i18n - Using git
A possible translation strategy is to version control the translation files to Git (or any other VCS).
Tradeoffs
This strategy has advantages:
- Easy to get started: just add the
i18n
folder to Git - Easy for developers: Git, GitHub and pull requests are mainstream developer tools
- Free (or without any additional cost, assuming you already use Git)
- Low friction: does not require signing-up to an external tool
- Rewarding: contributors are happy to have a nice contribution history
Using Git also present some shortcomings:
- Hard for non-developers: they do not master Git and pull-requests
- Hard for professional translations: they are used to SaaS translation softwares and advanced features
- Hard to maintain: you have to keep the translated files in sync with the untranslated files
note
Some large-scale technical projects (React, Vue.js, MDN, TypeScript, Nuxt.js, etc.) use Git for translations.
Refer to the Docusaurus i18n RFC for our notes and links studying these systems.
Git tutorial
This is a walk-through of using Git to translate a newly initialized English Docusaurus website into French, and assume you already followed the i18n tutorial.
Prepare the Docusaurus site
Initialize a new Docusaurus site:
npx create-docusaurus@latest website classic
Add the site configuration for the French language:
module.exports = {
i18n: {
defaultLocale: 'en',
locales: ['en', 'fr'],
},
themeConfig: {
navbar: {
items: [
// ...
{
type: 'localeDropdown',
position: 'left',
},
// ...
],
},
},
// ...
};
Translate the homepage:
import React from 'react';
import Translate from '@docusaurus/Translate';
import Layout from '@theme/Layout';
export default function Home() {
return (
<Layout>
<h1 style={{margin: 20}}>
<Translate description="The homepage main heading">
Welcome to my Docusaurus translated site!
</Translate>
</h1>
</Layout>
);
}
Initialize the i18n
folder
Use the write-translations CLI command to initialize the JSON translation files for the French locale:
- npm
- Yarn
npm run write-translations -- --locale fr
1 translations written at i18n/fr/code.json
11 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-theme-classic/footer.json
4 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-theme-classic/navbar.json
3 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current.json
yarn run write-translations -- --locale fr
1 translations written at i18n/fr/code.json
11 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-theme-classic/footer.json
4 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-theme-classic/navbar.json
3 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current.json
tip
Use the --messagePrefix '(fr) '
option to make the untranslated strings stand out.
Hello
will appear as (fr) Hello
and makes it clear a translation is missing.
Copy your untranslated Markdown files to the French folder:
mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current
cp -r docs/** i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current
mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-blog
cp -r blog/** i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-blog
mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pages
cp -r src/pages/**.md i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pages
cp -r src/pages/**.mdx i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pages
Add all these files to Git.
Translate the files
Translate the Markdown and JSON files in i18n/fr
and commit the translation.
You should now be able to start your site in French and see the translations:
- npm
- Yarn
npm run start -- --locale fr
yarn run start -- --locale fr
You can also build the site locally or on your CI:
- npm
- Yarn
npm run build
# or
npm run build -- --locale fr
yarn run build
# or
yarn run build -- --locale fr
Repeat
Follow the same process for each locale you need to support.
Maintain the translations
Keeping translated files consistent with the originals can be challenging, in particular for Markdown documents.
Markdown translations
When an untranslated Markdown document is edited, it is your responsibility to maintain the respective translated files, and we unfortunately don't have a good way to help you do so.
To keep your translated sites consistent, when the website/docs/doc1.md
doc is edited, you need backport these edits to i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current/doc1.md
.
JSON translations
To help you maintain the JSON translation files, it is possible to run again the write-translations CLI command:
- npm
- Yarn
npm run write-translations -- --locale fr
yarn run write-translations -- --locale fr
New translation will be appended, and existing ones will not be overridden.
tip
Reset your translations with the --override
option.
Localize edit urls
When the user is browsing a page at /fr/doc1
, the edit button will link by default to the unlocalized doc at website/docs/doc1.md
.
Your translations are on Git, and you can use the editLocalizedFiles: true
option of the docs and blog plugins.
The edit button will link to the localized doc at i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current/doc1.md
.