Internationalization

Elixir has excellent internationalization support via the Gettext library. To use it with your Mithril project, call the Mithril generator with the --gettext option.

$ mix gen mithril intl --gettext

Read the Gettext docs for details on how it works.

Where to Translate

Translations are interface concerns, and therefore belong in client applications like your Phoenix app or GraphQL app. Your logic application should return atoms like :not_found or :unauthorized, and leave translation up to the client.

{:error, :not_found}
{:error, :unauthorized}

How to Translate

It’s important to bear in mind how the translator will interact with your Gettext files. When you add a string to the application, you’re going to send over a blank or partially filled out Gettext file to a translator.

The translator will use his own Gettext software to open up the file and will see an interface much like this:

The translator needs to see the English string as the key for the translation so that they know how to translate it. This means that you should use full, English strings everywhere, not shorthand, because the string you pass in becomes the key for the translation.

# Good
put_flash(conn, :error, gettext("Record not found!"))

# Bad
put_flash(conn, :error, gettext("not_found"))

Reusing Messages

Mithril generates a MyAppWeb.Messages module to make it easy to reuse common messages as functions.

defmodule MyAppWeb.Messages do
  import MyAppWeb.Gettext

  def not_found do
    gettext("Record not found!")
  end
end

If you need variables in your message, pass them as arguments:

def password_reset(email) do
  dgettext("accounts", "Password reset instructions sent! (If %{email} is a real account)", email: email)
end

You can then easily use those messages anywhere in the my_app_web app. (It’s automatically aliased in all your controllers and views)

alias MyAppWeb.Messages

put_flash(conn, :error, Messages.not_found())

Software to Recommend

Most translators will be familiar with the .po file format that Gettext uses, and already have their favorite software. However, if this is not the case, you can recommend the following software options:

• POEdit (MacOS app)
• POEditor (Online SaaS)