defmodule Gettext do @moduledoc ~S""" The `Gettext` module provides a [gettext](https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/)-based API for working with internationalized applications. ## Using Gettext To use `Gettext`, a module that calls `use Gettext` has to be defined: defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app end This automatically defines some macros in the `MyApp.Gettext` module. Here are some examples: import MyApp.Gettext # Simple translation gettext "Here is the string to translate" # Plural translation ngettext "Here is the string to translate", "Here are the strings to translate", 3 # Domain-based translation dgettext "errors", "Here is the error message to translate" Translations are looked up from `.po` files. In the following sections we will explore exactly what are those files before we explore the "Gettext API" in detail. ## Translations Translations are stored inside PO (Portable Object) files, with a `.po` extension. For example, this is a snippet from a PO file: # This is a comment msgid "Hello world!" msgstr "Ciao mondo!" PO files containing translations for an application must be stored in a directory (by default it's `priv/gettext`) that has the following struture: gettext directory └─ locale └─ LC_MESSAGES ├─ domain_1.po ├─ domain_2.po └─ domain_3.po Here, `locale` is the locale of the translations (for example, `en_US`), `LC_MESSAGES` is a fixed directory, and `domain_i.po` are PO files containing domain-scoped translations. For more information on domains, check out the "Domains" section below. A concrete example of such a directory structure could look like this: priv/gettext └─ en_US | └─ LC_MESSAGES | ├─ default.po | └─ errors.po └─ it └─ LC_MESSAGES ├─ default.po └─ errors.po By default, Gettext expects translations to be stored under the `priv/gettext` directory of an application. This behaviour can be changed by specifying a `:priv` option when using `Gettext`: # Look for translations in my_app/priv/translations instead of # my_app/priv/gettext use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app, priv: "priv/translations" The translations directory specified by the `:priv` option should be a directory inside `priv/`, otherwise some things (like `mix compile.gettext`) won't work as expected. ## Locale At runtime, all gettext-related functions and macros that do not explicitely take a locale as an argument read the locale from `Gettext.get_locale/1`. The locale can be set with `Gettext.put_locale/2`. Locales are expressed as strings (like `"en"` or `"fr"`); they can be arbitrary strings as long as they match a directory name. Gettext stores the locale **per-process** (in the process dictionary) and per Gettext module. This means that `Gettext.put_locale/2` must be called in every new process in order to have the right locale available in that process. Pay attention to this behaviour, since not setting the locale with `Gettext.put_locale/2` *will not* result in any errors when `Gettext.get_locale/1` is called; the default locale will be returned instead. ### Default locale The default Gettext locale is `"en"`. The value of the default locale for a given Gettext module can be set in the configuration for the `:otp_app` of that Gettext module. For example, in the `config/config.exs` file of the `my_app` application: config :my_app, MyApp.Gettext, default_locale: "fr" ## Gettext API There are two ways to use gettext: * using macros from your own gettext module, like `MyApp.Gettext` * using functions from the `Gettext` module These two approaches are different and each one has its own use case. ### Using macros Each module that calls `use Gettext` is usually referred to as a "Gettext backend", as it implements the `Gettext.Backend` behaviour. When a module calls `use Gettext`, the following macros are automatically defined inside it: * `gettext/2` * `dgettext/3` * `ngettext/4` * `dngettext/5` Supposing the caller module is `MyApp.Gettext`, the macros mentioned above behave as follows: * `gettext(msgid, bindings \\ %{})` - like `Gettext.gettext(MyApp.Gettext, msgid, bindings)` * `dgettext(domain, msgid, bindings \\ %{})` - like `Gettext.dgettext(MyApp.Gettext, domain, msgid, bindings)` * `ngettext(msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings \\ %{})` - like `Gettext.ngettext(MyApp.Gettext, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings)` * `dngettext(domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings \\ %{})` - like `Gettext.dngettext(MyApp.Gettext, domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings)` Using macros is preferred as gettext is able to automatically sync the translations in your code with PO files. This, however, imposes a constraint: arguments passed to any of these macros have to be strings **at compile time**. This means that they have to be string literals or somthing that expands to a string literal at compile time (e.g., a module attribute like `@my_string "foo"`). These are all valid uses of the gettext macros: Gettext.put_locale MyApp.Gettext, "it" MyApp.Gettext.gettext "Hello world" #=> "Ciao mondo" @msgid "Hello world" MyApp.Gettext.gettext @msgid #=> "Ciao mondo" The `gettext`/`dgettext`/`ngettext`/`dngettext` macros raise an `ArgumentError` exception if they receive a `msgid` or a `msgid_plural` that doesn't expand to a string at compile time: msgid = "Hello world" MyApp.Gettext.gettext msgid #=> ** (ArgumentError) msgid must be a string literal Using compile-time strings isn't always possible. For this reason, the `Gettext` module provides a set of functions as well. ### Using functions If compile-time strings cannot be used, the solution is to use the functions in the `Gettext` module instead of the macros described above. These functions perfectly mirror the macro API, but they all expect a module name as the first argument. This module has to be a module which calls `use Gettext`. For example: defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app end Gettext.put_locale MyApp.Gettext, "pt_BR" msgid = "Hello world" Gettext.gettext(MyApp.Gettext, msgid) #=> "Olá mundo" While using functions from the `Gettext` module yields the same results as using macros (with the added benefit of dynamic arguments), all the compile-time features mentioned in the previous section are lost. ## Domains The `dgettext` and `dngettext` functions/macros also accept a *domain* as one of the arguments. The domain of a translation is determined by the name of the PO file that contains that translation. For example, the domain of translations in the `it/LC_MESSAGES/errors.po` file is `"errors"`, so those translations would need to be retrieved with `dgettext` or `dngettext`: MyApp.Gettext.dgettext "errors", "Error!" #=> "Errore!" When `gettext` or `ngettext` are used, the `"default"` domain is used. ## Interpolation All `*gettext` functions and macros provided by gettext support interpolation. Interpolation keys can be placed in `msgid`s or `msgid_plural`s with by enclosing them in `%{` and `}`, like this: "This is an %{interpolated} string" Interpolation bindings can be passed as an argument to all of the `*gettext` functions/macros. For example, given the following PO file for the `"it"` locale: msgid "Hello, %{name}!" msgstr "Ciao, %{name}!" interpolation can be done like follows: Gettext.put_locale MyApp.Gettext, "it" MyApp.Gettext.gettext "Hello, %{name}!", name: "Meg" #=> "Ciao, Meg!" Interpolation keys that are in a string but not in the provided bindings result in a `Gettext.Error` exception: MyApp.Gettext.gettext "Hello, %{name}!" #=> ** (Gettext.Error) missing interpolation keys: name Keys that are in the interpolation bindings but that don't occur in the string are ignored. Interpolations in gettext are often expanded at compile time, ensuring a low performance cost when running them at runtime. ## Pluralization Pluralization in gettext for Elixir works very similar to how pluralization works in GNU gettext. The `*ngettext` functions/macros accept a `msgid`, a `msgid_plural` and a count of elements; the right translation is chosen based on the **pluralization rule** for the given locale. For example, given the following snippet of PO file for the `"it"` locale: msgid "One error" msgid_plural "%{count} errors" msgstr[0] "Un errore" msgstr[1] "%{count} errori" the `ngettext` macro can be used like this: Gettext.put_locale MyApp.Gettext, "it" MyApp.Gettext.ngettext "One error", "%{count} errors", 3 #=> "3 errori" The `%{count}` interpolation key is a special key since it gets replaced by the number of elements argument passed to `*ngettext`, like if the `count: 3` key-value pair were in the interpolation bindings. Hence, never pass the `count` key in the bindings: # `count: 4` is ignored here MyApp.Gettext.ngettext "One error", "%{count} errors", 3, count: 4 #=> "3 errori" You can specify a "pluralizer" module via the `:plural_forms` option in the configuration for the `:gettext` application. # config/config.exs config :gettext, plural_forms: MyApp.Plural To learn more about pluralization rules, plural forms and what they mean to Gettext check the documentation for `Gettext.Plural`. ## Missing translations When a translation is missing in the specified locale (both with functions as well as with macros), the argument is returned: * in case of calls to `gettext`/`dgettext`, the `msgid` argument is returned as is; * in case of calls to `ngettext`/`dngettext`, the `msgid` argument is returned in case of a singular value and the `msgid_plural` is returned in case of a plural value (following the English pluralization rule). For example: Gettext.put_locale MyApp.Gettext, "foo" MyApp.Gettext.gettext "Hey there" #=> "Hey there" MyApp.Gettext.ngettext "One error", "%{count} errors", 3 #=> "3 errors" ### Empty translations When a `msgstr` is empty (`""`), the translation is considered missing and the behaviour described above for missing translation is applied. A plural translation is considered to have an empty `msgstr` if at least one translation in the `msgstr` is empty. ## Compile-time features As mentioned above, using the gettext macros (as opposed to functions) allows gettext to operate on those translations *at compile-time*. This can be used to extract translations from the source code into POT files automatically (instead of having to manually add translations to POT files when they're added to the source code). The `gettext.extract` does exactly this: whenever there are new translations in the source code, running `gettext.extract` syncs the existing POT files with the changed code base. Read the documentation for `Mix.Tasks.Gettext.Extract` for more information on the extraction process. POT files are just *template* files and the translations in them do not actually contain translated strings. A POT file looks like this: # The msgstr is empty msgid "hello, world" msgstr "" Whenever a POT file changes, it's likely that developers (or translators) will want to update the corresponding PO files for each locale. To do that, gettext provides the `gettext.merge` Mix task. For example, running: mix gettext.merge priv/gettext --locale pt_BR will update all the PO files in `priv/gettext/pt_BR/LC_MESSAGES` with the new version of the POT files in `priv/gettext`. Read more about the merging process in the documentation for `Mix.Tasks.Gettext.Merge`. Finally, gettext is able to recompile modules that call `use Gettext` whenever PO files change. To enable this feature, the `:gettext` compiler needs to be added to the list of Mix compilers. In `mix.exs`: def project do [compilers: [:gettext] ++ Mix.compilers] end ## Options The following is a comprehensive list of options that can be passed to `use Gettext`. defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, # options end * `:otp_app` (required) - an atom representing an OTP application. Translations will be searched in directories inside this application's directory (`priv/gettext` by default, see the `:priv` option). * `:priv` - a string representing a directory where translations will be searched. The directory is relative to the directory of the application specified by the `:otp_app` option. It is recommended to always have this directory inside `"priv"`, otherwise some features like the "mix compile.gettext" won't work as expected. * `:plural_forms` - a module which will act as a "pluralizer". For more information, look at the documentation for `Gettext.Plural`. ## Configuration You can configure `:gettext` like any other application: # config/config.exs config :gettext, ... The following is a list of the configuration options that `:gettext` supports: * `:fuzzy_threshold` - the default threshold for the Jaro distance measuring the similarity of translations. Look at the documentation for the `mix gettext.merge` task (`Mix.Tasks.Gettext.Merge`) for more information on fuzzy translations. * `:excluded_refs_from_purging` - a regex that is matched against translation references. Gettext will preserve all translations in all POT files that have a matching reference. You can use this pattern to prevent Gettext from removing translations that you have extracted using another tool. ### Backend configuration A Gettext backend such as `MyApp.Gettext` can be configured under the `MyApp.Gettext` key of the application specified in the `:otp_app` option for that backend. For example, the following backend: defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app end can be configured like this: # config/config.exs config :my_app, MyApp.Gettext, default_locale: "fr" The following is a list of the configuration options supported by each backend: * `:default_locale` - a binary which specifies the default locale to use for the given backend. """ defmodule Error do @moduledoc """ A generic error raised for a variety of possible Gettext-related reasons (e.g., missing interpolation keys). """ defexception [:message] def exception(message) do %__MODULE__{message: message} end end @type locale :: binary @type backend :: module @type bindings :: %{} | Keyword.t @doc false defmacro __using__(opts) do quote do @gettext_opts unquote(opts) @before_compile Gettext.Compiler unquote(Gettext.Compiler.signatures) end end @doc """ Gets the locale for the current process and the given backend. This function returns the value of the locale for the current process and the given `backend`. If there is no locale for the current process and the given backend, the default locale is set as the locale for the current process and the given backend and then returned. For more information on the default locale and how it can be set, refer to the documentation of the `Gettext` module. ## Examples Gettext.get_locale(MyApp.Gettext) #=> "en" """ @spec get_locale(backend) :: locale def get_locale(backend) do if locale = Process.get(backend) do locale else backend_config = Application.get_env(backend.__gettext__(:otp_app), backend, []) default_locale = Keyword.get(backend_config, :default_locale, "en") Process.put(backend, default_locale) default_locale end end @doc """ Sets the locale for the current process and the given `backend`. The locale is stored in the process dictionary. `locale` must be a string; if it's not, an `ArgumentError` exception is raised. ## Examples Gettext.put_locale(MyApp.Gettext, "pt_BR") #=> nil Gettext.get_locale(MyApp.Gettext) #=> "pt_BR" """ @spec put_locale(backend, locale) :: nil def put_locale(backend, locale) when is_binary(locale), do: Process.put(backend, locale) def put_locale(_, locale), do: raise(ArgumentError, "put_locale/2 only accepts binary locales, got: #{inspect locale}") @doc """ Returns the translation of the given string in the given domain. The string is translated by the `backend` module. The translated string is interpolated based on the `bindings` argument. For more information on how interpolation works, refer to the documentation of the `Gettext` module. If the translation for the given `msgid` is not found, the `msgid` (interpolated if necessary) is returned. ## Examples defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app end Gettext.put_locale(MyApp.Gettext, "it") Gettext.dgettext(MyApp.Gettext, "errors", "Invalid") #=> "Non valido" Gettext.dgettext(MyApp.Gettext, "errors", "%{name} is not a valid name", name: "Meg") #=> "Meg non è un nome valido" Gettext.dgettext(MyApp.Gettext, "alerts", "nonexisting") #=> "nonexisting" """ @spec dgettext(module, binary, binary, bindings) :: binary def dgettext(backend, domain, msgid, bindings \\ %{}) def dgettext(backend, domain, msgid, bindings) when is_list(bindings) do dgettext(backend, domain, msgid, Enum.into(bindings, %{})) end def dgettext(backend, domain, msgid, bindings) when is_atom(backend) and is_binary(domain) and is_binary(msgid) and is_map(bindings) do backend.lgettext(get_locale(backend), domain, msgid, bindings) |> handle_backend_result end @doc """ Returns the translation of the given string in the `"default"` domain. Works exactly like: Gettext.dgettext(backend, "default", msgid, bindings) """ @spec gettext(module, binary, bindings) :: binary def gettext(backend, msgid, bindings \\ %{}) do dgettext(backend, "default", msgid, bindings) end @doc """ Returns the pluralized translation of the given string in the given domain. The string is translated and pluralized by the `backend` module. The translated string is interpolated based on the `bindings` argument. For more information on how interpolation works, refer to the documentation of the `Gettext` module. If the translation for the given `msgid` and `msgid_plural` is not found, the `msgid` or `msgid_plural` (based on `n` being singular or plural) is returned (interpolated if necessary). ## Examples defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app end Gettext.dngettext(MyApp.Gettext, "errors", "Error", "%{count} errors", 3) #=> "3 errori" Gettext.dngettext(MyApp.Gettext, "errors", "Error", "%{count} errors", 1) #=> "Errore" """ @spec dngettext(module, binary, binary, binary, non_neg_integer, bindings) :: binary def dngettext(backend, domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings \\ %{}) def dngettext(backend, domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings) when is_list(bindings) do dngettext(backend, domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, Enum.into(bindings, %{})) end def dngettext(backend, domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings) when is_atom(backend) and is_binary(domain) and is_binary(msgid) and is_binary(msgid_plural) and is_integer(n) and is_map(bindings) do backend.lngettext(get_locale(backend), domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings) |> handle_backend_result end @doc """ Returns the pluralized translation of the given string in the `"default"` domain. Works exactly like: Gettext.dngettext(backend, "default", msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings) """ @spec ngettext(module, binary, binary, non_neg_integer, bindings) :: binary def ngettext(backend, msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings \\ %{}) do dngettext(backend, "default", msgid, msgid_plural, n, bindings) end @doc """ Runs `fun` with the gettext locale set to `locale` for the given `backend`. This function just sets the Gettext locale for `backend` to `locale` before running `fun` and sets it back to its previous value afterwards. Note that `put_locale/2` is used to set the locale, which is thus set only for the current process (keep this in mind if you plan on spawning processes inside `fun`). The value returned by this function is the return value of `fun`. ## Examples Gettext.put_locale(MyApp.Gettext, "fr") MyApp.Gettext.gettext("Hello world") #=> "Bonjour monde" Gettext.with_locale MyApp.Gettext, "it", fn -> MyApp.Gettext.gettext("Hello world") end #=> "Ciao mondo" MyApp.Gettext.gettext("Hello world") #=> "Bonjour monde" """ @spec with_locale(backend, locale, (() -> term)) :: term def with_locale(backend, locale, fun) do previous_locale = Gettext.get_locale(backend) Gettext.put_locale(backend, locale) try do fun.() after Gettext.put_locale(backend, previous_locale) end end @doc """ Returns all the locales for which PO files exist for the given `backend`. If the translations directory for the given backend doesn't exist, then an empty list is returned. ## Examples With the following backend: defmodule MyApp.Gettext do use Gettext, otp_app: :my_app end and the following translations directory: my_app/priv/gettext ├─ en ├─ it └─ pt_BR then: Gettext.known_locales(MyApp.Gettext) #=> ["en", "it", "pt_BR"] """ @spec known_locales(backend) :: [locale] def known_locales(backend) do backend.__gettext__(:known_locales) end defp handle_backend_result({atom, string}) when atom in [:ok, :default], do: string defp handle_backend_result({:error, error}), do: raise(Error, error) end