Documentation

Localization feature provide a convenient way to retrieve strings in various languages, allowing you to easily support multiple languages within your application. Language strings are stored in files within the ./locales directory. Within this directory there should be a subdirectory for each language supported by the application:

│   main.go
└───locales
    ├───el-GR
    │       home.yml
    ├───en-US
    │       home.yml
    └───zh-CN
            home.yml

The default language for your application is the first registered language.

app := iris.New()

// First parameter: Glob filpath patern,
// Second variadic parameter: Optional language tags,
// the first one is the default/fallback one.
app.I18n.Load("./locales/*/*", "en-US", "el-GR", "zh-CN")

Or if you load all languages by filename:

app.I18n.Load("./locales/*/*")
// Then set the default language using:
app.I18n.SetDefault("en-US")

Load embedded locales

You may want to embed locales with the new embed directive within your application executable.

1. Import the embed package; if you don’t use any exported identifiers from this package, you can do a blank import with _ "embed".

import (
    "embed"
)

1. Embed directives accept paths relative to the directory containing the Go source file. We can embed multiple files or even folders with wildcards. This uses a variable of the embed.FS type, which implements a simple virtual file system.

//go:embed embedded/locales/*
var embeddedFS embed.FS

1. Instead of the Load method, we should use the LoadFS one.

err := app.I18n.LoadFS(embeddedFS, "./embedded/locales/*/*.ini", "en-US", "el-GR")
// OR to load all languages by filename:
// app.I18n.LoadFS(embeddedFS, "./embedded/locales/*/*.ini")
// Then set the default language using:
// app.I18n.SetDefault("en-US")

Defining Translations

Locale files can be written at YAML(recommended), JSON, TOML or INI form.

Each file should contain keys. Keys can have sub-keys(we call them "sections") too.

Each key's value should be of form string or map containing by its translated text (or template) or/and its pluralized key-values.

Iris i18n module supports pluralization out-of-the-box, see below.

Fmt Style

hi: "Hi %s!"

ctx.Tr("Hi", "John")
// Outputs: Hi John!

Template

hi: "Hi {{.Name}}!"

ctx.Tr("Hi", iris.Map{"Name": "John"})
// Outputs: Hi John!

Pluralization

Iris i18n supports plural variables. To define a per-locale variable you must define a new section of Vars key.

The acceptable keys for variables are:

• one

• "=x" where x is a number

• "<x"

• other

• format

Example:

Vars:
  - Minutes:
      one: "minute"
      other: "minutes"
  - Houses:
      one: "house"
      other: "houses"

Then, each message can use this variable, here's how:

# Using variables in raw string
YouLate: "You are %[1]d ${Minutes} late."
# [x] is the argument position,
# variables always have priority other fmt-style arguments,
# that's why we see [1] for houses and [2] for the string argument.
HouseCount: "%[2]s has %[1]d ${Houses}."

ctx.Tr("YouLate", 1)
// Outputs: You are 1 minute late.
ctx.Tr("YouLate", 10)
// Outputs: You are 10 minutes late.

ctx.Tr("HouseCount", 2, "John")
// Outputs: John has 2 houses.

You can select what message will be shown based on a given plural count.

Except variables, each message can also have its plural form too!

Acceptable keys:

• zero

• one

• two

• "=x"

• "<x"

• ">x"

• other

Let's create a simple plural-featured message, it can use the Minutes variable we created above too.

FreeDay:
  "=3": "You have three days and %[2]d ${Minutes} off." # "FreeDay" 3, 15
  one:  "You have a day off." # "FreeDay", 1
  other: "You have %[1]d free days." # "FreeDay", 5

ctx.Tr("FreeDay", 3, 15)
// Outputs: You have three days and 15 minutes off.
ctx.Tr("FreeDay", 1)
// Outputs: You have a day off.
ctx.Tr("FreeDay", 5)
// Outputs: You have 5 free days.

Let's continue with a bit more advanced example, using template text + functions + plural + variables.

Vars:
  - Houses:
      one: "house"
      other: "houses"
  - Gender:
      "=1": "She"
	  "=2": "He"

VarTemplatePlural:
  one: "${Gender} is awesome!"
  other: "other (${Gender}) has %[3]d ${Houses}."
  "=5": "{{call .InlineJoin .Names}} are awesome."

const (
	female = iota + 1
	male
)

ctx.Tr("VarTemplatePlural", iris.Map{
	"PluralCount": 5,
	"Names":       []string{"John", "Peter"},
	"InlineJoin": func(arr []string) string {
		return strings.Join(arr, ", ")
	},
})
// Outputs: John, Peter are awesome

ctx.Tr("VarTemplatePlural", 1, female)
// Outputs: She is awesome!

ctx.Tr("VarTemplatePlural", 2, female, 5)
// Outputs: other (She) has 5 houses.

Sections

If the key is not a reserved one (e.g. one, two...) then it acts as a sub section. The sections are separated by dot characters (.).

Welcome:
  Message: "Welcome {{.Name}}"

ctx.Tr("Welcome.Message", iris.Map{"Name": "John"})
// Outputs: Welcome John

Determining The Current Locale

You may use the context.GetLocale method to determine the current locale or check if the locale is a given value:

func(ctx iris.Context) {
    locale := ctx.GetLocale()
    // [...]
}

The Locale interface looks like this.

// Locale is the interface which returns from a `Localizer.GetLocale` metod.
// It serves the transltions based on "key" or format. See `GetMessage`.
type Locale interface {
    // Index returns the current locale index from the languages list.
    Index() int
    // Tag returns the full language Tag attached tothis Locale,
    // it should be uniue across different Locales.
    Tag() *language.Tag
    // Language should return the exact languagecode of this `Locale`
    //that the user provided on `New` function.
    //
    // Same as `Tag().String()` but it's static.
    Language() string
    // GetMessage should return translated text based n the given "key".
    GetMessage(key string, args ...interface{}) string
}

Retrieving Translation

Use of context.Tr method as a shortcut to get a translated text for this request.

func(ctx iris.Context) {
    text := ctx.Tr("hi", "name")
    // [...]
}

Inside Views

func(ctx iris.Context) {
    ctx.View("index.html", iris.Map{
        "tr": ctx.Tr,
    })
}