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Internationalization

We are using the http://i18next.com/ internationalization eco system and generally support the features of i18next. We've implemented Reaction specific helpers that load and attach i18n keys and labels to many components, as well as namespacing, import tooling, and pluralization. Right-to-left (RTL) and LTR handling has been implemented as required by RTL languages and detected by i18next.

i18n import

On initial server startup, Reaction loads i18next compatible translation source into the Assets collection.

After the core init hooks have processed, Reaction loads all the i18n source from the Assets collection into the Reaction.Importer buffer that upserts all Assets into the Translations collection.

Translations are loaded into the Assets and Translations collections only once. They can be re-imported via the Internationalization admin panel and the refresh button. More information can be found under Localization and i18n.

Source can come from files in the private/data/i18n folder, but can also load from imports or another direct source. Import the loadTranslation or loadTranslations method from server/startup/i18n.

import { loadTranslations } from "/server/startup/i18n";
import en from "./en.json";
loadTranslations([en]);

The translation object requires a json object with the i18n, ns, translation and translation[namespace] values to be defined.

[{
  "i18n": "en", // language key
  "ns": "reaction-custom-package", // your package
  "translation": {
    "reaction-payments": { // your package or a package as a group namespace
      "admin": { // this is your structure
        "shortcut": {
          "customPackageLabel": "Custom Package"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}]

This object gets stored in the Assets collection. The data is not shop specific, and can be used for a source of restorable default data, or as fixture data for new shop instances. The Assets collection is server only, and acts as a queue on initial startup as well, ensuring that data loaded using loadTranslations can be imported before shopId is available on a fresh install.

The Translations collection can also be updated to customize the translation dictionary, as there is not a UI for this yet, you'd want to determine the best way to update the collection for your requirements.

Namespacing

In addition to determining the client's current locale, on Meteor.startup in client/modules/i18n we fetch an array of enabled packages and attach these to the i18next object exported to the client. This contains the translations for the current namespace, and all matching package namespaces, and is used for the phrase dictionary. This dictionary is not reactive and you must refresh for updated translations.

Package names and namespaces must match otherwise the namespace will be ignored in the i18next export.