Txty

A basic language pack manager to make it easy to swap out all the text in your node.js app interface.

It doesn't translate anything though :-) You will need to go get all the translations you need for your dictionary files yourself. There may be better alternatives out there, but this is a simple project with no bells and whistles.

• Just use it with a single language, to help keep the wording used within your interface elements consistent and easy to update in one place, e.g. page_title: "Welcome to txty" or homepage_download_button: "Download Free Now!"
• Turn on debugging to [highlight] your txty-fied text in the front-end, so you can easily hunt down un-txty-fied text!
• Add other language dictionary files so you can easily and consistently change language
• No dependencies

Installation

This is just Javascript, but it is intended for Node.js use

1. Download and Install Node.js
2. Create your project any way you like, e.g. using Express
3. Install txty npm install txty --save

Require

Include txty at the top of any js file where you wish to txty-fy your plain text var txty = require("txty");

or, e.g. if you are using Express, simply include once in your main app.js, and just pass the txty variable around as needed using locals req.app.locals.txty = require("txty");

init(options)

Initialise txty with it's default options (see defaults below) txty.init();

Or Initialise with options (see options below). txty.init( { lang: "en" } );

Run the same command with different settings later, e.g. to change language, or alter the dictionary txty.init( { lang: "fr" } );

Then, wherever required in your js, replace any instances of plain text... var outputText = "Download Free Now!" ...with a txty call to your predefined key/value pair var outputText = txty.get("homepage_download_button")

Options

dictionary

Should contain one object for each language, e.g. English, French and Klingon. Minimum one language.

dictionary: {
    en: {},
    fr: {},
    kl: {}
}

Then within each language, simply create the same keys with the relevant values for each language, e.g.

dictionary: {
    en: {
        hello: "Hello",
        goodbye: "Goodbye"
    },
    fr: {
        hello: "Bonjour",
        goodbye: "Au Revoir"
    },
    kl: {
        hello: "nuqneH",
        goodbye: "DaH jImej"
    }
}

or define your dictionaries in separate files, and require them

dictionary: {
    en: require("./languages/en.js"),
    fr: require("./languages/fr.js"),
    kl: require("./languages/kl.js")
}

in which case the 'kl.js' file would contain...

"use strict";
module.exports = kl: {
    hello: "nuqneH",
    goodbye: "DaH jImej"
};

Note: you may not want all your text to be changed during debug mode, such as URLs. Simply wrap the string in an array, and it will be ignored by the debug_prefix or debug_suffix wrappers, e.g.

"use strict";
module.exports = en: {
    admin_url: ["/myadmin/subpage"],//this will not be wrapped during debugging
    admin_title: "My admin Subpage" //this will
};

dictionary: default

Includes a very basic starter! Keep these items in your language files for nice debug output.

dictionary: {
    en: {
      module_language: ["Txty language set to "],
      module_thislang: ["English"],
      module_debug_start: ["###Txty debug mode is on. "],
      module_debug_end: ["###Txty"],
      module_settings: ["Settings are..."],
      module_test: "Test"
    }
}

lang

Sets the language dictionary which txty should refer to. Must match one of those in your dictionary, e.g. lang: "kl" You can change language at any time using init (see above)

lang: default

lang: "en"

debug

To help you identify any stray text which you may not yet have txty-fied, debug will wrap each txty.get() output with the prefix and suffix of your choice.

Note: See above to exclude certain text from the debug wrapping.

debug: default

e.g. with the default settings...

debug: true,
debug_prefix: "<lang='",
debug_suffix: "'/>",

This would change...

var outputText = txty.get("homepage_download_button")

from Download Free Now! to <lang=Download Free Now!/>

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.