mark a string for getstrings but don't actually translate

[MarcVanDaele90]

I have a number of <name, image> pairs like "apple", "car", "bike", ... and a corresponding image.

I want to be able to use the 'name' in both

• "How many %s do you see"
• "Pick the first/second/middle/... %s"

When creating the objects, I would like to mark the name for translation (such that it gets picked up by getstrings) but don't do an actual translation. I would like to defer the actual translation to where I use the 'name', like in "How many %s do you see".i18n.fill([name.plural(100)] or something along those lines
(note: I assume that plural(100) is valid to use after 'how many' but that's another discussion I guess)

I currently use "apple".version since I noticed that getstrings scans for i18n, fill, plural but also for version and .allVersions.
But I'm sure I'm abusing getstrings here. So a dedicated markForI18n (next to the existing i18n) would be useful IMO.

[marcglasberg]

The getstrings feature was contributed by @bauerj

[bauerj]

The markForI18n still seems a bit like a hack.

Can you elaborate on why the current approach doesn't work for you? I don't really understand why the name can't be translated immediately.

[MarcVanDaele90]

Maybe I'm missing something. What I'm doing right now is something like this
I have some objects in my data layer like
objects = [{"name": "car".markForI18n, "image":"car.png"}, {"name": "apple".markForI18n, "image":"apple.png"}, ...]

In my UI, I use these names in a number of different ways:

"How many %s do you see".i18n.fill([name.plural(100)]  //here I want to use the plural
"Pick the first/second/middle/... %s".i18n.fill(name.i18n) //here I want to use the singular
"Jan has 7 %s and John has 1 %s".i18n.fill(name.plural(7), name.plural(1)) 

How would you suggest to handle this with the current approach?

Note that eg Qt/QML, where I come from and which might introduce some bias, have similar macros (QT_TR_NOOP

[bauerj]

Okay, I understand now. Yes, in that case it would make sense to have a no-op like markForI18n.

The corresponding change to https://github.com/marcglasberg/i18n_extension/blob/master/lib/i18n_getstrings.dart#L18 should be trivial. Can you send in a PR that does just that?

[MarcVanDaele90]

I never contributed to a project so I might need some assistance. Should I first create a branch, make the changes and then create a pull request or should I start with creating a pull request? Or first create a fork?

[bauerj]

Yes, the usual process would be:

1. Fork this repository and clone your fork
2. Create a branch for your work
3. Edit what you need
4. Commit and push
5. Open a pull request

See e.g. here for a more detailed rundown.

If you don't want to do that yourself, just let me know. It might take a few days until I have time to do it though.

[MarcVanDaele90]

@bauerj Change is committed (I think :-) )

[MarcVanDaele90]

Proposed fix is not sufficient (see comments in #122).
I'll close the issue and

• will try to get my use case more clear
• will first locally try what works and what doesn't and create a CR when things are more clear