Hokeylization

The name is a portmanteau, meaning 'hokey localization'

It's hokey because it's very simple: it runs some strings against Google Translate

You can translate:

• a JavaScript object containing messages
• a directory of files, recursively

Source

• hokeylization on GitHub
• hokeylization on npm

Setup

Set the GOOGLE_TRANSLATE_PROJECT_ID env var to identify your project

Set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS env var to the JSON credentials you downloaded after navigating the holy hell that is figuring out authentication on Google cloud

If you're running from source, you can also put these in a .env file in the source directory they'll be loaded at runtime via dotenv

Translating a JavaScript string resource file

Your string table must be in a JavaScript file in the form:

export default {
  string_key: "some value",
  another_key: "another value",
  ... more keys ...
}

If this file was named myfile.en.js, you can translate it to Spanish and German with:

hokey -l es,de -o myfile.LANG.js myfile.en.js

The LANG in the above is special -- I hope you're not using it in your filenames, because it's a reserved word in this tool! The LANG is replaced with the language code for the output files, so the above command creates the files:

myfile.es.js
myfile.de.js

The -l / --languages option is a comma-separated list of 2-letter language codes supported by Google Translate

If the output file already exists, it will not be overwritten. Instead, only translations for missing keys will be generated and appended to the end of the output JS file.

To re-translate all keys, use the -f / --force option.

Translating a directory of text files

You can also translate a directory, hokey will recursively visit every file in the directory and run its contents through Google Translate, and save the output to an identically named file in a separate directory tree

When the target of your translation is a directory, this mode is enabled

The -o / --outfile option specifies the output directory

BIG WARNING: When translating directories, DO NOT specify an output directory that is within your input directory! If you do, you will:

• induce infinite recursion
• run up your Google bill
• fill up your disk
• have less fun

Here is an example of what not to do:

hokey -l es -o templates/es templates    # <--- DON'T DO THIS!

When this runs, translated files are written to templates/es, and thus become new source files to translate, since they are under templates/ -- this process continues forever, don't do it!

OK, let's say you have some email templates in a directory:

templates/email/en/welcome.txt
templates/email/en/welcome.html
templates/email/en/verify-account.txt
templates/email/en/verify-account.html
templates/email/en/reset-password.txt
templates/email/en/reset-password.html

To translate all of these to Spanish and German, run:

hokey -l es,de -o templates/email/LANG templates/email/en

In the above, LANG is a reserved word and will be replaced with the 2-letter locale code.

What happens when the above runs:

• The templates/email/es and templates/email/de directories will be created (if they don't exist)
• Every file in templates/email/en will be translated to Spanish and German
  • Existing output files will not be regenerated unless you use -f / --force
• You'll end up with an identical directory structure and files within es and de like you have under en

Other options

Force

Pass -f / --force to always regenerate translations, even if they already exist.

Handlebars

The strings to translate might contain {{ handlebars }} templates, either with two or three curly-braces.

You probably DON'T want the stuff inside those templates to be translated.

Pass the -h / --handlebars flag, and anything within {{ ... }} will not be translated.

Help

Use -h / --help to show help

Happy Translating!