Globalizing Rails

Experience report after extending Rails to support a 19-language custom CMS.

Transcript

1. Globalizing Rails Jeremy Voorhis Lead Architect, www.jvoorhis.com www.planetargon.com 1
2. What is Globalization? • Internationalization • Localization • A cross-cutting concern that will transform your application 2
3. Internationalization (i18n) • Preparation of software to be useful in multiple locales • Strings (dynamic and literal) that can be translated • Strings that may be bidirectional • Dates, times and numbers that can be formatted • is it 123,456.78 or 123.456,78? 3
4. Localization (L10n) • Providing translated content for a specific language • Designs from right to left • Formatting dates, times and numbers for a specific region • Content that is sensitive to your audience’s culture 4
5. Unicode • Unpopular in Japan, and not natively supported by Ruby • Support available through jcode module • require ‘jcode’ $KCODE = ‘u’ • Your database must support unicode too! 5
6. Locales • Operating definition: a combination of a language and a region • Can be identified with a locale tag • Globalize understands these standards 6
7. Locale Tags • Locale tags follow RFC 3066 • Language-Tag = Primary-subtag *( "-" Subtag ) Primary-subtag = 1*8ALPHA Subtag = 1*8(ALPHA / DIGIT) • Primary-subtag is an ISO 639 language code and should be lowercase • Subtag is typically an ISO 3166 country code and should be CAPITALIZED • Sometimes you have to wing it 7
8. Example Productions • en-US • fr-CA • es-419 8
9. What is Globalize? • A Rails plugin providing internationalization services to a Rails application • Model translations • View translations • Date, Time, Number formatting 9
10. Getting Started With Globalize 10
11. Installing Globalize $ script/plugin install http://svn.globalize-rails.org/svn/globalize/ globalize/trunk $ rake globalize:setup Locale.set_base_language ‘en-US’ 11
12. Setting the Base Language # Include your application configuration below Locale.set_base_language 'en-US' 12
13. Capturing Locales map.connect ':locale/:controller/:action/:permalink' 13
14. Setting an Active Locale class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base before_filter :set_locale def set_locale begin Locale.set params[:locale] rescue ArgumentError redirect_to params.merge( 'locale' => 'en-US' ) end end end 14
15. Using Model Translations # Table "public.features" # Column | Type #-------------+----------------------------- # id | integer # headline | character varying(255) # abstract | text # body | text # permalink | text # created_at | timestamp without time zone # modified_at | timestamp without time zone class Feature < ActiveRecord::Base translates :headline, :abstract, :body end 15
16. Using View Translations <h2><%= 'FEATURES'.t -%></h2> or <h2><%= :title.t -%></h2> 16
17. Advanced Techniques • Predicated blocks • Translation availability helper 17
18. The Predicated Block <% base_language_only do %> <%= link_to 'Destroy', { :action => 'destroy', :id => record.id }, { :post => true, :confirm => 'Are you sure?' } %> <% end %> 18
19. The Predicated Block Defined def base_language_only yield if Locale.base? end def not_base_language yield unless Locale.base? end 19
20. Notify users when a translation is not available 20
21. A Translation Availability Helper <%= translation_availability_for :page, :body %> <%= markdown @page.body %> 21
22. Translation Availability Helper Defined def translation_availability_for object_name, facet, message = nil not_base_language do message ||= content_tag 'p', '(Translation not available)'.t object = instance_variable_get "@#{object_name}" message if object && !object.send( facet ).blank? && object.send( "#{facet} _is_base?" ) end end 22
23. A Gallery of Practical Interface Design • Switching locales • Providing reference text • Bidirectional views • View translations 23
24. Make It Easy for Users to Switch Locales 24
25. Locale selector for public site 25
26. The same helper is used in the admin site 26
27. Translation Admin With English Reference 27
28. Base language administration screen params[:locale] # => ‘en-US’ 28
29. Hide untranslated fields and provide a reference params[:locale] # => ‘zh-Hant’ 29
30. Bidirectional Views 30
31. English text is read left to right http://www.rashgash.co.il/en 31
32. Hebrew text is read right to left http://www.rashgash.co.il/ 32
33. Make it Easy for Translators to Update String Literals in Your Views 33
34. Admin users can switch locales and update strings Translations provided by Google ;) 34
35. Globalize Something • www.globalize-rails.org • Trac • Wiki • Mailing list • globalize.rubyforge.org • API Docs 35
36. Acknowledgments • Joshua Harvey • Joshua Sierles 36