Locale

The localeapp gem connects your rails app to the Locale service on localeapp.com. Locale makes hand editing translation files something you don’t have to do.

The gem hooks into the i18n exception mechanism to send missing translations to the app. When translated content has been added it’s automatically pulled down so you can see it straight away.

We’re still in private beta but if you think Locale would be useful to you and are willing to provide feedback then please get in touch at info@localeapp.com and we’ll see what we can do.

Installation

Rails 3

Add the localeapp gem to your Gemfile and install it:

  echo "gem 'localeapp'" >> Gemfile
  bundle install

Create a project on localeapp.com and get the api key. Then run:

  bundle exec localeapp install <YOUR_API_KEY>

This will check everything looks good and create config/initializers/localeapp.rb for you.

Rails 2.3

Define localeapp in config/environment.rb:

  config.gem 'localeapp'

Install the gem:

  rake gems:install

Create a project on localeapp.com and get the api key. Then run:

  localeapp install <YOUR_API_KEY>

Importing existing content

You can import via localeapp.com or with the command line tool. To import existing translations do:

  localeapp import config/locales/en.yml

This will queue importing the file. The projects pages on localeapp.com will automatically refresh so you can see the import progress.

If you’ve more than one locale to import you can zip up the yml files. Both localeapp.com and the localeapp import command accept zip files.

Automatically sending missing translations

Missing translations are automatically sent only in the development environment by default. When a page is refreshed any missing translations will be sent to localeapp.com.

If you want to disable sending missing translations in the development environment then edit config/initializers/localeapp.rb to include:

  config.disabled_sending_environments << 'development'

This is just an array, so you can configure it to match any environment you wish.

Automatically pulling translations

There are two ways to do this, one that suits a single developer working the code locally and one where the translations are being pulled down to a staging (or live) server.

Single developer

In this mode the gem pulls any updated translations from localeapp.com at the beginning of each request. This is the default setting so you don’t need to do anything special.

Staging server

In this mode you configure the individual listeners to not poll every request and instead run localeapp in daemon mode to fetch updated translations. This is useful when you have more than one listener and don’t want them to race to update the translations.

Disabling polling

Edit config/initializers/localeapp.rb to include:

  config.disabled_polling_environments << 'development'

Run the daemon with:

  localeapp daemon

The listeners will automatically reload translations when they see there are new ones.

Disabling Reloading

Automatic reloading is disabled everywhere but the development environment, and can be disabled there in a similar way to polling and sending:

  config.disabled_reloading_environments << 'development'

Inviting other developers and translators

You can invite other developers and translators via localeapp.com. Developers have access to all the content and all the locales. Translators are restricted to editing only the locales you give them access too.

Adding a locale

If we find an unknown locale during an import we’ll add it to your project. You can also add a new locale to a project via localeapp.com. This will create missing translations for every translation key. You will need to restart any listeners completely to pick up the new locale.

Support and feedback

You can contact us via the support link at the bottom of the page, emailing info@localeapp.com, or on campfire at https://localeapp.campfirenow.com/d77b5