TranslatedAttr is a minimal pure translation library for translating database values for Rails 3.x.

TranslatedAttr is quiet like puret github.com/jo/puret (and borrowed much of its code).

TranslatedAttr add some methods for dealing with nested form attributes

• ability to edit all translations ad one time with nested forms

• ability to find a record through a translated attribute (eg: Post.find_by_title)

• need some convenience methods for setting and getting specific locale attribute (eg: post.title_en = ‘Hello’)

You need configure the translated_attr gem inside your gemfile:

gem 'translated_attr'

And then:

bundle install

This is a walkthrough with all steps you need to setup puret translated attributes, including model and migration. You MUST also check out the Generators section below to help you start.

We’re assuming here you want a Post model with some puret attributes, as outlined below:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  translated_attr :title, :description
end

The pure translations are stored in a different translation model for every model you need translations for:

class PostTranslation < ActiveRecord::Base
  translations_for :post
end

Create an initializer for setting the default locale and the available locale in your config/application.rb:

# config/initializers/locale.rb
I18n.available_locales = [:it, :en, :es]
# set default locale to something other than :en
I18n.default_locale = :it

Add the defa

You now need to create a migration for the translations table:

create_table(:post_translations) do |t|
  t.references :post
  t.string :locale

  t.string :title
  t.text :description

  t.timestamps
end
add_index :post_translations, [:post_id, :locale],
  :unique => true,
  :name => 'index_on_post_translations' # Override default name because it could be too long for some DBMS as mySql

Now you are able to translate values for the attributes :title and :description per locale:

I18n.locale = :en
post.title = 'Hello!'
I18n.locale = :it
post.title = 'Ciao!'

I18n.locale = :en
post.title #=> Hello!
I18n.locale = :it
post.title #=> Ciao!

This fork let you do also:

post.title_en = 'Hello!'
post.title_it = 'Ciao!'

post.title_en #=> Hello!
post.title_it #=> Ciao!

And with dynamic finders:

I18n.locale = :en
Post.find_by_title('Hello!')
I18n.locale = :it
Post.find_by_title('Ciao!')

If a translation is not available in your locale, puret looks

1. for an instance method called default_locale and the corresponding translation

2. for a class method called default_locale and the corresponding translation

3. for a translation in I18n.default_locale

In case a translation is not available in the default locale, puret uses the first locale it could find. That order is specified by creation time, so the first created translation will be returned.

For dealing with nested form attributes you should use a partial like this (here we use simple_form gem):

<%= simple_form_for(@post) do |f| %>
    <%= f.simple_fields_for :translations do |g| %>
      <%= g.input :locale, :as => :hidden %>
      <% g.object.class.attribute_names_for_translation.each do |attr| %>
          <%= g.input attr,
                      :label => t("activerecord.attributes.#{f.object.class.name.underscore}.#{attr}_translation",
                                  :lang => g.object.locale) %>
      <% end %>
    <% end %>

    <%= f.button :submit %>
<% end %>

For the validators you can create in config/locales/translated_attr folder the localization files:

# config/locales/translated_attr/it.yml
it:
  translated_attr:
    errors:
      translations_presence: "manca la traduzione di %{attr} in :%{lang}"
      translations_uniq: "traduzione duplicata con lo stesso locale"

# config/locales/translated_attr/en.yml
en:
  translated_attr:
    errors:
      translations_presence: "missing :%{lang} translation of %{attr}"
      translations_uniq: "duplicated translation with the same locale"

If you discover any bugs or want to drop a line, feel free to create an issue on GitHub:

github.com/mcanato/translated_attr/issues

Copyright © 2012 Matteo Canato, released under the MIT license