i18n

Lightweight simple translation module with dynamic json storage. Uses common __('...') syntax in app and templates. Stores language files in json files compatible to webtranslateit json format. Adds new strings on-the-fly when first used in your app. No extra parsing needed.

Install

npm install i18n

Test

npm test

Load

in your app.js

// load modules
var express = require('express'),
    i18n = require("i18n");

now you are ready to use i18n.__('Hello').

Configure

minimal example, just setup two locales and register helpers to global scope:

i18n.configure({
    locales:['en', 'de'],
    register: global
});

register helpers manually

configure i18n without register: global

i18n.configure({
    locales:['en', 'de'],
});

to register view helpers on your own in express 2.x:

app.helpers({
  __: i18n.__,
  __n: i18n.__n
});

to register view helpers on your own in express 3.x:

app.locals({
  __: i18n.__,
  __n: i18n.__n
});

list of configuration options

i18n.configure({
    // setup some locales - other locales default to en silently
    locales:['en', 'de'],

    // sets a custom cookie name to parse locale settings from
    cookie: 'yourcookiename',

    // where to store json files - defaults to './locales'
    directory: './mylocales',

    // whether to write new locale information to disk - defaults to true
    updateFiles: false,

    // setting extension of json files - defaults to '.js' (according to webtranslateit)
    extension: '.json',

    // enabled some debug output - defaults to false
    debug: true

});

hook into express configure

in an express app, you might use i18n.init to gather language settings of your visitors, ie:

// Configuration
app.configure(function() {

	[...]

    // default: using 'accept-language' header to guess language settings
    app.use(i18n.init);
    app.use(app.router);
    app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
});

Use

in your app

var greeting = __('Hello');

in your template (depending on your template compiler)

<%= __('Hello') %>

${__('Hello')}

sprintf support

var greeting = __('Hello %s, how are you today?', 'Marcus');

this puts Hello Marcus, how are you today?. You might add endless arguments and even nest it.

var greeting = __('Hello %s, how are you today? How was your %s.', 'Marcus', __('weekend'));

which puts Hello Marcus, how are you today? How was your weekend.

variable support

you might even use dynamic variables. They get added to the en.js file if not yet existing.

var greetings = ['Hi', 'Hello', 'Howdy'];        
for (var i=0; i < greetings.length; i++) {
    console.log( __(greetings[i]) );
};

which puts

Hi
Hello
Howdy

plural support

different plural froms are supported as response to count:

var singular = __n('%s cat', '%s cats', 1);
var plural = __n('%s cat', '%s cats', 3);

this puts 1 cat or 3 cats and again these could get nested:

var singular = __n('There is one monkey in the %%s', 'There are %d monkeys in the %%s', 1, 'tree');
var plural = __n('There is one monkey in the %%s', 'There are %d monkeys in the %%s', 3, 'tree');

putting There is one monkey in the tree or There are 3 monkeys in the tree

Storage

json file

the above will automatically generate a en.js by default inside ./locales/ which looks like

{
	"Hello": "Hello",
	"Hello %s, how are you today?": "Hello %s, how are you today?",
	"weekend": "weekend",
	"Hello %s, how are you today? How was your %s.": "Hello %s, how are you today? How was your %s.",
	"Hi": "Hi",
	"Howdy": "Howdy",
	"%s cat": {
		"one": "%s cat",
		"other": "%s cats"
	},
	"There is one monkey in the %%s": {
		"one": "There is one monkey in the %%s",
		"other": "There are %d monkeys in the %%s"
	},
	"tree": "tree"
}

that file can be edited or just uploaded to webtranslateit for any kind of collaborative translation workflow:

{
	"Hello": "Hallo",
	"Hello %s, how are you today?": "Hallo %s, wie geht es dir heute?",
	"weekend": "Wochenende",
	"Hello %s, how are you today? How was your %s.": "Hallo %s, wie geht es dir heute? Wie war dein %s.",
	"Hi": "Hi",
	"Howdy": "Hallöchen",
	"%s cat": {
		"one": "%s Katze",
		"other": "%s Katzen"
	},
	"There is one monkey in the %%s": {
		"one": "Im %%s sitzt ein Affe",
		"other": "Im Baum sitzen %d Affen"
	},
	"tree": "Baum"
}

remember to turn off automatic locale file updates:

i18n.configure({
    updateFiles: false
});

Changelog

• 0.3.7: tests by mocha.js, added this.locale to __ and __n
• 0.3.6: travisCI, writeFileSync, devDependencies, jslint, MIT, fixed: #29, #9, merged: #25, #30, #43
• 0.3.5: fixed some issues, prepared refactoring, prepared publishing to npm finally
• 0.3.4: merged pull request #13 from Fuitad/master and updated README
• 0.3.3: merged pull request from codders/master and modified for backward compatibility. Usage and tests pending
• 0.3.2: merged pull request #7 from carlptr/master and added tests, modified fswrite to do sync writes
• 0.3.0: added configure and init with express support (calling guessLanguage() via 'accept-language')
• 0.2.0: added plurals
• 0.1.0: added tests
• 0.0.1: start

Licensed under MIT

Copyright (c) 2011-2013 Marcus Spiegel [email protected]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.