TOPIC:com.sun.star.i18n.XLocaleData]One of the most important tasks in implementing a new locale is to define all the locale data to be used, listed in the following table as types returned by the [IDL:com.sun.star.i18n.XLocaleData] interface methods:

Locale data is defined in an XML file. It is translated into a C++ source file during the build process, which is compiled and linked together with other compiled locale data files into shared libraries. The contents of the XML file, their elements, and how they are to be defined are described in i18npool/source/localedata/data/locale.dtd. The latest revision available for a specific CVS branch of that file provides up-to-date information about the definitions, as well as additional information.

If the language-country combination is not already listed in tools/inc/lang.hxx and tools/source/intntl/isolang.cxx and svx/source/dialog/langtab.src, OpenOffice.org is probably not prepared to deal with your specific locale. For assistance, you can consult http://l10n.openoffice.org/adding_language.html#step1 (Add the New Language to the Resource System) and join the L10N@openoffice.apache.org mailing list (see also http://l10n.openoffice.org/servlets/ProjectMailingListList).

In order to conform with the available build infrastructure, the name of your locale data file should follow the conventions used in the i18npool/source/localedata/data directory: <language>_<country>.xml, where language is a lowercase, two letter ISO-639 code, and country is an uppercase two letter ISO-3166 code. Start by copying the en_US.xml file to your <language>_<country>.xml file and adopt the entries to suit your needs. Add the corresponding *.cxx and *.obj target file name to the i18npool/source/localedata/data/makefile.mk. Note that there is an explicit rule defined, so that you do not need to add the *.xml file name anywhere. You must also add the locale to the aDllsTable structure located in i18npool/source/localedata/data/localedata.cxx. Make sure to specify the correct library name, since it must correspond to the library name used in the makefile. Finally, the public symbols to be exported must be added to the linker map file corresponding to the library. You can use the i18npool/source/localedata/data/linkermapfile-check.awk script to assist you. Instructions for how to use the script are located the header comments of the file.

<LC_FORMAT><FormatElement>

To be able to load documents of versions up to and including StarOffice 5.2 (old binary file format), each locale must define all number formats mentioned in [IDL:com.sun.star.i18n.NumberFormatIndex] and assign the proper formatindex="..." attribute.
Failing to do so may result in data not properly displayed or not displayed at all if a built-in "System" or "Default" format code was used (as generally done by the average user) and the document is loaded under a locale not having those formats defined. Since old versions did merge some format information of the [Windows] Regional Settings, it might be necessary to define some duplicated codes to fill all positions. To verify that all necessary elements are defined, use a non-product build of OpenOffice.org and open a number formatting dialog, and select your locale from the Language list box. An assertion message box appears if there are any missing elements. The errors are only shown the very first time the locale is selected in a given document.

<LC_FORMAT><FormatElement><FormatCode>

In general, definition of number format codes follows the user visible rules, apart from that any non-ASCII character must be entered using UTF-8 encoding. For a detailed description of codes and a list of possible keywords please consult the OpenOffice.org English online help on section "number format codes".
Be sure to use the separators you declared in the <LC_CTYPE> section in the number format codes, for example <DecimalSeparator>, <ThousandSeparator>, otherwise the number formatter generates incorrect formats.
Verify the defined codes again by using the number formatter dialog of a non-product OpenOffice.org build. If anything is incorrect, an assertion message box appears containing information about the error.
The format indices 1..49 are reserved and, for backward compatibility, must be used as stated in offapi/com/sun/star/i18n/NumberFormatIndex.idl. Note that 48 and 49 are used internally and must not be used in locale data XML files. All other formats must be present.

<FormatCode usage="DATE"> and <FormatCode usage="DATE_TIME">

Characters of date and time keywords, such as YYYY for year, had previously been localized for a few locales (for example, JJJJ in German). The new I18N framework no longer follows that approach, because it may lead to ambiguous and case insensitive character combinations that cannot be resolved at runtime. Localized keyword support is only given for some old locales, other locales must define their codes using English notation.
The table below shows the localized keyword codes:

<FormatCode usage="DATE" formatindex="21"> and
<FormatCode usage="DATE_TIME" formatindex="47">

The formatindex="21" [IDL:com.sun.star.i18n.NumberFormatIndex] DATE_SYS_DDMMYYYY format code is used to edit date formatted data. It represents a date using the most detailed information available, for example, a 4-digit year and instead of a 2-digit year. The YMD default order (how a date is assembled) is determined from the order encountered in this format.
Similarly, the formatindex="47" [IDL:com.sun.star.i18n.NumberFormatIndex] DATETIME_SYS_DDMMYYYY_HHMMSS format code is used to edit date-time data. Both format codes must display data in a way that is parable by the application, in order to be able to reassemble edited data. This generally means using only YYYY,MM,DD,HH,MM,SS keywords and <DateSeparator> and <TimeSeparator>.

<FormatCode usage="CURRENCY">

The [$xxx-yyy] notation is needed for compatibility reasons. The xxx part denotes the currency symbol, and the yyy part specifies the locale identifier in Microsoft Language ID hexadecimal notation. For example, having “409” as the locale identifier (English-US) and “$” as the currency symbol results in [$$-409]. A list of available Language IDs known to the OpenOffice.org application can be found at project util module tools in file tools/inc/lang.hxx. Format indices 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 with [$xxx-yyy] notation must use the xxx currency symbol that has the attribute usedInCompatibleFormatCodes="true" (see element <LC_CURRENCY> in the locale.dtd file).