BabelFish - human friendly i18n for JS
Internationalization with easy syntax for node.js and browser.
Classic solutions use multiple phrases for plurals. Babelfish defines plurals
inline instead - that's more compact, and easy for programmers. Also, phrases
are grouped into nested scopes, like in Ruby.
BabelFish supports all plural rules from unicode CLDR
(via plurals-cldr).
Installation
node.js:
browser:
$ bower install babelfish
Use es5-shim for old browsers compatibility.
Phrases Syntax
#{varname}Echoes value of variable((Singular|Plural1|Plural2)):countPlural form
example:
А у меня в кармане #{nails_count} ((гвоздь|гвоздя|гвоздей)):nails_count
You can also omit anchor variable for plurals, by default it will be count.
Thus following variants are equal:
I have #{count} ((nail|nails))I have #{count} ((nail|nails)):count
Also you can use variables in plural parts:
I have ((#{count} nail|#{count} nails))
Need special zero form or overwrite any specific value? No problems:
I have ((=0 no nails|#{count} nail|#{count} nails))
Escape chars
If you need #{, ((, | or )) somewhere in text, where it can be considered
as markup part - just escape them with \.
Example with YAML
As BabelFish flatten scopes, it's really fun and nice to store translations in YAML files:
--- ru-RU: profile: Профиль forums: Форумы apps: forums: new_topic: Новая тема last_post: title : Последнее сообщение by : от demo: apples: "На столе лежит #{count} ((яблоко|яблока|яблок))"
Usage
// Create new instance of BabelFish with default language/locale: 'en-GB' var BabelFish = require('babelfish'); var i18n = new BabelFish('en-GB'); // Fill in some phrases i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.hello', 'Hello, #{user.name}.'); i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.conv.wazup', 'Whats up?'); i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.conv.alright', 'Alright, man!'); i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.coerce', 'Total: #{count}.'); i18n.addPhrase('ru-RU', 'demo.hello', 'Привет, #{user.name}.'); i18n.addPhrase('ru-RU', 'demo.conv.wazup', 'Как дела?'); i18n.addPhrase('uk-UA', 'demo.hello', 'Здоровенькі були, #{user.name}.'); // Set locale fallback to use the most appropriate translation when possible i18n.setFallback('uk-UA', 'ru-RU'); // Translate var params = {user: {name: 'ixti'}}; i18n.t('ru-RU', 'demo.hello', params); // -> 'Привет, ixti.' i18n.t('ru-RU', 'demo.conv.wazup'); // -> 'Как дела?' i18n.t('ru-RU', 'demo.conv.alright'); // -> 'Alright, man!' i18n.t('uk-UA', 'demo.hello', params); // -> 'Здоровенькі були, ixti.' i18n.t('uk-UA', 'demo.conv.wazup'); // -> 'Как дела?' i18n.t('uk-UA', 'demo.conv.alright'); // -> 'Alright, man!' // When params is number or strings, it will be coerced to // `{ count: XXX, value: XXX }` - use any of those in phrase. i18n.t('en-GB', 'demo.coerce', 5); // -> 'Total: 5.' // You may wish to "dump" translations to load in browser later // Dump will include all fallback translations and fallback rules var locale_dump = i18n.stringify('ru-RU'); var i18n_new = require('babelfish')('en-GB'); // init without `new` also works i18n_new.load(locale_dump); // Use objects instead of strings (object/array/number/boolean) - can be // useful to prepare bulk data for external libraries. // Note, only JSON-supported types are ok (no date & regex) i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.boolean', true); i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.number', 123); i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.array', [1, 2, 3]); // fourth param required for hashes (objects) to disable flattening, // other types are autodetected i18n.addPhrase('en-GB', 'demo.array', { foo:1, bar:"2" }, false);
Implementations in other languages
- Perl - Locale::Babelfish
- Ruby - https://github.com/regru/babelfish-ruby
License
View the LICENSE file (MIT).