[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #4559: Slightly different approach to javascript localization

[WordPress Trac]

#4559: Slightly different approach to javascript localization
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 Reporter:  nbachiyski   |       Owner:  anonymous   
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new         
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  2.4 (future)
Component:  i18n         |     Version:              
 Severity:  normal       |    Keywords:  js i18n     
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 Although we now have very nice js localization from Michael Adams in
 [4968], but there are some things that can be improved, more specifically:
  * All the strings for translations have to be extracted from the js
 source, they have to be give names and have to stay in en external php
 file
  * There is not support for plural forms
  * The template strings are processed manually ({{{message =
 obj.delText.replace(/%thing%/g, what);}}}) (this one is not very big
 problem).

 So, I thought, isn't there a way to  incorporate gettext into javascript.
 And after that, I wrote some stupid js gettext implementation. Here is
 what it looks like:
  * A js file can be xgettext-ed using the perl parser, they look almost
 the same, regarding the strings: {{{xgettext -L perl <js files>}}}
  * The translations are taken from a jsvascript dictionary, which must be
 given on object initialization. I wrote a simple function to generate this
 from a mo file. So we can take extract the strings from js files into a
 separate mo and give them to the jsgettext on load.
  * There is a simple format function, which can make things like:
 {{{gettext.format("Here are {count} of {type} dragons!", {count: 8, type:
 'mighty'});}}} or {{{gettext.format("Gimme a {0}, a {1} and a {2}",
 ['ball', 'gun', 'kite']);}}}
  * There is the usual gettext plural support. The different plural forms
 are given as a javascript function (we practically have this, because we
 generate a php function, which does the same thing)

 No more words, here is some code:
 {{{
 // the key for plural forms is singular\0plural (like in the mo file)
 var trans = {
     baba: 'dyado',
     '{0} baba\0{0} babas': ['{0} dyado', '{0} dyados']
 };
 var l10n = new gettext(trans);
 alert(l10n.gettext("baba"));
 alert(gettext.format(l10n.ngettext("{0} baba", "{0} babas", 1), [1]);
 alert(gettext.format(l10n.ngettext("{0} baba", "{0} babas", 5), [5]);
 }}}

 Eventually, if you have reached this point and you are not totally bored,
 you can see the code:
  * The attached archive is a current (rev23) snapshot of the repository
 at: http://ncb.googlecode.com/svn/js/gettext/
  * In the {{{app}}} sub-folder there is a proof-of-concept simple i18n-ed
 application, which is ready for execution, just open app.php in your
 browser
  * You can find some junit unit tests in {{{test.html}}}

 What do you think?

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4559>
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