The Ruby I18n (shorthand for _internationalization_) gem which is shipped with Ruby on Rails (starting from Rails 2.2) provides an easy-to-use and extensible framework for **translating your application to a single custom language** other than English or for **providing multi-language support** in your application.
The process of "internationalization" usually means to abstract all strings and other locale specific bits (such as date or currency formats) out of your application. The process of "localization" means to provide translations and localized formats for these bits.[^1]
So, in the process of _internationalizing_ your Rails application you have to:
NOTE: The Ruby I18n framework provides you with all necessary means for internationalization/localization of your Rails application. You may, also use various gems available to add additional functionality or features. See the [rails-i18n gem](https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n) for more information.
Internationalization is a complex problem. Natural languages differ in so many ways (e.g. in pluralization rules) that it is hard to provide tools for solving all problems at once. For that reason the Rails I18n API focuses on:
* providing support for English and similar languages out of the box
* making it easy to customize and extend everything for other languages
As part of this solution, **every static string in the Rails framework** - e.g. Active Record validation messages, time and date formats - **has been internationalized**. _Localization_ of a Rails application means defining translated values for these strings in desired languages.
* A default backend (which is intentionally named _Simple_ backend) that implements these methods
As a user you should always only access the public methods on the I18n module, but it is useful to know about the capabilities of the backend.
NOTE: It is possible (or even desirable) to swap the shipped Simple backend with a more powerful one, which would store translation data in a relational database, GetText dictionary, or similar. See section [Using different backends](#using-different-backends) below.
### The Public I18n API
The most important methods of the I18n API are:
```ruby
translate # Lookup text translations
localize # Localize Date and Time objects to local formats
```
These have the aliases #t and #l so you can use them like this:
```ruby
I18n.t 'store.title'
I18n.l Time.now
```
There are also attribute readers and writers for the following attributes:
```ruby
load_path # Announce your custom translation files
locale # Get and set the current locale
default_locale # Get and set the default locale
exception_handler # Use a different exception_handler
backend # Use a different backend
```
So, let's internationalize a simple Rails application from the ground up in the next chapters!
Setup the Rails Application for Internationalization
Following the _convention over configuration_ philosophy, Rails I18n provides reasonable default translation strings. When different translation strings are needed, they can be overridden.
This means, that in the `:en` locale, the key _hello_ will map to the _Hello world_ string. Every string inside Rails is internationalized in this way, see for instance Active Model validation messages in the [`activemodel/lib/active_model/locale/en.yml`](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activemodel/lib/active_model/locale/en.yml) file or time and date formats in the [`activesupport/lib/active_support/locale/en.yml`](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/locale/en.yml) file. You can use YAML or standard Ruby Hashes to store translations in the default (Simple) backend.
NOTE: The i18n library takes a **pragmatic approach** to locale keys (after [some discussion](http://groups.google.com/group/rails-i18n/browse_thread/thread/14dede2c7dbe9470/80eec34395f64f3c?hl=en)), including only the _locale_ ("language") part, like `:en`, `:pl`, not the _region_ part, like `:en-US` or `:en-GB`, which are traditionally used for separating "languages" and "regional setting" or "dialects". Many international applications use only the "language" element of a locale such as `:cs`, `:th` or `:es` (for Czech, Thai and Spanish). However, there are also regional differences within different language groups that may be important. For instance, in the `:en-US` locale you would have $ as a currency symbol, while in `:en-GB`, you would have £. Nothing stops you from separating regional and other settings in this way: you just have to provide full "English - United Kingdom" locale in a `:en-GB` dictionary. Few gems such as [Globalize3](https://github.com/globalize/globalize) may help you implement it.
The **translations load path** (`I18n.load_path`) is an array of paths to files that will be loaded automatically. Configuring this path allows for customization of translations directory structure and file naming scheme.
NOTE: The backend lazy-loads these translations when a translation is looked up for the first time. This backend can be swapped with something else even after translations have already been announced.
A localized application will likely need to provide support for multiple locales. To accomplish this, the locale should be set at the beginning of each request so that all strings are translated using the desired locale during the lifetime of that request.
This example illustrates this using a URL query parameter to set the locale (e.g. `http://example.com/books?locale=pt`). With this approach, `http://localhost:3000?locale=pt` renders the Portuguese localization, while `http://localhost:3000?locale=de` loads a German localization.
One option you have is to set the locale from the domain name where your application runs. For example, we want `www.example.com` to load the English (or default) locale, and `www.example.es` to load the Spanish locale. Thus the _top-level domain name_ is used for locale setting. This has several advantages:
* The locale is an _obvious_ part of the URL.
* People intuitively grasp in which language the content will be displayed.
* It is very trivial to implement in Rails.
* Search engines seem to like that content in different languages lives at different, inter-linked domains.
You can implement it like this in your `ApplicationController`:
assuming you would set `APP_CONFIG[:deutsch_website_url]` to some value like `http://www.application.de`.
This solution has aforementioned advantages, however, you may not be able or may not want to provide different localizations ("language versions") on different domains. The most obvious solution would be to include locale code in the URL params (or request path).
The most usual way of setting (and passing) the locale would be to include it in URL params, as we did in the `I18n.locale = params[:locale]` _before_action_ in the first example. We would like to have URLs like `www.example.com/books?locale=ja` or `www.example.com/ja/books` in this case.
This approach has almost the same set of advantages as setting the locale from the domain name: namely that it's RESTful and in accord with the rest of the World Wide Web. It does require a little bit more work to implement, though.
Getting the locale from `params` and setting it accordingly is not hard; including it in every URL and thus **passing it through the requests** is. To include an explicit option in every URL, e.g. `link_to(books_url(locale: I18n.locale))`, would be tedious and probably impossible, of course.
Rails contains infrastructure for "centralizing dynamic decisions about the URLs" in its [`ApplicationController#default_url_options`](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionDispatch/Routing/Mapper/Base.html#method-i-default_url_options), which is useful precisely in this scenario: it enables us to set "defaults" for [`url_for`](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionDispatch/Routing/UrlFor.html#method-i-url_for) and helper methods dependent on it (by implementing/overriding this method).
Every helper method dependent on `url_for` (e.g. helpers for named routes like `root_path` or `root_url`, resource routes like `books_path` or `books_url`, etc.) will now **automatically include the locale in the query string**, like this: `http://localhost:3001/?locale=ja`.
You may be satisfied with this. It does impact the readability of URLs, though, when the locale "hangs" at the end of every URL in your application. Moreover, from the architectural standpoint, locale is usually hierarchically above the other parts of the application domain: and URLs should reflect this.
You probably want URLs to look like this: `www.example.com/en/books` (which loads the English locale) and `www.example.com/nl/books` (which loads the Dutch locale). This is achievable with the "over-riding `default_url_options`" strategy from above: you just have to set up your routes with [`scoping`](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionDispatch/Routing/Mapper/Scoping.html) option in this way:
```ruby
# config/routes.rb
scope "/:locale" do
resources :books
end
```
Now, when you call the `books_path` method you should get `"/en/books"` (for the default locale). An URL like `http://localhost:3001/nl/books` should load the Dutch locale, then, and following calls to `books_path` should return `"/nl/books"` (because the locale changed).
If you don't want to force the use of a locale in your routes you can use an optional path scope (denoted by the parentheses) like so:
```ruby
# config/routes.rb
scope "(:locale)", locale: /en|nl/ do
resources :books
end
```
With this approach you will not get a `Routing Error` when accessing your resources such as `http://localhost:3001/books` without a locale. This is useful for when you want to use the default locale when one is not specified.
Of course, you need to take special care of the root URL (usually "homepage" or "dashboard") of your application. An URL like `http://localhost:3001/nl` will not work automatically, because the `root to: "books#index"` declaration in your `routes.rb` doesn't take locale into account. (And rightly so: there's only one "root" URL.)
Do take special care about the **order of your routes**, so this route declaration does not "eat" other ones. (You may want to add it directly before the `root :to` declaration.)
NOTE: Have a look at various gems which simplify working with routes: [routing_filter](https://github.com/svenfuchs/routing-filter/tree/master), [rails-translate-routes](https://github.com/francesc/rails-translate-routes), [route_translator](https://github.com/enriclluelles/route_translator).
An application with authenticated users may allow users to set a locale preference through the application's interface. With this approach, a user's selected locale preference is persisted in the database and used to set the locale for authenticated requests by that user.
The `Accept-Language` HTTP header indicates the preferred language for request's response. Browsers [set this header value based on the user's language preference settings](http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-lang-priorities), making it a good first choice when inferring a locale.
In practice, more robust code is necessary to do this reliably. Iain Hecker's [http_accept_language](https://github.com/iain/http_accept_language/tree/master) library or Ryan Tomayko's [locale](https://github.com/rack/rack-contrib/blob/master/lib/rack/contrib/locale.rb) Rack middleware provide solutions to this problem.
The IP address of the client making the request can be used to infer the client's region and thus their locale. Services such as [GeoIP Lite Country](http://www.maxmind.com/app/geolitecountry) or gems like [geocoder](https://github.com/alexreisner/geocoder) can be used to implement this approach.
WARNING: You may be tempted to store the chosen locale in a _session_ or a *cookie*. However, **do not do this**. The locale should be transparent and a part of the URL. This way you won't break people's basic assumptions about the web itself: if you send a URL to a friend, they should see the same page and content as you. A fancy word for this would be that you're being [*RESTful*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer). Read more about the RESTful approach in [Stefan Tilkov's articles](http://www.infoq.com/articles/rest-introduction). Sometimes there are exceptions to this rule and those are discussed below.
Next we need to _internationalize_ our application by abstracting every locale-specific element. Finally, we need to _localize_ it by providing necessary translations for these abstracts.
There are two strings in our code that are in English and that users will be rendered in our response ("Hello Flash" and "Hello World"). In order to internationalize this code, these strings need to be replaced by calls to Rails' `#t` helper with an appropriate key for each string:
Now, when this view is rendered, it will show an error message which tells you that the translations for the keys `:hello_world` and `:hello_flash` are missing.
NOTE: Rails adds a `t` (`translate`) helper method to your views so that you do not need to spell out `I18n.t` all the time. Additionally this helper will catch missing translations and wrap the resulting error message into a `<span class="translation_missing">`.
NOTE: You need to restart the server when you add new locale files.
You may use YAML (`.yml`) or plain Ruby (`.rb`) files for storing your translations in SimpleStore. YAML is the preferred option among Rails developers. However, it has one big disadvantage. YAML is very sensitive to whitespace and special characters, so the application may not load your dictionary properly. Ruby files will crash your application on first request, so you may easily find what's wrong. (If you encounter any "weird issues" with YAML dictionaries, try putting the relevant portion of your dictionary into a Ruby file.)
OK! Now let's add a timestamp to the view, so we can demo the **date/time localization** feature as well. To localize the time format you pass the Time object to `I18n.l` or (preferably) use Rails' `#l` helper. You can pick a format by passing the `:format` option - by default the `:default` format is used.
TIP: Right now you might need to add some more date/time formats in order to make the I18n backend work as expected (at least for the 'pirate' locale). Of course, there's a great chance that somebody already did all the work by **translating Rails' defaults for your locale**. See the [rails-i18n repository at GitHub](https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master/rails/locale) for an archive of various locale files. When you put such file(s) in `config/locales/` directory, they will automatically be ready for use.
Rails allows you to define inflection rules (such as rules for singularization and pluralization) for locales other than English. In `config/initializers/inflections.rb`, you can define these rules for multiple locales. The initializer contains a default example for specifying additional rules for English; follow that format for other locales as you see fit.
Let's say you have a _BooksController_ in your application. Your _index_ action renders content in `app/views/books/index.html.erb` template. When you put a _localized variant_ of this template: `index.es.html.erb` in the same directory, Rails will render content in this template, when the locale is set to `:es`. When the locale is set to the default locale, the generic `index.html.erb` view will be used. (Future Rails versions may well bring this _automagic_ localization to assets in `public`, etc.)
You can make use of this feature, e.g. when working with a large amount of static content, which would be clumsy to put inside YAML or Ruby dictionaries. Bear in mind, though, that any change you would like to do later to the template must be propagated to all of them.
### Organization of Locale Files
When you are using the default SimpleStore shipped with the i18n library, dictionaries are stored in plain-text files on the disc. Putting translations for all parts of your application in one file per locale could be hard to manage. You can store these files in a hierarchy which makes sense to you.
For example, your `config/locales` directory could look like this:
```
|-defaults
|---es.rb
|---en.rb
|-models
|---book
|-----es.rb
|-----en.rb
|-views
|---defaults
|-----es.rb
|-----en.rb
|---books
|-----es.rb
|-----en.rb
|---users
|-----es.rb
|-----en.rb
|---navigation
|-----es.rb
|-----en.rb
```
This way, you can separate model and model attribute names from text inside views, and all of this from the "defaults" (e.g. date and time formats). Other stores for the i18n library could provide different means of such separation.
NOTE: The default locale loading mechanism in Rails does not load locale files in nested dictionaries, like we have here. So, for this to work, we must explicitly tell Rails to look further:
These chapters will show examples using both the `I18n.translate` method as well as the [`translate` view helper method](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/TranslationHelper.html#method-i-translate) (noting the additional feature provide by the view helper method).
The `translate` method also takes a `:scope` option which can contain one or more additional keys that will be used to specify a "namespace" or scope for a translation key:
When a `:default` option is given, its value will be returned if the translation is missing:
```ruby
I18n.t :missing, default: 'Not here'
# => 'Not here'
```
If the `:default` value is a Symbol, it will be used as a key and translated. One can provide multiple values as default. The first one that results in a value will be returned.
E.g., the following first tries to translate the key `:missing` and then the key `:also_missing.` As both do not yield a result, the string "Not here" will be returned:
To look up multiple translations at once, an array of keys can be passed:
```ruby
I18n.t [:odd, :even], scope: 'errors.messages'
# => ["must be odd", "must be even"]
```
Also, a key can translate to a (potentially nested) hash of grouped translations. E.g., one can receive _all_ Active Record error messages as a Hash with:
In English there are only one singular and one plural form for a given string, e.g. "1 message" and "2 messages". Other languages ([Arabic](http://unicode.org/repos/cldr-tmp/trunk/diff/supplemental/language_plural_rules.html#ar), [Japanese](http://unicode.org/repos/cldr-tmp/trunk/diff/supplemental/language_plural_rules.html#ja), [Russian](http://unicode.org/repos/cldr-tmp/trunk/diff/supplemental/language_plural_rules.html#ru) and many more) have different grammars that have additional or fewer [plural forms](http://unicode.org/repos/cldr-tmp/trunk/diff/supplemental/language_plural_rules.html). Thus, the I18n API provides a flexible pluralization feature.
The `:count` interpolation variable has a special role in that it both is interpolated to the translation and used to pick a pluralization from the translations according to the pluralization rules defined by CLDR:
```ruby
I18n.backend.store_translations :en, inbox: {
one: 'one message',
other: '%{count} messages'
}
I18n.translate :inbox, count: 2
# => '2 messages'
I18n.translate :inbox, count: 1
# => 'one message'
```
The algorithm for pluralizations in `:en` is as simple as:
```ruby
entry[count == 1 ? 0 : 1]
```
I.e. the translation denoted as `:one` is regarded as singular, the other is used as plural (including the count being zero).
The locale can be either set pseudo-globally to `I18n.locale` (which uses `Thread.current` like, e.g., `Time.zone`) or can be passed as an option to `#translate` and `#localize`.
If no locale is passed, `I18n.locale` is used:
```ruby
I18n.locale = :de
I18n.t :foo
I18n.l Time.now
```
Explicitly passing a locale:
```ruby
I18n.t :foo, locale: :de
I18n.l Time.now, locale: :de
```
The `I18n.locale` defaults to `I18n.default_locale` which defaults to :`en`. The default locale can be set like this:
### Translations for Active Record Models
You can use the methods `Model.model_name.human` and `Model.human_attribute_name(attribute)` to transparently look up translations for your model and attribute names.
For example when you add the following translations:
In the event you need to access nested attributes within a given model, you should nest these under `model/attribute` at the model level of your translation file:
```yaml
en:
activerecord:
attributes:
user/gender:
female: "Female"
male: "Male"
```
Then `User.human_attribute_name("gender.female")` will return "Female".
Active Record validation error messages can also be translated easily. Active Record gives you a couple of namespaces where you can place your message translations in order to provide different messages and translation for certain models, attributes, and/or validations. It also transparently takes single table inheritance into account.
This gives you quite powerful means to flexibly adjust your messages to your application's needs.
Consider a User model with a validation for the name attribute like this:
```ruby
class User <ActiveRecord::Base
validates :name, presence: true
end
```
The key for the error message in this case is `:blank`. Active Record will look up this key in the namespaces:
This way you can provide special translations for various error messages at different points in your models inheritance chain and in the attributes, models, or default scopes.
#### Error Message Interpolation
The translated model name, translated attribute name, and value are always available for interpolation.
So, for example, instead of the default error message `"cannot be blank"` you could use the attribute name like this : `"Please fill in your %{attribute}"`.
*`distance_of_time_in_words` translates and pluralizes its result and interpolates the number of seconds, minutes, hours, and so on. See [datetime.distance_in_words](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionview/lib/action_view/locale/en.yml#L4) translations.
*`datetime_select` and `select_month` use translated month names for populating the resulting select tag. See [date.month_names](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/locale/en.yml#L15) for translations. `datetime_select` also looks up the order option from [date.order](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/locale/en.yml#L18) (unless you pass the option explicitly). All date selection helpers translate the prompt using the translations in the [datetime.prompts](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionview/lib/action_view/locale/en.yml#L39) scope if applicable.
* The `number_to_currency`, `number_with_precision`, `number_to_percentage`, `number_with_delimiter`, and `number_to_human_size` helpers use the number format settings located in the [number](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/locale/en.yml#L37) scope.
*`model_name.human` and `human_attribute_name` use translations for model names and attribute names if available in the [activerecord.models](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activerecord/lib/active_record/locale/en.yml#L36) scope. They also support translations for inherited class names (e.g. for use with STI) as explained above in "Error message scopes".
*`ActiveModel::Errors#generate_message` (which is used by Active Model validations but may also be used manually) uses `model_name.human` and `human_attribute_name` (see above). It also translates the error message and supports translations for inherited class names as explained above in "Error message scopes".
*`ActiveModel::Errors#full_messages` prepends the attribute name to the error message using a separator that will be looked up from [errors.format](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activemodel/lib/active_model/locale/en.yml#L4) (and which defaults to `"%{attribute} %{message}"`).
*`Array#to_sentence` uses format settings as given in the [support.array](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/locale/en.yml#L33) scope.
The Simple backend shipped with Active Support allows you to store translations in both plain Ruby and YAML format.[^2]
For example a Ruby Hash providing translations can look like this:
```yaml
{
pt: {
foo: {
bar: "baz"
}
}
}
```
The equivalent YAML file would look like this:
```yaml
pt:
foo:
bar: baz
```
As you see, in both cases the top level key is the locale. `:foo` is a namespace key and `:bar` is the key for the translation "baz".
Here is a "real" example from the Active Support `en.yml` translations YAML file:
```yaml
en:
date:
formats:
default: "%Y-%m-%d"
short: "%b %d"
long: "%B %d, %Y"
```
So, all of the following equivalent lookups will return the `:short` date format `"%b %d"`:
```ruby
I18n.t 'date.formats.short'
I18n.t 'formats.short', scope: :date
I18n.t :short, scope: 'date.formats'
I18n.t :short, scope: [:date, :formats]
```
Generally we recommend using YAML as a format for storing translations. There are cases, though, where you want to store Ruby lambdas as part of your locale data, e.g. for special date formats.
For several reasons the Simple backend shipped with Active Support only does the "simplest thing that could possibly work" _for Ruby on Rails_[^3] ... which means that it is only guaranteed to work for English and, as a side effect, languages that are very similar to English. Also, the simple backend is only capable of reading translations but cannot dynamically store them to any format.
That does not mean you're stuck with these limitations, though. The Ruby I18n gem makes it very easy to exchange the Simple backend implementation with something else that fits better for your needs. E.g. you could exchange it with Globalize's Static backend:
```ruby
I18n.backend = Globalize::Backend::Static.new
```
You can also use the Chain backend to chain multiple backends together. This is useful when you want to use standard translations with a Simple backend but store custom application translations in a database or other backends. For example, you could use the Active Record backend and fall back to the (default) Simple backend:
The I18n API will catch all of these exceptions when they are thrown in the backend and pass them to the default_exception_handler method. This method will re-raise all exceptions except for `MissingTranslationData` exceptions. When a `MissingTranslationData` exception has been caught, it will return the exception's error message string containing the missing key/scope.
In other contexts you might want to change this behavior, though. E.g. the default exception handling does not allow to catch missing translations during automated tests easily. For this purpose a different exception handler can be specified. The specified exception handler must be a method on the I18n module or a class with `#call` method:
This would re-raise only the `MissingTranslationData` exception, passing all other input to the default exception handler.
However, if you are using `I18n::Backend::Pluralization` this handler will also raise `I18n::MissingTranslationData: translation missing: en.i18n.plural.rule` exception that should normally be ignored to fall back to the default pluralization rule for English locale. To avoid this you may use additional check for translation key:
Another example where the default behavior is less desirable is the Rails TranslationHelper which provides the method `#t` (as well as `#translate`). When a `MissingTranslationData` exception occurs in this context, the helper wraps the message into a span with the CSS class `translation_missing`.
To do so, the helper forces `I18n#translate` to raise exceptions no matter what exception handler is defined by setting the `:raise` option:
```ruby
I18n.t :foo, raise: true # always re-raises exceptions from the backend
```
Conclusion
----------
At this point you should have a good overview about how I18n support in Ruby on Rails works and are ready to start translating your project.
If you find anything missing or wrong in this guide, please file a ticket on our [issue tracker](http://i18n.lighthouseapp.com/projects/14948-rails-i18n/overview). If you want to discuss certain portions or have questions, please sign up to our [mailing list](http://groups.google.com/group/rails-i18n).
I18n support in Ruby on Rails was introduced in the release 2.2 and is still evolving. The project follows the good Ruby on Rails development tradition of evolving solutions in gems and real applications first, and only then cherry-picking the best-of-breed of most widely useful features for inclusion in the core.
Thus we encourage everybody to experiment with new ideas and features in gems or other libraries and make them available to the community. (Don't forget to announce your work on our [mailing list](http://groups.google.com/group/rails-i18n!))
If you find your own locale (language) missing from our [example translations data](https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master/rails/locale) repository for Ruby on Rails, please [_fork_](https://github.com/guides/fork-a-project-and-submit-your-modifications) the repository, add your data and send a [pull request](https://github.com/guides/pull-requests).
Resources
---------
* [Google group: rails-i18n](http://groups.google.com/group/rails-i18n) - The project's mailing list.
* [GitHub: rails-i18n](https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master) - Code repository for the rails-i18n project. Most importantly you can find lots of [example translations](https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master/rails/locale) for Rails that should work for your application in most cases.
* [GitHub: i18n](https://github.com/svenfuchs/i18n/tree/master) - Code repository for the i18n gem.
[^1]: Or, to quote [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization): _"Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes. Localization is the process of adapting software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text."_
[^2]: Other backends might allow or require to use other formats, e.g. a GetText backend might allow to read GetText files.
[^3]: One of these reasons is that we don't want to imply any unnecessary load for applications that do not need any I18n capabilities, so we need to keep the I18n library as simple as possible for English. Another reason is that it is virtually impossible to implement a one-fits-all solution for all problems related to I18n for all existing languages. So a solution that allows us to exchange the entire implementation easily is appropriate anyway. This also makes it much easier to experiment with custom features and extensions.
