pofile

What is pofile?

The 'pofile' npm package is used for parsing and manipulating gettext PO (Portable Object) files, which are commonly used for localization in software projects. It allows developers to read, write, and modify PO files programmatically.

What are pofile's main functionalities?

Parsing PO Files

This feature allows you to load and parse a PO file. The parsed content is available as an object, which you can then manipulate or inspect.

const PO = require('pofile');
PO.load('path/to/file.po', function (err, po) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(po.items);
});

Modifying PO File Entries

This feature allows you to modify the entries in a PO file. For example, you can change the translation of a specific entry.

const PO = require('pofile');
PO.load('path/to/file.po', function (err, po) {
  if (err) throw err;
  po.items[0].msgstr = ['New translation'];
  console.log(po.items[0]);
});

Creating New PO Files

This feature allows you to create a new PO file from scratch. You can add new entries and save the file to the filesystem.

const PO = require('pofile');
const po = new PO();
po.items.push(new PO.Item({
  msgid: 'Hello',
  msgstr: ['Hola']
}));
po.save('path/to/newfile.po', function (err) {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('PO file saved!');
});

Other packages similar to pofile

gettext-parser

The 'gettext-parser' package is another tool for parsing and compiling gettext PO and MO files. It provides similar functionality to 'pofile' but also includes support for MO files, which are the binary counterparts to PO files.

node-gettext

The 'node-gettext' package is a comprehensive solution for handling gettext translations in Node.js. It includes features for parsing PO files, managing translations, and even supports plural forms. It is more feature-rich compared to 'pofile' but also more complex.

i18next

The 'i18next' package is a full-featured internationalization framework for JavaScript. While it does not directly handle PO files, it provides extensive support for managing translations and can be integrated with other tools to work with PO files. It is more versatile but requires additional setup for PO file handling.

README

pofile - gettext .po parsing for JavaScript

Parse and serialize Gettext PO files.

Usage

Add pofile to your project:

Installation (Node.JS, browser via Browserified)

npm install --save pofile

Reference it in your code:

var PO = require('pofile');

Installation (via bower)

bower install --save pofile

Add it to your HTML file:

<script src="bower_components/pofile/dist/pofile.js"></script>

Reference it in your code:

var PO = require('pofile');

Loading and parsing

You can create a new empty PO file by using the class:

var po = new PO();

Or by loading a file (Node.JS only):

PO.load('text.po', function (err, po) {
    // Handle err if needed
    // Do things with po
});

Or by parsing a string:

var po = PO.parse(myString);

The PO class

The PO class exposes three members:

• comments: An array of comments (found at the header of the file).
• headers: A dictionary of the headers.
• items: An array of PO.Item objects, each of which represents a string from the gettext catalog.

There are two methods available:

• save: Accepts a filename and callback, writes the po file to disk.

po.save('out.po', function (err) {
    // Handle err if needed
});

• toString: Serializes the po file to a string.

The PO.Item class

The PO.Item class exposes the following members:

• msgid: The message id.
• msgid_plural: The plural message id (null if absent).
• msgstr: An array of translated strings. Items that have no plural msgid only have one element in this array.
• references: An array of reference strings.
• comments: An array of string translator comments.
• extractedComments: An array of string extracted comments.
• flags: A dictionary of the string flags. Each flag is mapped to a key with value true. For instance, a string with the fuzzy flag set will have item.flags.fuzzy == true.
• msgctxt: Context of the message, an arbitrary string, can be used for disambiguation.

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

Credits

Originally based on node-po (written by Michael Holly). Rebranded because node-po is unmaintained and because this library is no longer limited to Node.JS: it works in the browser too.

Changes compared to node-po

• Proper handling of async methods that won't crash your Node.JS process when something goes wrong.
• Support for parsing string flags (e.g. fuzzy).
• A test suite.
• Browser support (through Browserified and bower).

Migrating from node-po

You'll need to update the module reference: require('pofile') instead of require('node-po').

At the initial release, node-po and pofile have identical APIs, with one small exception: the save and load methods now take a callback that has an err parameter: (err) for save and (err, po) for load. This is similar to Node.JS conventions.

Change code such as:

PO.load('text.po', function (po) {

To:

PO.load('text.po', function (err, po) {
    // Handle err if needed

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (C) 2013-2017 by Ruben Vermeersch <[e-mail]>
Copyright (C) 2012 by Michael Holly

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.