grafana/contribute/internationalization.md

Internationalization

Grafana uses the i18next framework for managing translating phrases in the Grafana frontend.

TL;DR

Note: We don't currently accept contributions for translations. Please don't submit pull requests translating grafana.json files - they will be rejected. We do accept contributions to mark up phrases for translation.

• Use <Trans i18nKey="search-results.panel-link">Go to {{ pageTitle }}</Trans> in code to add a translatable phrase.
• Translations are stored in JSON files in public/locales/{locale}/grafana.json.
• If a particular phrase isn't available in a given language, then it will fall back to English.
• To update phrases in English, edit the default phrase in the component's source, and then run make i18n-extract.
• The single source of truth for en-US (fallback language) is in grafana/grafana, and the single source of truth for any translated language is Crowdin.
• To update phrases in any translated language, edit the phrase in Crowdin. Do not edit the {locale}/grafana.json

How to add a new translation phrase

JSX

1. For JSX children, use the <Trans /> component from app/core/internationalization with the i18nKey, ensuring it conforms to the following guidelines, with the default English translation. For example:

import { Trans } from 'app/core/internationalization';

const SearchTitle = ({ term }) => (
  <Trans i18nKey="search-page.results-title">
    Results for <em>{{ term }}</em>
  </Trans>
);

Prefer using <Trans /> for JSX children, and t() for props and other JavaScript usage.

When translating in grafana-ui, use a relative path to import <Trans /> and t() from src/utils/i18n.

Note that our tooling must be able to statically analyze the code to extract the phrase, so the i18nKey can't be dynamic. For example: the following will not work:

const ErrorMessage = ({ id, message }) => <Trans i18nKey={`errors.${id}`}>There was an error: {{ message }}</Trans>;

2. Upon reload, the default English phrase appears on the page.

3. Before submitting your PR, run the make i18n-extract command to extract the messages you added into the public/locales/en-US/grafana.json file and make them available for translation. Note: All other languages receive their translations when they are ready to be downloaded from Crowdin.

Plain JS usage

Sometimes you may need to translate a string cannot be represented in JSX, such as placeholder props. Use the t macro for this.

import { t } from "app/core/internationalization"

const placeholder = t('form.username-placeholder','Username');

return <input type="value" placeholder={placeholder}>

Interpolating phrases is a bit more verbose. Make sure the placeholders in the string match the values passed in the object - there's no type safety here!

const placeholder = t('page.greeting', 'Hello {{ username }}', { username });

While the t function can technically be used outside of React functions (for example, in actions or reducers), aim to keep all UI phrases within the React UI functions.

How to add a new language

1. Add a new locale in Crowdin.
   1. Go to the Grafana OSS Crowdin project.
   2. In the top right, select the "dot dot dot" menu.
   3. Under Target languages, add the language.
   4. If Crowdin's locale code is different from our IETF language tag (such as Chinese Simplified), add a custom mapping in Project Settings -> Language mapping.
2. Sync the new (empty) language to the repo.
   1. In Grafana's Github Actions, go to Crowdin Download Action.
   2. From main, select Run workflow.
   3. The workflow creates a PR with the new language files, which can be reviewed and merged.
3. Update public/app/core/internationalization/constants.ts.
   1. Add a new constant for the new language.
   2. Add the new constant to the LOCALES array.
   3. Create a PR with the changes and merge when you are ready to release the new language (as a general rule, wait until we have translations for it).
4. In the Grafana Enterprise repo, update src/public/locales/localeExtensions.ts.

How translations work in Grafana

Grafana uses the i18next framework for managing translating phrases in the Grafana frontend. It:

• Marks up phrases within our code for extraction.
• Extracts phrases into the default messages catalog for translating in external systems.
• Manages the user's locale and puts the translated phrases in the UI.

Grafana loads the message catalog JSON before the initial render.

Phrase ID naming convention

We set explicit IDs for phrases to make it easier to identify phrases out of context, and to track where they're used.

IDs follow a naming scheme that includes where the phrase is used. The exception is the rare case of a single reoccurring word like "Cancel", but the default is to use a feature-specific phrase.

Message IDs are made of up to three segments in the format feature.area.phrase. For example:

• dashboard.header.refresh-label
• explore.toolbar.share-tooltip

For components used all over the site, use just two segments:

• footer.update
• navigation.home

I18next context

We rely on a global i18next singleton (that lives inside the i18next) for storing the i18next configuration.

Examples

Refer to the i18next and react-i18next documentation for more details.

Basic usage

For fixed phrases:

import { Trans } from 'app/core/internationalization';

<Trans i18nKey="page.greeting">Hello user!</Trans>;

To interpolate a variable, include it as an object child. It's a weird syntax, but Trans will do its magic to make it work:

import { Trans } from 'app/core/internationalization';

<Trans i18nKey="page.greeting">Hello {{ name: user.name }}!</Trans>;

const userName = user.name;
<Trans i18nKey="page.greeting">Hello {{ userName }}!</Trans>;

Variables must be strings (or, must support calling .toString(), which we almost never want). For example:

import { Trans } from 'app/core/internationalization';

// This will not work
const userName = <strong>user.name</strong>;
<Trans i18nKey="page.greeting">Hello {{ userName }}!</Trans>;

// Instead, put the JSX inside the phrase directly
const userName = user.name;
<Trans i18nKey="page.greeting">
  Hello <strong>{{ userName }}</strong>!
</Trans>;

React components and HTML tags

Both HTML tags and React components can be included in a phase. The Trans function handles interpolating for its children.

import { Trans } from "app/core/internationalization"

<Trans i18nKey="page.explainer">
  Click <button>here</button> to <a href="https://grafana.com">learn more.</a>
</Trans>

// ↓ is in the grafana.json file like ↓
{
  "page": {
    "explainer": "Click <0>here</0> to <1>learn more</1>"
  }
}

Plurals

Plurals require special handling to make sure they can be translated according to the rules of each locale (which may be more complex than you think). Use either the <Trans /> component or the t function, with the count prop to provide a singular form. For example:

import { Trans } from 'app/core/internationalization';

<Trans i18nKey="inbox.heading" count={messages.length}>
  You got {{ count: messages.length }} messages
</Trans>;

import { t } from 'app/core/internationalization';

const translatedString = t('inbox.heading', 'You got {{count}} messages', { count: messages.length });

Once extracted with make i18n-extract you need to manually edit the English grafana.json message catalog to correct the plural forms. Refer to the react-i18next docs for more details.

{
  "inbox": {
    "heading_one": "You got {{count}} message",
    "heading_other": "You got {{count}} messages"
  }
}

Feedback

Note: This is only for proofreaders with permissions to the Grafana OSS project on Crowdin.

To provide feedback on translations, sign into Crowdin and follow these steps:

1. Open the Grafana OSS project in Crowdin.
2. On the left menu, click Dashboard. A list of available languages appears under the Translations section. Click the one you want to comment on.
3. There is a table with the file structure in it:
   grafana/main > public > locales > 'language denomination' > grafana.json
   Click the grafana.json file.
4. In the left section, click the Search in file input. Search for the string that you want to comment on. You can search in English, as it's the default language, or in the language the string is translated into.
5. Once you have found the string, on the right hand side there is a Comments section where you can send your feedback about the translation. Tag @Translated to be sure the team of linguists gets notified.

Documentation

Grafana's documentation is not yet open for translation and should be authored in American English only.