Translations

Translating is a process of extracting locale-specific texts from your application and converting them into a target language.

We use standard Symfony translation so you can use all standard features. In this article, we describe tools and recommendations for translations.

Usage

  1. Use a translator for your translatable texts. Shopsys Platform implementation of a translator is Shopsys\FrameworkBundle\Component\Translation\Translator class. You can find more in Symfony translation documentation.

  2. Once you have translations in your code, you have to extract them by running php phing translations-dump. This command extracts the translatable texts into *.po translation files located in translations/ directory. For more information about phing targets in general, see the separate article.

  3. Now you have to translate the newly extracted texts. The *.po files are text files so you can make translations in a text editor or you can use specialized software. It is a good practice to version the files along with source codes so they are a part of your project history. If you need more information about the *.po format, please read more in the documentation.

  4. Once you create new translations in the *.po files, the application will use these translations immediately.

Message ID

The message ID is the string you put into translation function. In the case of {{ 'Cart'|trans }}, the message ID is Cart.

We use the original English form as the ID. So in the case of

{% trans with {'%price%': remainingPriceWithVat|price} %}
    You still have to purchase products for <strong> %price% </strong> for <strong> free </strong> shipping and payment.
{% endtrans %}

the message ID is You still have to purchase products for <strong> %price% </strong> for <strong> free </strong> shipping and payment..

We replace multiple spaces in message ID to a single one. So in case of

{% trans %}
    Shipping and payment
    <strong>for free!</strong>
{% endtrans %}

the message ID is Shipping and payment <strong>for free!</strong>.

Never use variables in message IDs directly. Extractor is not able to guess what is in the variable. Use placeholders instead.

$translator->trans(
-    'Thanks to ' . $name
+    'Thanks to %name%',
+    ['%name%' => $name]
);

This results in message ID Thanks to %name% that can be translated even with different word order, for example, %name%, danke!.

From time to time we use word classes in message ID, for example, order [noun], order [verb] that are both translated as order. We do this because in Czech, the noun is translated as "objednávka" and the verb is translated as "objednat".

Translatable texts

When php phing translations-dump command is run, texts are extracted from following places:

PHP

$this->translator->trans('Offer in feed');

// pluralization (replacement of transChoice)
$this->translator->trans('{0} no products|{1} product|]1,Inf[ products', ['%count%' => $count]);

// shortcut for Translator::staticTrans()
t('Offer in feed');

// see Shopsys\FrameworkBundle\Component\TranslationConstraintViolationExtractor
$executionContextInterface->addViolation('This message will be extracted into "validators" translation domain');

// see Shopsys\FrameworkBundle\Component\Translation\ConstraintMessageExtractor
new Constraint\Length([
    'message' => 'This message will be extracted into "validators" translation domain',
    'minMessage' => 'Actually, every option ending with "message" will be extracted',
]);

// see Shopsys\FrameworkBundle\Component\Translation\ConstraintMessagePropertyExtractor
class MyConstraint extends \Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraint
{
    public $message = 'This value will be extracted.';
    public $otherMessage = 'This value will also be extracted.';
}

Twig

{{ 'Add another parameter'|trans }}

{% trans %}Add another parameter{% endtrans %}

{{ '{0} no products|{1} product|]1,Inf[ products'|trans(count) }}

{% trans with { '%count%': count }  %}
    {0} no products|{1} product|]1,Inf[ products
{% trans %}

{{ 'items added to <a href="/cart">cart</a>'|transHtml }}

trans is standard Symfony translation. transHtml is our custom translation method that can be used only in Twig templates and is similar to filters |trans|raw. The difference is that transHtml escape parameters to prevent XSS.

They are safe to use in a place where you need HTML in texts together with parameters that are taken from user input.

A usage for example:

{{ 'You have to <a href="%url%">choose</a> products'|transHtml({ '%url%': url('front_homepage') }) }}

Warning

The message is not escaped, so if there is malicious code in *.po files, it will not be escaped.

JavaScript

import Translator from 'bazinga-translator';

Translator.trans('Please enter promo code.');

Translator.transChoice('{1}Load next item|]1,Inf[Load next items', loadNextCount);

JavaScript translations are extracted and translated during compilation of JavaScript.

Possible ways of changing translations

  • You want to keep the message ID same as the original English form
    • change the text in the code
    • run php phing translations-dump
    • translate text again in *.po file(s) for the other languages because the message ID changed
    • be careful, this is a backward compatibility breaking change because the original message ID does not exist anymore.
  • You do not care about the consistency between message ID and the original English form
    • just change the translations in *.po file(s) for English and all the other languages

Localized routes

On Shopsys Platform, you can translate URLs of your routes. See "Frontend routes" section in "How to Set Up Domains and Locales" article for more information. You can see the list of all translated URLs in administration page admin/superadmin/urls/ (you must be logged in as a superadmin).