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Globalizing Rails Jeremy Voorhis Lead Architect, www.jvoorhis.com www.planetargon.com

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What is Globalization? • Internationalization • Localization

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Internationalization (i18n) • Preparation of software to be useful in multiple locales • Strings - dynamic and static • Bidirectional strings • Dates, times and numbers • is it 123,456.78 or 123.456,78?

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Localization (L10n) • Providing translated content for a specific language • Implementing designs from right to left • Formatting dates, times and numbers for a specific region • Content that is sensitive to your audience’s culture

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Locales • Operating definition: a combination of a language and a region • Can be identified with a locale tag • Globalize understands locales

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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

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Example productions • en-US • fr-CA • es-419

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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!

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What is Globalize? • A Rails plugin providing internationalization services to a Rails application • Model translations • View translations • Date and time translations and formatting • Number formatting

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API • core extensions • String#t • String#/(number) • ActiveRecord macro • ActiveRecord::Base::translates

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Getting started

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Installing Globalize $ svn export http://svn.globalize-rails.org/svn/ globalize/globalize/branches/for-1.1 vendor/plugins/globalize $ rake globalize:setup

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Setting the base language # config/environment.rb Globalize::Locale.set_base_language 'en-US'

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Capturing locales # config/routes.rb map.connect ':locale/:controller/:action/:permalink'

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Setting an active locale class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base before_filter :set_locale private def set_locale Locale.set params[:locale] rescue ArgumentError redirect_to params.merge( 'locale' => 'en-US' ) end end

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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

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Using view translations <%# GLobalize style %>

<%= 'FEATURES'.t -%>

<%# gettext style %>

<%= :features.t -%>

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Advanced techniques • Predicated blocks • Translation availability helper

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The predicated block <% base_language_only do %> <%= link_to 'Destroy', { :action => 'destroy', :id => record.id }, { :post => true, :confirm => 'Are you sure?' } %> <% end %>

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The predicated block defined def base_language_only yield if Locale.base? end def not_base_language yield unless Locale.base? end

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Notify users when a translation is not available

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A Translation Availability Helper <%= translation_availability_for :page, :body %> <%= markdown @page.body %>

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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 and not object.send( facet ).blank? and object.send( "#{facet}_is_base?" ) end end

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A gallery of practical interface design • Switching locales • Providing reference text • Bidirectional views • View translations

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Make it easy for users to switch locales

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Locale selector for public site

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The same helper is used in the admin site

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Translation interface with English reference

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Base language administration screen params[:locale] # => ‘en-US’

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Hide untranslated fields and provide a reference params[:locale] # => ‘zh-Hant’

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Bidirectional views

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English text is read left to right http://www.rashgash.co.il/en

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Hebrew text is read right to left http://www.rashgash.co.il/

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Make it easy for translators to update string literals in your views

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Admin users can switch locales and update strings Translations provided by Google ;)

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Globalize something • www.globalize-rails.org • Wiki • Mailing list • globalize.rubyforge.org • API Docs

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Alternatives • Localization plugin • static text translation • Fluxiom • gettext • ubiquitous • interoperable

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Acknowledgments • Joshua Harvey • Joshua Sierles • Per Wigren • Contributors!