Bawlerjs

Simple translatable messages in your javascript coming from a backend or object.

Motivation

Talking with a colleague about how to integrate translations into an old js codebase I came up with the idea of making this package. It is the simplest approach to translations in javascript I could think about.

As you are probably thinking, the purpose of this package is to be as easy to setup and use as possible.

Installation

Using npm

Execute this command in the console:

npm i bawlerjs

Using yarn

Execute this command in the console:

yarn add bawlerjs

Standalone

Add this to your html:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bawlerjs/dist/bawler.js"></script>

You can see all available versions here: https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/bawlerjs

Usage

Rememeber that if you are using the package as a js module using yarn or npm you have to import the package:

import Bawler from 'bawlerjs';

You can also import the msg method directly:

import { msg } from 'bawlerjs';

Setting output language for the messages

You can change the language Bawler is outputting messages to by calling the lang method. By default the selected language will be en.

Bawler.lang('es'); //set the "es" language

Registering messages to languages

You can set messages in Bawler by using the register and registerUrl methods.

Synchronous message registration

By using the register method you can register the messages of a language in a synchronous way.

Bawler.register('en', {
    'HELLO WORLD': 'Hello world!',
});

Asynchronous message registration

You can also register messages from an url by calling the registerUrl method. The output of the url must be a json object whose keys are the message keys and the values are the translated messages.

The method will return a promise that will be resolved when the url is correctly loaded.

Example:

await Bawler.registerUrl('/messages-en.json', 'en');

Outputting messages

To output a message, simply call the msg method. Remember you can import the msg function directly from the module.

Bawler.register('en', {
    'HELLO WORLD': 'Hello world!',
});

Bawler.lang('en');

Bawler.msg('HELLO WORLD'); //Outputs: Hello world!

You can also pass variables to the messages by using sprintf syntax (as in C and similar languages):

Bawler.register('en', {
    'HELLO %s': 'Hello, %s!',
});

Bawler.lang('en');

Bawler.msg('HELLO %s', ['handsome']); //Outputs: Hello handsome!

If the message is not defined in the current language, Bawler will output the passed key directly:

Bawler.register('en', {
    'HELLO WORLD': 'Hello world!',
});

Bawler.lang('es');

Bawler.msg('HELLO WORLD'); //Outputs: HELLO WORLD

Bawler.lang('en');

Bawler.msg('THIS DOES NOT EXIST'); //Outputs: THIS DOES NOT EXIST