Translation

Every String (snippet of text) in the Madek Webapp is not embedded in the source code directly. Instead, they are stored with a certain key, which is used to reference that string from the source code.

Example: home_banner_welcome_title → "Hello World!"

These translations are stored in a table/spread sheet in the repository. It can be viewed at and downloaded from GitHub. Current version: translations.csv
(The "Raw" button points to the downloadable file)

There can be one column per language, enabling translation of Madek into different languages.
The default language is German (de).

Tip: It is possible to search for a specific key on github to see where it is used in the source code.
Ex.: https://github.com/Madek/madek-webapp/search?utf8=✓&q=sitemap_my_archive

Translator Guidelines

Edit translations or start a new one by opening the translations.csv file in a spreadsheet editor (LibreOffice, Google Docs, Excel).

This file is found in the madek-webapp repository under config/locale/translations.csv. After editing it with an editor, it needs to be exported to csv again and checked into the repository.

Usage in source code

Ruby:

Rails Guide: Rails Internationalization (I18n) API

I18n.locale = 'de'
string = t(:the_key_name)
string = I18n.t(:the_key_name) # when the short helper is not available

JavaScript/CoffeeScript:

t = require('app/assets/javascripts/lib/string-translation.coffee')('de')
string = t('the_key_name')

Rules for developers

Reasoning: keep it simple and consistent to make search and replace more easy later.

• Ruby: Always use symbols for keys.
• Ruby/JS: Never build a key dynamically (for example by defining a 'base key' and then appending some specific name at the end inside a map).

# BAD:
section = 'foo'
[{ id: 'bar', n: 1}, { id: 'baz', n: 2}].map do |id, n|
  puts t("#{section}_#{id}") + ': ' n
end
# GOOD:
[{ title: t(:foo_bar), n: 1}, { title: t(:foo_baz), n: 2}].map do |title, n|
  puts title + ': ' n
end