jquery.localize.js - a jQuery plugin that makes it easy to i18n your static web site.

Synopsis

• Lazily loads JSON translation files based on a simple naming convention.
• By default, applies the translations to your document based on simple attribute convention.
• Recently updated for jQuery 1.5 (tests use jQuery 1.5.2)

Basic Usage

Step 0. Load the jquery-localize plugin on your page.

It's the file located at build/jquery.localize.js

Step 1. Use the "rel" attribute on tags whose content you want to be translated

Somewhere in your html:

<h1 rel="localize[greeting]"> Hello! </h1>

Step 2. Provide a JSON language file that has translations:

example-fr.json:

{
  "greeting": "Bonjour!"
}

Step 3. Use the localize plugin.

// In a browser where the language is set to French
$("[rel*=localize]").localize("example")

// You can also override the language detection, and pass in a language code
$("[rel*=localize]").localize("example", { language: "fr" })

Gory Details

Language file loading

The first argument of the localize method is the name of the language pack. You might have a different language pack for different parts of your website.

Here's an example of loading several language packs:

$("[rel*=localize]")
  .localize("header")
  .localize("sidebar")
  .localize("footer")

If the language of the browser were set to "fr", then the plugin would try to load:

• header-fr.json
• sidebar-fr.json
• footer-fr.json

if the language of the browser also had a country code, like "fr-FR", then the plugin would ALSO try to load:

• header-fr-FR.json
• sidebar-fr-FR.json
• footer-fr-FR.json

This let's you define partial language refinements for different regions. For instance, you can have the base language translation file for a language that translates 100 different phrases, and for countries were maybe a some of those phrases would be out of place, you can just provide a country-specific file with just those special phrases defined.

Skipping Languages (aka Optimizing for My Language)

This is useful if you've got a default language. For example, if all of your content is served in english, then you probably don't want the overhead of loading up unecessary (and probably non-existant) english langauge packs (foo-en.json)

You can tell the localize plugin to always skip certain languages using the skipLanguage option:

# using a string will skip ONLY if the language code matches exactly
# this would prevent loading only if the language was "en-US"
$("[rel*=localize]").localize("example", { skipLanguage: "en-US" })

# using a regex will skip if the regex matches
# this would prevent loading of any english language translations
$("[rel*=localize]").localize("example", { skipLanguage: /^en/ })

# using an array of strings will skip if any of the strings matches exactly
$("[rel*=localize]").localize("example", { skipLanguage: ["en", "en-US"] })

Applying the language file

If you rely on the default callback and follow the "rel" attribute conventions then the changes will be applied for you.

Examples:

HTML:

<p rel="localize[title]">Tracker Pro XT Deluxe</p>
<p rel="localize[search.placeholder]">Search...</p>
<p rel="localize[search.button]">Go!</p>
<p rel="localize[footer.disclaimer]">Use at your own risk.</p>
<p rel="localize[menu.dashboard]">Dashboard</p>
<p rel="localize[menu.list]">Bug List</p>
<p rel="localize[menu.logout]">Logout</p>

application-es.json (fake spanish)

{
  "title": "Tracker Pro XT Deluxo",
  "search": {
    "placeholder": "Searcho...",
    "button": "Vamos!"
  },
  "footer": {
    "disclaimer": "Bewaro."
  },
  "menu": {
    "dashboard": "Dashboardo",
    "list": "Bug Listo",
    "logout": "Exito"
  }
}

Localize it!

$("[rel*=localize]").localize("application", { language: "es" })

Callbacks

You can provide a callback if you want to augment or replace the default callback provided by the plugin. Your callback should take at least 1 argument: the language data (contents of your json file). It can optionally accept a second argument, which is a reference to the default callback function. This is handy if you still want the default behavior, but also need to do something else with the language data.

$("[rel*=localize]").localize("application", {
  language: "es",
  callback: function(data, defaultCallback){
    data.title = data.title + currentBugName();
    defaultCallback(data)
  }
})

See the test/samples for working examples.

Contributing

This plugin is written in CoffeeScript. The included builder script will run coffee with the necessary flags to automatically update the compiled javascript in the build/ directory any time you save changes to the coffee code under src/.

If you're interested in contributing, please fork the repository, make your changes, and send pull-requests.

Tests use QUnit. Run them by serving from the root of the project and navigating to the test/ directory, which has an index.html that takes it from there.

Learn more about how to fork and pull-requests.

Credits & Licensing

Copyright (c) Jim Garvin (http://github.com/coderifous), 2008.

Dual licensed under the GPL (http://dev.jquery.com/browser/trunk/jquery/GPL-LICENSE.txt) and MIT (http://dev.jquery.com/browser/trunk/jquery/MIT-LICENSE.txt) licenses.

Written by Jim Garvin (@coderifous) for use on LMGTFY.com. Please use it, and contribute changes.

http://github.com/coderifous/jquery-localize

Based off of Keith Wood's Localisation jQuery plugin. http://keith-wood.name/localisation.html