A tool to automate translation of language files for our Smarty-based website
The BLUF website is avaiable in multiple languages. Our core site is in English, German, French and Spanish, while our signup microsite additionally includes Italian and Brasilian Portuguese.
Pages for the site are generated using the Smarty PHP template engine and we use Smarty config files to store the multilingual texts for each page.
That means that for each page or section of the site, a text file maps Smarty constants, loaded by the template, to the actual text, like this
# This is a single language config file
pagetitle = Welcome to BLUF
heading = Welcome to the online home of BLUF, the club for leather men
The corresponding Smarty template will look something like this
{config_load file='welcome.txt' section=$language}
<head>
<title>{#pagetitle#}</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>{#heading#}</h1>
When developing the page, we create a simple config file, and the English language text is used, regardless of the specified language.
To make a page multilingual, all we need to do is to divide the config file into sections, each one named for a value of the $language variable, like this
# BLUF multi-language config file
#
[en]
pagetitle = Welcome to BLUF
heading = Welcome to the online home of BLUF, the club for leather men
[de]
pagetitle = Willkommen bei BLUF
heading = Willkommen auf der Online-Seite von BLUF, dem Club für Ledermänner
[fr]
pagetitle = Bienvenue à BLUF
heading = Bienvenue sur le site de BLUF, le club des hommes en cuir.
So, once we've debugged a page, and created the english version of all the texts - which can include variables set via the Smarty engine - all we need to do is to add the extra languages to the config file, and we have a multilingual version.
In the past we used a team of volunteer translators, and you'll probably get the best results by using real native speakers. But that tends to either cost money, or take time. As we now try to ensure that when a feature is added to the site, it's immediately available to users regardless of langauge, there have been times where the rollout has been delayed significantly not by testing, but by waiting for all the languages to be translated.
Machine translation is nothing new, but having used Google translate in the past when we needed something quickly, we've not been happy with the results, and they've often required tweaking afterwards by a real person.
However, the DeepL translator is much better regarded, and it provides an API that can be accessed for pretty reasonable fees.
So, we have created a small tool, which we call deepler, that can be given the names of one or more of our Smarty config files, and uses the DeepL API to create the translated version.
Now, when we're ready to go with a new page or feature, a simple command like
php deepler.php demo.txt
is all that we need to turn a single language config file into a multilingual one, with the added section headers.
Because sometimes we do go back and change things, we've added a few extra options; we try not to over-write existing translations, in case they have been tweaked by a real person. But we can force the tool to rebuild everything from English, or just to append any languages that are missing.
The deepl_config.php file configures things like the core set of languages (for us, English, German, French, Spanish), an extended set, a smaller test set, languages for which we prefer to use the informal option, if available. It also maps between an ISO set of codes and those used internally by DeepL, where required. This makes some codes a little easier for people to remember.
Usage: deepler.php <files>
All .txt files will be translated from English to core languages
Options:
--extended use extended language set, instead of core
--all use all languages, instead of core
--append add missing langauges, instead of skipping files with markup
--rebuild regenerate all languages in a file, from English
--test use test language set
--help display this text
When run, deepler will display what it's doing, which language it's working on (or skipping, if already present), and then at the end report the current usage and quota % from the DeepL account.
In the common directory, you'll find deepl_config.php, which sets up the various arrays that define languages supported, default language set for our Smarty config files, and so on.
The file deepl.php is our main DeepL code, and provides a general translation function (also used to allow users to translate messages they receive on the site), plus functions to work out which languages are used in a config file, and to extract a specific section, if necessary.
Not included is KEYSdeepl.php which is a short include that defines KEY_DEEPL, our DeepL API key. This is stored elsewhere on the server, away from anthing managed with source control.
We make no great claims for the quality of this code; it's simply a tool that helps us get a job done fast - converting our website into multiple languages, with a fair degree of accuracy, and minimal work.