1. Install i18n

$ yarn add @benricheson101/i18n
# or
$ npm install @benricheson101/i18n

2. Import and instantiate the constructor

const I18n = require('@benricheson101/i18n')
const i = new I18n({ fallback: 'en' })

3. Parse yaml

i.parseDir('./i18n')
  .parseFile('./en.yml')
  .parse(`
en:
  STRING: 'aaaaaa'
  PLACEHOLDER: 'This has a placeholder: %{food}'
  COMMAND:
    MAN:
      SHORT_DESC: 'Read a command\'s manual'
    OPTIONS:
      - 'works'
      - 'with'
      - '%{datatype}'
      - 'too'
  `)

4. Use the string methods!

i.get('en', 'STRING') // aaaaaa
i.replace('en', 'PLACEHOLDER', { food: 'potato' }) // This has a placeholder: potato
i.get('en', 'COMMAND:MAN:SHORT_DESC') // Read a command's manual
i.replace('en', 'OPTIONS', { datatype: 'arrays' }) // ['works', 'with', 'arrays', 'too']

• fallback: string - set a fallback language code

• parseDir(dir: string) - adds all files ending in .yml from the specified dir
• parseFile(file: string) - adds a single file
• parseRecursive(dir: string) - adds all yaml files in a dir/subdirs recursively
• parse(yaml: string, file?: string) - adds a yaml string

• generate(code?: string) - generate missing strings for all files. (See below for explanation)

• get(code: string, stringKey: string) - gets a string
• replace(code: string, stringKey: string, placeholders: object) - gets a string and replaces placeholders

• regex () = placeholder_regex: RegExp - regex for extracting and replacing placeholders. note: the placeholder name capture group MUST be named placeholder

• langs - a set contain all of the added language codes
• strings - the added language files/strings
• raw - an array of raw language file data

# i18n/en.yml
en:
  STRING: 'This is a string'
  STRING_WITH_PLACEHOLDER: 'This is a placeholder: %{placeholder}'
  NESTED:
    OBJECTS:
      WORK:
        TOO: 'abcde'

Note: yaml files must start with the language code on the first line, with no indentation, followed by translated strings. Refer to the above example.

const i = new I18n()
  .parseDir('./i18n')

 i.get('en', 'STRING') // This is a string
 i.replace('en', 'STRING_WITH_PLACEHOLDER', { placeholder: 'abc123' }) // This is a placeholder: abc123
 i.get('en', 'NESTED:OBJECTS:WORK:TOO') // abcde

Imagine you add 100 new strings to en.yml. Your translators may have a difficult time seeings which strings are missing or could easily miss one. The generator will add all of the new strings from the default (fallback) language as empty strings so it is easy to see what must be added and what already exists

# i18n/en.yml
en:
  food:
    fruits:
      - apple
      - banana

generator:
  id: foods

# ------
# i18n/es.yml
es: {}

generator:
  id: foods

Note: the generator.id property can be anything (string or number); after running the generator, all files with the same generator.id will have the same structure and strings. setting generator.ignore to false or not including a generator object at all will ignore the file.

new I18n({ fallback: 'en' })
  .parseDir('./i18n')
  .generate()

Note: the generate function returns the class instance, so methods can be chained.

After running the generate function, i18n/es.yml will look like this:

es:
  food:
    fruits:
      - ''
      - ''
generator:
  id: foods