JQuery.i18n replaces none existing key with the key name instead of the fallback text

Question

I am referring to https://github.com/wikimedia/jquery.i18n#data-api in the JQuery.i18n documentation:

<li data-i18n="message-key">Fallback text</li>

It is also possible to have the above li node with fallback text already in place.

Unfortunately I don't get this work. When I don't have message-key in the language file then JQuery.i18n displays instead of Fallback text the key: message-key

My question:

What am I doing wrong? As soon I add the key to the language file then it gets replaced, so apparently the language file is loaded correctly and also the function calls seem to work.

Peter VARGA · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-19T18:31:32.687

It seems to be a bug! I was checking the JQuery.i18n code and I found the problem.

It's all in jquery.i18n.js. It starts with this code in line #169:

if ( message === '' ) {
   message = key;
}

The if is executed when there is no text defined for the key and then the message becomes the key.

I commented the assignment:

if ( message === '' ) {
   // message = key;
}

Then I had to change in line #244 this code:

} else {
   $this.text( i18n.parse( messageKey ) );
}

to

} else {
   const translatedText = i18n.parse( messageKey );
   if ( '' !== translatedText ) {
      $this.text( translatedText  );
   }
}

Now the fallback text does work. The following comment in line number 165 seems to confirm it's a bug and the developer knows it but somehow he lives with it:

        // FIXME: This changes the state of the I18N object,
        // should probably not change the 'this.parser' but just
        // pass it to the parser.

If you apply this hack so consider also the modifications for html and other tags few lines above.

JQuery.i18n replaces none existing key with the key name instead of the fallback text

1 Answers1