Simple Locale Internationalization (I18n)

This is an extremely simple i18n module, only for those too lazy to code their own.

API

Instanciation

var locales = require('simple-locale-i18n')('en', './locales');

To instanciate a locales object, call require and the constructor function by passing 3 parameters to it:

|| default_locale | directory | callback | |:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:| |Required| false | false | false| |Description| The default locale when none specified, example: en| The directory to read locales from. Locales will have the name of the files they are read from | A callback function to call when all locales are read |

Locale Files

The module will read the folder ./locales by default. This folder should be located in the same directory where the locales object is instanciated. You can change the folder name by adding a 2nd parameter to the constructor function.

Format

By default, locale files are in JSON format, thus .json extension (this will be checked against when instanciated). And should be written like:

{
	"some_key": "The translation",
	"some_other_key": "Another translation"
}

Translating

To translate simply call the i18n method from the instanciated object:

var locales = require('simple-locale-i18n')('en', './locales');
locales.i18n('trad.hello'); // 'Hello!'
locales.i18n('trad.hello', 'fr'); // 'Salut!'

To simplify, you can also define a helper variable:

var locales = require('simple-locale-i18n')('en', './locales');
const i18n = locales.i18n;
i18n('trad.hello'); // 'Hello!'
i18n('trad.hello', 'fr'); // 'Salut!'

Building

You can also build strings, mustache-style:

var string = 'Hello {{ name }}! This is a translation into {{ language }} using {{ package }}';
i18n.build(string, {
		name: 'John',
		language: 'English',
		package: 'simple-locale'
});
// returns 'Hello John! This is a translation into English using simple-locale'

Translate

This is a utility function that allows you to simply build strings only giving the locale. It is a composition of i18n and build.

//en.trad.say_hello = 'Hello we are in {{ country }}!';
//fr.trad.say_hello = 'Salut, on est en {{ country }}!';
var string = i18n.translate('trad.say_hello', {
	[locale]: 'en',
	[placeholder]: 'Hi!',
	values:{
		en: {
			country: 'England'
		},
		fr:{
			country: 'France'
		}
	}
});

string === 'Hello we are in England' // true