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https://github.com/akoenig/express-lingua

An i18n middleware for the Express.js framework.
https://github.com/akoenig/express-lingua

Last synced: 19 days ago
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An i18n middleware for the Express.js framework.

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README

        

# Lingua

Lingua is a middleware for the Express.js framework that helps you to internationalise your webapp easily. It determines the language of the user agent and pushes the i18n resources to your views.

## Installation

$ npm install lingua

## Quick Start

Using lingua comes down with four simple steps:

1. **Grab lingua**

```javascript

var express = require('express'),
lingua = require('lingua');

...
// Express init code goes here
...

// Express app configuration code and lingua init.
app.configure(function() {
...
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

// Lingua configuration
app.use(lingua(app, {
defaultLocale: 'en',
path: __dirname + '/i18n'
}));

app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
app.use(app.router);

...
});
```
_Note:_ Please ensure that the call: "app.use(app.router);" is the last entry in your configuration section.

2. **Create i18n resource files** - Note that you have to create a resource file for your default language. (In this example: './i18n/en.json' and './i18n/de-de.json').

```javascript
// en.json
{
"title": "Hello World",
"content": {
"description": "A little description."
}
}

// de-de.json
{
"title": "Hallo Welt",
"content": {
"description": "Eine kleine Beschreibung."
}
}
```

3.
a. **Use lingua in your views - Static output** - Note that the syntax depends on your template engine. In this example it is: [ejs](http://embeddedjs.com/) and the request comes from a browser which sends 'en' with the HTTP request header.

```html

<%= lingua.title %>


<%= lingua.content.description %>
```

b. **Use lingua in your views - Dynamic output** - Sometimes it is necessary to handle dynamic data within your express route and pass it to the template. What if your i18n resource includes placeholders ("{key}") within a string where you can put in your dynamic data? Well, it is possible. First of all, look at this i18n resource file:

```javascript
// de.json
{
"greeting": "Hallo {name}. Dieser Schlüssel {code} wurde für Dich generiert."
}
```

Now it is possible to transfer an object from your route into your template:

```javascript
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
var names = ['Sarah', 'Thomas', 'Claudia'];

res.render('index', {
person: {
name: names[Math.floor(Math.random()*names.length)],
code: Math.round(Math.random()*100)
}
});
});
```

And finally you can execute the i18n resource (yes, you can execute it (: ) and pass your data model to this function:

```html

<%= lingua.greeting(person) %>


```

_Note:_ Every i18n resource which contains placeholders like in the example above is a function after you've started the application.

4. **Let the user select a language** - Note that the user's selection is persisted within a cookie. This is an optional step. If you want to let lingua determine the user language from the browser configuration then leave this step out. Anyway, this is a very handy feature for switching the language by a user decision.

```html
de-DE
en-US
```

You can configure lingua in order to change the name of this parameter.

```javascript

// Express app configuration code and lingua init.
app.configure(function() {
...

// Lingua configuration
app.use(lingua(app, {
defaultLocale: 'en',
path: __dirname + '/i18n',
storageKey: 'lang' // http://domain.tld/?lang=de
}));

...
});
```

The cookie lingua uses expires in one year, and includes the httpOnly flag to prevent clientside access from Javascript. You can override these settings by providing a cookieOptions key during configuration.

```javascript

// Express app configuration code and lingua init.
app.configure(function() {
...

// Lingua configuration
app.use(lingua(app, {
defaultLocale: 'en',
path: __dirname + '/i18n',
storageKey: 'lang', // http://domain.tld/?lang=de
cookieOptions: {
domain: '.domain.tld', // to allow subdomains access to the same cookie, for instance
path: '/blog', // to restrict the language cookie to a path
httpOnly: false, // if you need access to this cookie from javascript on the client
expires: new Date(Date.now() + 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // expire in 1 day instead of 1 year
secure: true // for serving over https
}
}));

...
});
```

## Example Application

There is an example application at [./example](https://github.com/akoenig/express-lingua/tree/master/example)

To run it:

$ cd example
$ npm i
$ node app.js

## License

[MIT License](http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php)

## Author

Copyright (c) 2013, [André König](http://iam.andrekoenig.info)