Rails / I18n: default scope

Question

I'm using the default I18n module for Rails to translate my strings in views.

<%= t("registration.heading") %>

Now, when I'm in the registration-view, all my strings start with registration. I always have to write

<%= t("registration.heading.notice") %>
// or
<%= t(:heading, :scope => :registration) %>

It would be nice to define a default scope for that file (maybe even in the controller), so a call to t automatically adds the defined scope

// controller
set_i18n_default_scope :registration

// view
<%= t(:heading) %>

// --> looks in "registration.heading"

Is this possible?

there is a general solution for this kind of problem - check my answer below... — Tilo, Oct 08 '11 at 11:14

Arsen7 · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-04T11:39:57.747

19

If you organize your translations adding a view name, as in:

en:
  registration:
    index:
      heading: "Registration heading"

then you may use this:

<%= t(".heading") %>

Notice that the first character is a dot.

You may read about it in Rails Internationalization (I18n) API Guide

If you have texts which are shared amongst numerous views, and you don't want to copy the same translation in each section for each view, you may use YAML references. They are nicely described on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML#Repeated_nodes

edited Jun 04 '14 at 11:39

answered May 26 '11 at 12:03

Arsen7

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thanks. You were the first one, so accepted it! Missed that part about lazy lookups.... – Markus May 26 '11 at 12:09
3

Also note that t(".heading") works while I18n.t(".heading") doesn't! – lamu Dec 07 '12 at 04:33
That YAML anchor no longer exists. Here's an updated one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML#Repeated_nodes – jwadsack Jun 04 '14 at 03:37
Updated. Thanks jwadsack :) – Arsen7 Jun 04 '14 at 11:40
1

FYI: I wrote a gem that lets you customise lazy lookup: https://github.com/abitdodgy/i18n_lazy_scope - Lazy lookup by default forces you to use the Rails structure, which is not always idea. – Mohamad Feb 19 '15 at 19:25

bbonamin · Answer 2 · 2011-05-26T12:09:17.310

8

It is possible. Check section 4.1.4 of the Rails i18n API

4.1.4 “Lazy” Lookup

Rails 2.3 implements a convenient way to look up the locale inside views. When you have the following dictionary:

  es:   books:
          index:
             title: "Título"

you can look up the books.index.title value inside

app/views/books/index.html.erb template like this (note the dot):

<%= t '.title' %>

edited May 26 '11 at 12:09

answered May 26 '11 at 12:02

bbonamin

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Tilo · Answer 3 · 2018-08-20T17:48:27.580

Regarding Lazy Lookups:

Here's the general solution for this kind of problem

Common Problem: Where is Rails trying to look-up L10N / I18N Strings? - e.g. when doing Lazy Lookups

It's not easy to guess, because it's different for Views, Controllers, Models, Labels, Helpers, or Validations... etc... but...

It's easy to find out directly, using this:

http://www.unixgods.org/Rails/where_is_Rails_trying_to_lookup_L10N_strings.html

this helps figuring out what Rails thinks the current scope is (e.g. when using ".heading")

3 Simple Steps:

create a file ./config/initializers/i18n.rb , as described in the article above
put t('.heading') in your view
start "rails server" and look in the console output where Rails thinks the default location is for '.heading' for this view... e.g. what's the I18N-key

(4. then add the I18N string into the location identified by the key)

Works like a charm :-)

this is not needed at least in rails 4: on a missing translation I get something like `translation missing: de.activerecord.attributes....` so I see what is missing. — Markus, Feb 09 '14 at 15:59
that's great that it's now finally complaining in Rails 4 -- but why the down-vote? — Tilo, Feb 13 '14 at 01:11

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 24 '15 at 19:38

If you want to print out keys that I18n gem's lazy mode is looking for, you can add that in a i18n.rb file in your initializers folder:

module I18n
  module Backend
    class Simple
      module Implementation
        alias_method :lookup_orig, :lookup

        # Give ability to check I18n looked up keys in lazy mode by setting env var I18N_DEBUG to true
        # 
        def lookup(locale, key, scope = [], options = {})
          puts "I18N keys: #{I18n.normalize_keys(locale, key, scope, options[:separator])}" if ENV['I18N_DEBUG']
          lookup_orig(locale, key, scope, options)
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

(Gist: https://gist.github.com/capripot/6e6cf778ad2db0443280)

And then start your server like for instance:

I18N_DEBUG=true bundle exec rails server

Rails / I18n: default scope

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