2014-02-27-i18n-made-easier-with-static-analysis.html.markdown.erb

---
title: Internationalization made easier with static analysis
date: "2014-02-27 09:41 CET"
tags: i18n, ruby
published: true
---

[i18n-tasks][i18n-tasks] finds and manages missing and unused translations in your application.
The default approach to locale data management with gems such as [i18n][i18n-gem] is flawed.
If you use a key that does not exist, this will only blow up at runtime. Keys left over from removed code accumulate
in the resource files and introduce unnecessary overhead on the translators. Translation files can quickly turn to disarray.

i18n-tasks improves this by using static analysis. It scans calls such as `I18n.t('some.key')` and provides reports on key usage, missing, and unused keys.
It can also can pre-fill missing keys, including from Google Translate, and it can remove unused keys as well.

i18n-tasks can be used with any project using [i18n][i18n-gem] (default in Rails).

READMORE

It can make translation easier in many ways:

~~~
$ i18n-tasks
Usage: i18n-tasks <command> [options]
    -v, --version      Print the version
    -h, --help         Display this help message.

Available commands:

  missing             show missing translations
  unused              show unused translations
  translate-missing   translate missing keys with Google Translate
  add-missing         add missing keys to the locales
  find                show where the keys are used in the code
  normalize           normalize translation data: sort and move to the right files
  remove-unused       remove unused keys
  config              display i18n-tasks configuration
  xlsx-report         save missing and unused translations to an Excel file

See `<command> --help` for more information on a specific command.
~~~

There are lots of settings and you can use this on non-ruby codebases.

Reports come rendered in colourful full-resolution [terminal tables](https://github.com/visionmedia/terminal-table):

<a href="https://github.com/glebm/i18n-tasks" target="_blank"><img width="539" height="331" src="https://i.imgur.com/XZBd8l7.png" style="max-width:100%;"></a>

~~~
$ i18n-tasks usages 'activities.*'
~~~

<a href="https://github.com/glebm/i18n-tasks" target="_blank"><img width="655" height="193" src="https://i.imgur.com/VxBrSfY.png" alt="i18n-screenshot" title="i18n-tasks find output screenshot" style="max-width:100%;"></a>


### See also

* [i18n-tasks on GitHub](https://github.com/glebm/i18n-tasks).
* [HackerNews thread](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7312390).

[i18n-tasks]: https://github.com/glebm/i18n-tasks "glebm/i18n-tasks on Github"
[i18n-gem]: https://github.com/svenfuchs/i18n "svenfuchs/i18n on Github"