ilib-loctool-mrkdwn

Ilib loctool plugin to parse and localize the slack-flavored markdown known as "mrkdwn" encoded in js files.

File Format

A slack application can encode its strings as a simple js file with the properties being the unique ids of the strings, and the values being strings in mrkdwn format.

Example file:

export default messages = {
    // this is a translator's comment that explains the first string
    "unique id 1": "This is a *mrkdwn* string!",

    // this is a translator's comment that explains the second string
    "unique id 2": "This _is_ also a <http://example.com|mrkdwn string>."
};

Escapes

Whenever there is syntax in the mrkdwn that translators should not touch, this plugin converts them into xml-like components.

This is *bold* and _italic_ text.

Becomes the string:

This is <c0>bold</c0> and <c1>italic</c1> text.

for the translators.

In this way, translators only have to deal with xml-like syntax (which they are probably already familiar with) instead of the various methods of marking up text using mrkdwn.

Each component is numbered so that the translators can switch them around as appropriate for the grammar of their target language.

Code

Snippets of code are not processed. If there is an inline snippet of code, it will be considered part of the surrounding text and represented as an XML-like component. The text of the inline snippet will be put into the comments of the extracted string so that the translator knows what it is.

Example:

There are many instances of `numcount` used in the code.

becomes:

There are many instances of <c0/> used in the code.

for the translators.

Inline snippets are represented with self-closing XML tags.

Links, References, and Footnotes

You can have references and links in your mrkdwn as normal:

See the code on <https://github.com/ilib-js/ilib-loctool-mrkdwn|github>.

which becomes:

See the code on <c0>github</c0>.

for the translators.

Mappings

This plugin supports mappings:

{
  [...]
  "settings": {
    "mrkdwn": {
      "mappings": {
        "**/foobar.js": {
          "template": "[dir]/[basename]_[locale].[extension]",
          "localeMap": {
            "fr-FR": "fr",
            "ja-JP": "ja"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The mappings allow you to match a particular path name and apply particular settings to that path, such as an output path name template. The mappings are minimatch style.

The template follows the syntax for path name templates defined in the the loctool itself.

The localeMap setting specifies the mapping between locales that are used internally in the plugin, and the output locale that should be used for constructing the file name of output files.

Output Style

The output style of js file can be controlled via the outputStyle setting. This setting allows you to output the localized strings in commonjs format or as an ESM module.

Example configuration in your loctool config file:

{
    [...]
    "settings": {
        "mrkdwn": {
            "outputStyle": "esm"
        }
    }
}

Valid values for the outputStyle setting are:

• commonjs
• esm (default)

License

This plugin is licensed under Apache2. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Release Notes

1.0.0

• Initial release