Translate static strings in the templates folder

[Patrik]

Hi all,

I'm developing a PW site with two languages, and have come to the point where I need to translate some static strings. I'm now trying to figure out how this works, but not sure if I really get it.

In the admin language section, I added one of my template files that contains a few strings with the __() function, and was able to translate it easily.

But do I really need to add every single one of my templates? Is there no way to add the whole templates folder or keep all translations in a single file?

Please give me some pointers here.

Thanks!

[Soma]

Don't use PW translation for static text on front-end. I highly encourage to use some php vars or yaml to translate.

So you can have de.yaml with

suche:                          "Suche"
suchen:                         "suchen"
suchresultat:                   "Suchresultat"
suchbegriff_eingeben:           "Bitte geben Sie einen Suchbegriff ein."
treffer_gefunden:               "{s} hat {c} Treffer ergeben:"
keine_treffer:                  "Keine Resultate gefunden"
...

And a script in the header that loads and parses the file depending on the language.

Example from one of my sites using symphony yaml class:

require_once($config->paths->root . "site/libs/yaml/sfYaml.php");
require_once($config->paths->root . "site/libs/yaml/sfYamlParser.php");

// instance a parser object
$yaml = new sfYamlParser();

// parse language file
$txt = $yaml->parse(file_get_contents($config->paths->root . "site/languages/" . $lang . ".yaml"));
 

Now you can have localized text

echo $txt['suche'];

[interrobang]

You can also create a single file with all your translateable strings and use this file as your Textdomain in your __() calls. For more infos look in the API docs:

http://processwire.com/api/multi-language-support/code-i18n/ (scroll down to TECHNICAL DETAILS/Using Textdomains)

[ryan]

Placing your translatable text in __() function calls is the recommended way to go. It's also the way that PHP gettext() works (though it uses _() rather than __()) and is a universal standard. If you want to keep all your translations in a single file, then that's certainly fine. But I think that's ultimately creating more work for yourself as you end up having to refer to translated text via keys rather than the actual text. The only situation where I might use keys are if I need to re-use the same phrase multiple times, across multiple templates… which would save having to translate the same text more than once.