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Internationalization for express.js

Installing

npm install express-

How to use

Require it in your app:

var i18n = require('express-voyage')

Add to your express config:

app.use( i18n() )

debug mode:

app.use( i18n({ debug: true }) )

Expose helpers:

app.helpers({
    __: i18n.translate
  , languages: i18n.languages
  , n: i18n.plural // optional
})

Language files

Translation files are simply .json files, where strings are mapped 1 to 1. By default it looks for these files in /lang. To add a new language, just create an empty .json file with the language code as it's name (i.e. de.json).

Templating

This example uses jquery-templates,

<p>${ __("string to be translated") }</p>

The translate() function takes a string and returns a translation based on your current session preferences (req.session.lang)`.

Plurals

You can optionally expose the i18n.plural function.

app.helpers({
    _n: i18n.plural
})

It takes 3 or 4 arguments: [none], single, plural, n_items, each a translatable string, and returns the corresponding one:

<p>${ _n(__("no items"),__("1 item"),__("%s items"), items.length) }</p>
<p>${ _n(__("%s item"),__("%s items"), number) }</p>

It also works for untranslated strings:

<p>${ _n("%s item","%s items", 2) }</p>

Options

i18n({
    default: 'en'   // default language
  , path:  '/lang'   // path to language files
  , views: '/views' // path to view files (for automatic updates)
  , debug: false    // enable debug mode
})

String collection

express-voyage can update your language files automatically, just add this to your app.config (recommended only during development):

app.configure('development', function(){
   i18n.updateStrings()
})

(more info about development mode in the express guide)

Language switching

To change the current language call i18n.setLanguage, passing the user's session object and desired language code:

app.get('/lang/:lang', function(req, res){
    i18n.setLanguage(req.session, req.params.lang)
    res.redirect(req.headers.referer || '/')
})

Now accessing http://yourapp/lang/de will set language to de, in case it exists within the i18n.languages object.