kibana/packages/kbn-i18n

I18n

Kibana relies on several UI frameworks (React and Angular) and requires localization in different environments (browser and NodeJS). Internationalization engine is framework agnostic and consumable in all parts of Kibana (React, Angular and NodeJS). In order to simplify internationalization in UI frameworks, the additional abstractions are built around the I18n engine: react-intl for React and custom components for Angular. React-intl is built around intl-messageformat, so both React and Angular frameworks use the same engine and the same message syntax.

Localization files

Localization files have JSON5 format.

The main benefits of using JSON5:

• Objects may have a single trailing comma.
• Single and multi-line comments are allowed.
• Strings may span multiple lines by escaping new line characters.

Short example:

{
  // comments
  unquoted: 'and you can quote me on that',
  singleQuotes: 'I can use "double quotes" here',
  lineBreaks: "Wow! \
No \\n's!",
  hexadecimal: 0xdecaf,
  leadingDecimalPoint: .8675309, andTrailing: 8675309.,
  positiveSign: +1,
  trailingComma: 'in objects', andIn: ['arrays',],
  "backwardsCompatible": "with JSON",
}

Using comments can help to understand which section of the application the localization key is used for. Also namespaces are used in order to simplify message location search. For example, if we are going to translate the title of /management/sections/objects/_objects.html file, we should use message path like this: 'MANAGEMENT.OBJECTS.TITLE'.

Each Kibana plugin has a separate folder with translation files located at

{path/to/plugin}/translations/{locale}.json

where locale is ISO 639 language code.

For example:

src/core_plugins/kibana/translations/fr.json

When a new translation file is added, you have to register this file into uiExports.translations array of plugin constructor parameters. For example:

export default function (kibana) {
  return new kibana.Plugin({
    uiExports: {
      translations: [
        resolve(__dirname, './translations/fr.json'),
      ],
      ...
    },
    ...
  });
}

The engine uses a config/kibana.yml file for locale resolution process. If locale is defined via i18n.locale option in config/kibana.yml then it will be used as a base locale, otherwise i18n engine will fall back to en. The en locale will also be used if translation can't be found for the base non-English locale.

One of our technical requirements is to have default messages in the templates themselves, and those messages will always be in English, so we don't have to keep en.json file in repository. We can generate that file from defaultMessages defined inline.

Note: locale defined in i18n.locale and the one used for translation files should match exactly, e.g. i18n.locale: zn and .../translations/zh_CN.json won't match and default English translations will be used, but i18n.locale: zh_CN and.../translations/zh_CN.json or i18n.locale: zn and .../translations/zn.json will work as expected.

I18n engine

I18n engine is the platform agnostic abstraction that helps to supply locale data to UI frameworks and provides methods for the direct translation.

Here is the public API exposed by this engine:

• addMessages(messages: Map<string, string>, [locale: string]) - provides a way to register translations with the engine
• getMessages() - returns messages for the current language
• setLocale(locale: string) - tells the engine which language to use by given language key
• getLocale() - returns the current locale
• setDefaultLocale(locale: string) - tells the library which language to fallback when missing translations
• getDefaultLocale() - returns the default locale
• setFormats(formats: object) - supplies a set of options to the underlying formatter. For the detailed explanation, see the section below
• getFormats() - returns current formats
• getRegisteredLocales() - returns array of locales having translations
• translate(id: string, [{values: object, defaultMessage: string, context: string}]) – translate message by id. context is optional context comment that will be extracted by i18n tools and added as a comment next to translation message at defaultMessages.json.
• init(messages: Map<string, string>) - initializes the engine

I18n engine internals

The engine uses the ICU Message syntax and works for all CLDR languages which have pluralization rules defined. It's built around intl-messageformat package which exposes IntlMessageFormat class. Messages are provided into the constructor as a string message, or a pre-parsed AST object.

import IntlMessageFormat from 'intl-messageformat';

const msg = new IntlMessageFormat(message, locales, [formats]);

The string message is parsed, then stored internally in a compiled form that is optimized for the format() method to produce the formatted string for displaying to the user.

const output = msg.format(values);

formats parameter in IntlMessageFormat constructor allows formatting numbers and dates/times in messages using Intl.NumberFormat and Intl.DateTimeFormat, respectively.

const msg = new IntlMessageFormat('The price is: {price, number, USD}', 'en-US', {
  number: {
    USD: {
      style   : 'currency',
      currency: 'USD',
    },
  },
});

const output = msg.format({ price: 100 });

console.log(output); // => "The price is: $100.00"

In this example, we're defining a USD number format style which is passed to the underlying Intl.NumberFormat instance as its options. Here you can find default format options used as the prototype of the formats provided to the constructor.

Creating instances of IntlMessageFormat is expensive. Intl-format-cache library is simply to make it easier to create a cache of format instances of a particular type to aid in their reuse. Under the hood, this package creates a cache key based on the arguments passed to the memoized constructor.

import memoizeIntlConstructor from 'intl-format-cache';

const getMessageFormat = memoizeIntlConstructor(IntlMessageFormat);

Vanilla JS

Intl-messageformat package assumes that the Intl global object exists in the runtime. Intl is present in all modern browsers and Node.js 0.10+. In order to load i18n engine in Node.js we should simply import this module (in Node.js, the data for all 200+ languages is loaded along with the library) and pass the translation messages into init method:

import { i18n } from '@kbn/i18n';

i18n.init(messages);

One common use-case is that of internationalizing a string constant. Here's an example of how we'd do that:

import { i18n } from '@kbn/i18n';

export const HELLO_WORLD = i18n.translate('hello.wonderful.world', {
  defaultMessage: 'Greetings, planet Earth!',
}),

We're also able to use all methods exposed by the i18n engine (see I18n engine section above for more details).

React

React-intl library is used for internalization React part of the application. It provides React components and an API to format dates, numbers, and strings, including pluralization and handling translations.

React Intl uses the provider pattern to scope an i18n context to a tree of components. IntlProvider component is used to setup the i18n context for a tree. After that we are able to use FormattedMessage component in order to translate messages. IntlProvider should wrap react app's root component (inside each react render method).

In order to translate messages we need to use I18nProvider component that uses I18n engine under the hood:

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import { I18nProvider } from '@kbn/i18n/react';

ReactDOM.render(
  <I18nProvider>
    <RootComponent>
      ...
    </RootComponent>
  </I18nProvider>,
  document.getElementById('container')
);

After that we can use FormattedMessage components inside RootComponent:

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { FormattedMessage } from '@kbn/i18n/react';

class RootComponent extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      name: 'Eric',
      unreadCount: 1000,
    };
  }

  render() {
    const {
      name,
      unreadCount,
    } = this.state;

    return (
      <p>
        <FormattedMessage
          id="welcome"
          defaultMessage={`Hello {name}, you have {unreadCount, number} {unreadCount, plural,
            one {message}
            other {messages}
          }`}
          values={{name: <b>{name}</b>, unreadCount}}
        />
        ...
      </p>
    );
  }
}

Optionally we can pass context prop into FormattedMessage component. This prop is optional context comment that will be extracted by i18n tools and added as a comment next to translation message at defaultMessages.json

Attributes translation in React

React wrapper provides an ability to inject the imperative formatting API into a React component via its props using injectI18n Higher-Order Component. This should be used when your React component needs to format data to a string value where a React element is not suitable; e.g., a title or aria attribute. In order to use it you should wrap your component with injectI18n Higher-Order Component. The formatting API will be provided to the wrapped component via props.intl.

React component as a pure function:

import React from 'react';
import { injectI18n, intlShape } from '@kbn/i18n/react';

const MyComponentContent = ({ intl }) => (
  <input
    type="text"
    placeholder={intl.formatMessage({
      id: 'KIBANA-MANAGEMENT-OBJECTS-SEARCH_PLACEHOLDER',
      defaultMessage: 'Search',
    })}
  />
);

MyComponentContent.propTypes = {
  intl: intlShape.isRequired,
};

export const MyComponent = injectI18n(MyComponentContent);

React component as a class:

import React from 'react';
import { injectI18n, intlShape } from '@kbn/i18n/react';

class MyComponentContent extends React.Component {
  static propTypes = {
    intl: intlShape.isRequired,
  };

  render() {
    const { intl } = this.props;

    return (
      <input
        type="text"
        placeholder={intl.formatMessage({
          id: 'KIBANA-MANAGEMENT-OBJECTS-SEARCH_PLACEHOLDER',
          defaultMessage: 'Search',
        })}
      />
    );
  }
}

export const MyComponent = injectI18n(MyComponentContent);

Angular

Angular wrapper has 4 entities: translation provider, service, directive and filter. Both the directive and the filter use the translation service with i18n engine under the hood.

The translation provider is used for service configuration and has the following methods:

• addMessages(messages: Map<string, string>, [locale: string]) - provides a way to register translations with the library
• setLocale(locale: string) - tells the library which language to use by given language key
• getLocale() - returns the current locale
• setDefaultLocale(locale: string) - tells the library which language to fallback when missing translations
• getDefaultLocale() - returns the default locale
• setFormats(formats: object) - supplies a set of options to the underlying formatter
• getFormats() - returns current formats
• getRegisteredLocales() - returns array of locales having translations
• init(messages: Map<string, string>) - initializes the engine

The translation service provides only one method:

• i18n(id: string, [{values: object, defaultMessage: string, context: string }])– translate message by id

The translation filter is used for attributes translation and has the following syntax:

{{'translationId' | i18n[:{ values: object, defaultMessage: string, context: string }]}}

Where:

• translationId - translation id to be translated
• values - values to pass into translation
• defaultMessage - will be used unless translation was successful (the final fallback in english, will be used for generating en.json)
• context - optional context comment that will be extracted by i18n tools and added as a comment next to translation message at defaultMessages.json

The translation directive has the following syntax:

<ANY
  i18n-id="{string}"
  [i18n-values="{object}"]
  [i18n-default-message="{string}"]
  [i18n-context="{string}"]
></ANY>

Where:

• i18n-id - translation id to be translated
• i18n-values - values to pass into translation
• i18n-default-message - will be used unless translation was successful
• i18n-context - optional context comment that will be extracted by i18n tools and added as a comment next to translation message at defaultMessages.json

Angular I18n module is placed into autoload module, so it will be loaded automatically. After that we can use i18n directive in Angular templates:

<span
  i18n-id="welcome"
  i18n-default-message="Hello!"
></span>

In order to translate attributes in Angular we should use i18nFilter:

<input
  type="text"
  placeholder="{{'KIBANA-MANAGEMENT-OBJECTS-SEARCH_PLACEHOLDER' | i18n: {
    defaultMessage: 'Search'
  } }}"
>

Build tools

In order to simplify localization process, some build tools will be added:

• tool for verifying all translations have translatable strings
• tool for checking unused translation strings
• tool for extracting default messages from templates

While react-intl has babel-plugin-react-intl library which extracts string messages for translation, angular wrapper requires own implementation of such tool. In order to extracrt translation keys from the template, we have to parse it and create AST object. There is a babel-plugin-syntax-jsx plugin which helps to parse JSX syntax and then create AST object. Unfortunately, there are no babel plugins to parse angular templates. One of the solution can be internal $parse.$$getAst angular method.