How can I deploy user interface translation?

Question

Strings that I translate at "User interface translation" /admin/config/regional/translate are not exportable by "Configuration management" /admin/config/development/configuration for me. Am I missing something?

I would like to automate this process with hook_update_N or drush cim -y.

What is a proper way to automatically deploy "User interface translation" in Drupal 8?

1. Should I do it in hook_update_N()?
2. Should I create some custom mytranslations.po file in the language folder?

I see there is locale_translate_batch_import_files() which might be used.

Answer 1

You have to do this yourself. @rpayanm answered where you can do it manually, you will need to look at the code there, and for example implement drush commands that allow you to export and import it again. Automating that is then relatively easy, export, sync it to the other server, and import again.

Looks like a project that helps with that exists: Drush Language Commands.

You can put default translations in a module ,but those are only imported when you install that module. hook_update_N() is designed to only run once, so you would need to write a new function every time you want to do it (and you still need to export it first).

Answer 2

Helper function to add custom translations:

/**
 * Helper to manually add a single translation string.
 *
 * @param string $source_string
 *   Source string.
 * @param string $langcode
 *   The langcode.
 * @param string $translated_string
 *   Translated string.
 */
function MYMODULE_add_translation($source_string, $langcode, $translated_string) {
  // Find existing source string.
  $storage = \Drupal::service('locale.storage');
  $string = $storage->findString(['source' => $source_string]);
  if (is_null($string)) {
    $string = new SourceString();
    $string->setString($source_string);
    $string->setStorage($storage);
    $string->save();
  }
  // Create translation. If one already exists, it will be replaced.
  $translation = $storage->createTranslation([
    'lid' => $string->lid,
    'language' => $langcode,
    'translation' => $translated_string,
  ]);
  $translation->save();
}

Usage in an update hook:

/**
 * Add translations.
 */
function MYMODULE_update_8002() {
  MYMODULE_add_translation('Adjust', 'de', 'Anpassen');
}

Answer 3

You can export the translated strings used by your site A (admin/config/regional/translate/export) and then import them on the other site (admin/config/regional/translate/import).

Answer 4

For our project, we wrote a custom module with .po files in a subfolder. These are loaded by the Drupal 8 localization system using a few lines of code in the .info.yml.

'interface translation project': CUSTOM_MODULE
'interface translation server pattern': modules/custom/CUSTOM_MODULE/%project-%version.%language.po

See https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/core%21modules%21locale%21locale.api.php/group/interface_translation_properties/8.2.x

Answer 5

It looks like it should also be possible to do this by writing a script to run commands from Drush locale sync, although I haven't tried that module myself.

Answer 6

A more simple option to deploy a few string translations would be to use the 'String overrides' feature available in Drupal 8.x and 9.x.

In short, it's possible to include string translations in your settings.php file (or settings.local.php).

This is the change record where it was introduced: https://www.drupal.org/node/2109883

And this is how it works:

/*
* String overrides:
*
* To override specific strings on your site with or without enabling the Locale
* module, add an entry to this list. This functionality allows you to change
* a small number of your site's default English language interface strings.
*
* Remove the leading hash signs to enable.
*
* The "en" part of the variable name, is dynamic and can be any langcode of
* any enabled language. (eg locale_custom_strings_de for german).
*/
 $settings['locale_custom_strings_en'][''] = array(
   'forum'      => 'Discussion board',
   '@count min' => '@count minutes',
 );