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Version: 2.0.0-beta.6

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 @docusaurus/init@latest init website classic

Add the site configuration for the French language:

docusaurus.config.js
module.exports = {  i18n: {    defaultLocale: 'en',    locales: ['en', 'fr'],  },  themeConfig: {    navbar: {      items: [        // ...        {          type: 'localeDropdown',          position: 'left',        },        // ...      ],    },  },  // ...};

Translate the homepage:

src/pages/index.js
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 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/currentcp -r docs/** i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current
mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-blogcp -r blog/** i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-blog
mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pagescp -r src/pages/**.md i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pagescp -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 run start -- --locale fr

You can also build the site locally or on your CI:

npm run build# ornpm 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 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.