Language translations

[paa93]

All output text should be stored in a way so translations easily can be implemented for any language thus allowing GTW-RPG to be translated into any language in the future. See GTWantispam for a live example of how this should be implemented, more information will be published once it's confirmed to work.

[The-Penguin]

So we start by defining default language in s_lang.lua/c_lang.lua (two files that should be in each resource) fron GTWcore as first option and locally as backup option this way:

-- Definition of default language for this resource
r_lang = exports.GTWcore:getGTWLanguage() or "en_US"

Then we store the translations in txt = {
["lang_ID_1"]={ ["msg1"]="message1", ["msg2"]="message2", ... }
["lang_ID_2"]={ ["msg1"]="message1", ["msg2"]="message2", ... }
...}
TODO: create a function that takes a language ID as argument and returns corresponding result from the table and if there is no such text, return the english translations (default) and as a last options return empty or an error message.

Now, wouldn't it be better to use a shared language file instead of s_lang.lua/c_lang.lua and simply name it lang.lua?

[paa93]

Something like this maybe:

--[[ Language translations for resource ]]--
function get_translation(text_id, input_lang)
        -- Validation of language code
        if not input_lang then input_lang = "en_US" end

        -- Validation of request
        if not txt[input_lang] then return "" end
        if not txt[input_lang][text_id] then return "" end

        -- Return translation
        return txt[input_lang][text_id]
end

I'd also suggest a modification to include a element data post for the client so that players can choose their own language (stored as element data) via command or a GUI, like this:

function get_translation(text_id, input_lang, client)
Where "client" is an optional argument indicating if we should check for client preferences for local translations, (some features might not use this).

[Citizen01]

Hi everyone, your project is very cool especially as it is open-source.
Was just reading this issue I faced myself with one of my personal resources and it looks like you didn't think about "formatable" translations as I would call them.
I mean for example a string with standard Lua placeholders for variables:
["msg1"]="You need %s dollars to buy this house !"

So the function definition would look like this:
function get_translation(text_id, input_lang, ...)

Keep up the good work and I'll probably check the whole sources when I'll have some free time.

Cheers,
Citizen
(French Section Moderator just FYI)

[paa93]

Brilliant, just remembered all the places where variables are used within the strings and how it wouldn't work to pass those other than as arguments. I can't believe I forgot those and I'm glad I haven't started this translation feature yet.