puttext

Tags: i18n, internationalization, javascript, gettext

puttext is a small internationalization library for JavaScript, modelled after gettext.

It consists of two parts: Python script to convert compiled translation file (something.mo) into a JSON for JavaScript to use, and JavaScript library, which takes JS object and gives you a function to translate your messages.

Dependencies:

• client-side: none.
• server-side: Node.js, Python, Shell, GNU gettext (for merging and compiling messages).

There is a short rant about it, both in Russian and in English.

Index

• API
  • Additional properties
  • Examples
• Plural forms
• Generating .po

API

If you use AMD modules, then puttext should behave as a good AMD module. If you don't, it assigns itself to a window.puttext.

Main function has one argument - object with messages. That's the one you got after converting your .mo file to JSON. And returns a function, which performs translations. I prefer to call this function __ (two underscores) in my code. This is because gettext is usually called _ in other languages, which is taken by Underscore.js in JavaScript.

If you have no messages, you can call puttext without arguments and you'll receive pass-through for English words.

__ receives from one to four arguments:

• with a single argument, it will return a single translated string;
• with two arguments, first is considered a string to translate and second is context for it (if you have variable parts in your message);
• with three or four arguments, you enable plural mode and then:
  • first two arguments should be strings - one for singular and one for plural form;
  • third argument should be an integer by which puttext decides which form to use;
  • (optional) fourths argument is an object used for string formatting.

String formatting rules: in a string like "{something} to {replace # name of person}" entities {something} and {replace # name of person} will be replaced with corresponding properties of an object, and # name of person is considered to be a commentary for someone who does translation, so only replace is used as a key.

Additional properties

__ has few additional properties which can be useful, namely:

• __.setMessages(messages) - if you have to have __ function before you've loaded messages, you can set them later using that function. Or you can change language in runtime (sounds crazy, you'll get interface in two languages simultaneously).

• __.messages - currently used messages. Please do not set this property directly, use setMessages for that (it does more than setting a property).

• __.format(string, context) - formatting function, used by __, so you can use it yourself. Example: __.format("stuff: {stuff}", {stuff: 5}).

• __.plural(number) - function to check which variant of translation a number will use.

• __.pluralNum - total number of variants for plural forms.

Examples

Initialization:

$.get('/locale/uk_UA.json', function(messages) {
    window.__ = puttext(messages);
});
 
// or
 
window.__ = puttext();
$.get('/locale/uk_UA.json', __.setMessages);

Translate a single string:

console.log(__('this is a sample text'));

Translate a single string with formatting:

console.log(__('this happened on {date}', {date: '2010-10-20'}));

Translate a single string with comment, this is for the comment to appear in .po file after running i18n-collect on your files (note: supports comments only in this position, before actual phrase inside of the call):

console.log(__(/*some comment for phrase*/'this is a sample with comment'));

Translate a plural string:

function (bottles) {
    console.log(__('1 bottle', 'many bottles', bottles.length));
}

Translate a plural string with formatting:

function (bottles) {
    console.log(__('1 bottle', '{n} bottles',
                   bottles.length, {n: bottles.length}));
}

Plural forms

One of the complexities of translation comes from plural forms, and this is handled with a special header named Plural-Forms. This header contains information about amount of plural forms and a formula to calculate which form should be used for given number. You can find examples of formulas in gettext documentation. Just search there by your language name.

So for example Ukrainian would have this header (you'll have to put it in your .po file):

Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
    plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
           n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

And then have a translation like that:

msgid "1 bottle"
msgid_plural "{n} bottles"
msgstr[0] "одна пляшка"
msgstr[1] "{n} пляшки"
msgstr[2] "{n} пляшок"

Generating .po

There is a shell script called i18n-collect (or i18n-collect.bat for Windows), which calls out to provided xgettext.js, and to msguniq and msgmerge commands from actual gettext package (so make sure it's installed), which you give a path to a .po file (it may exist or may not yet), and a path to directory (run without arguments to see usage), and it'll collect your messages.

Run i18n-collect without arguments to see usage. Sorry, but i18n-collect.bat can't handle custom markers, just write your own version if you need that.