dialect

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Dialect is a painless nodejs module that deals with i18n, and L10n.

This module is under construction.

Install

Currently dialect just supports MongoDB, so, you need to install it or fork your own storage solution .

npm install dialect

Philosphy

• Scalable: The translations should be available to any number of machines.
• Fast: Getting translations from memory if possible.
• Reliable: Translations should be always available on a central repository/database.
• Flexible: You should be able to use your favorite storage solution.

Example

var dialect = require('dialect').dialect({
  path:'./dictionaries',
  base_locale: 'en',
});

// change our locale to Spanish
dialect.config('locale', 'es');

// Configs and open the storage connection
require('dialect').store(
  {store: 'mongodb', database: 'translations'},
  function (error, store) {
    dialect.config('store', store);
    dialect.getTranslation('Hello World!');
  }
);

How does it work?

Dialect stores automatically all the strings pending to be translated. Once your translate the strings, they will be cached on a JSON file for every machine that needs the translations. The JSON will be loaded to memory, so you will acces the translations from memory.

Dialect supports counts and contexts.

Usings counts

A counts are params that allow you to output a string using singular or plural. You need to provide an array with the singular, plural and the number.

[1, 2, 3].forEach(function (i) {
  dialect.getTranslation([
    'Hello World',
    'Hello Worlds',
    {count: i}
  ]);
});

// => 'Hola Mundo'
// => 'Hola Mundos'
// => 'Hola Mundos'

Using contexts

A context is a param that allows you to give a special meaning about a sentence. It helps the translator and it may generate diferent translations depending on the context.

['female', 'male'].forEach(function (gender) {
  dialect.getTranslation([
    'My friends',
    gender
  ]);
});
// => 'Mis amigas'
// => 'Mis amigos'

String interpolation

You can put any param you want on the translation strings surrounded by moustaches {}. Remember that count and context have special meanings although they can be used with interpolations.

[1, 2].forEach(function (count) {
  ['female', 'male'].forEach(function (gender) {
    dialect.getTranslation([
      'You have {count} friend called {name}',
      'You have {count} friends called {name}',
      {count: count, context: context, name: 'Anna'}
    ]);
  });
});
// => 'Tienes 1 amiga que se llama Anna'
// => 'Tienes 1 amigo que se llama Anna'
// => 'Tienes 2 amigas que se llaman Anna'
// => 'Tienes 2 amigos que se llaman Anna'

Store translations

To store a new translation, use the method setTranslation.

dialect.setTranslation(
  {original: 'I love gazpacho', locale: 'es'},
  'Me encanta el gazpacho',
  function () {
    // :)
  }
);

Test

Dialect is heavily tested using a mix of Vows and node asserts module.

make test

Benchmarks

Dialect should not add an overhead to your application on getting translations. Please run/add benchmarks to ensure that this module performance rocks.

node benchmakrs/app.js

Have fun!