react-native-translation

Overview

This package provides you an easy and flexible solution for implementing a translation system in react-native apps, using the React Context API.

Features :

• Text translation: <Text>
• Other text translation: Button title, Input placeholders, etc.
• Possibility on passing variables in translations
• In-app language change: re-render texts on language
• Data translation: Possibility or re-orient the raw data files importation. change
• Possibility to use only one translation file (one import)
• Possibility to specify a specific translation object for some cases.
• JSON format support for translations.
• Handling the device locale automaticaly.
• Possibility to use one translation object for each language.
• ...

Installation

Use the package manager npm to run the install command :

npm install react-native-translation

Dependencies

This package is using some recent React features such as Hooks. So you need to have at least React version 16.8.0 installed.

You may also require dependencies to get the device locale (See section Usage - 1).

Usage

1 - Setup the language

The first thing you need is the language in wich you want you app to run in.
There is two main ways to do that :

• Get it from user preferences (from database or storage)
• Get the device locale (from device settings)

You will might deal with both if you want the user to chose the language, but also use the device language as default.

Getting the device locale can be done easily depending on your project :

• For Expo project, you can use Localization.getLocale() from expo-localization
• For other react native apps, a lot of packages exist to get this value.
  react-native-localize, react-native-locale, react-native-device-info, and more ...

2 - Setup the LanguageProvider

In order to have the selected language available anywhere on the app, you have to wrap your app in a <LanguageProvider> component.

import React from 'react';
import Root from './Root';
 
// For this exemple I'm getting the device locale with expo-localization
import * as Localization from 'expo-localization';
 
import {LanguageProvider} from 'react-native-translation'
const locale = Localization.locale
 
export default class App extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <LanguageProvider language={locale}>
        <Root/>
      </LanguageProvider>
    );
  }
}

3 - Translating Text components

This package provides a new <Text> component named <TransText>. When providing a dictionary prop to this component, it will automaticaly render the text in the right language.

The dictionary must be an object with locale codes (string) in keys and the corresponding text in value.

// Import component
import {TransText} from 'react-native-translation'
 
...
 
// Initialize dictionary
const message = {
  "en-US" : "Hello !",
  "fr-FR" : "Salut !",
}
 
...
 
// In the render method
<TransText style = {styles.text} dictionary = {message}/>

If you want to translate an <Animated.Text> you can use <AnimatedTransText> the same way.

The dictionary can be imported from a seperate file with a general translation object.

4 - Translating other texts

Most of the time you will also need to translate texts outside of <Text> components (ie : input placeholder, button title, or any prop or object using text that need to be translated).

The getTranslation() function is the solution for that.

You can call this function wherever you want inside the provider with a dictionary as parameter (just like for <TransText>), and it will return a string containing the text in the right language.

!! The getTranslation function must use inside the component class/function to access the context

// Import function
import {getTranslation} from 'react-native-translation'
 
...
 
// Initialize dictionary and text
const message = {
  "en-US" : "Press Me",
  "fr-FR" : "Appuyer ici",
}
 
// !!! Inside the component class/function
const buttonTitle = getTranslation(message)
...
 
// In the render method
<Button title = {buttonTitle} onPress = {()=>{}}/>

Advanced Usage

1 - Passing variables to dictionaries

You might have texts wich contain variables, for exemple: "Hello Joe, Welcome back !", where "Joe" would be a variable depending on the user.
The solution for that is passing a value object with the dictionary. The translation text must contain the variables you want to inject between braces.

// Import component
import {TransText} from 'react-native-translation'
 
...
 
// Initialize dictionary
const message = {
  "en-US" : "Hello {name}, Welcome back !",
  "fr-FR" : "Salut {name}, ravi de vous revoir !",
}
// Here I initialize the name variable just for the exemple
const name = "Joe"
 
...
 
// In the render method
<TransText style = {styles.text} dictionary = {message} values = {"name":name}/>
 

2 - Using a unique translation object

In the previous exemples I declared the dictionaries objects localy in the file where I need the translation. But the most convenient for intermediate and big apps is to use a unique translation object in a single file. A dark side of that is that you'll need to import your translation object on each file that use it. Here is the solution :

1. Add the translation object as translations prop to the <LanguageProvider>.

 
//Importing your translations file
import AllTranslations from './Translations'
import { LanguageProvider } from 'react-native-translations'
 
...
 
<LanguageProvider language = {locale} translations = {AllTranslations}>
  <Root/>
</LanguageProvider>
 

1. When you need to refer a dictionary contained in your translation file, just give a string path.

import { TransText } from 'react-native-translations'
 
...
 
// This also works with the getTranslation method
const preTranslatedText = getTranslation("home.welcomeMessage")
 
...
 
<TransText style = {styles.text} dictionary = {"home.welcomeMessage"}/>
 

If your using this tip, note that at any moment if you want to use a dictionary located in another file, you can still use it after importing.

3 - TranslationConsumer : Changing the language in app

If you want to provide to the user the ability to change the language, you need to wrap the component you're using in a <TranslationConsumer>. The consumer component gives you access to the updateLanguage() function.

Exemple using a button :

import React from 'react';
import { View, StyleSheet, Button } from 'react-native';
import  {TransText, TranslationConsumer } from 'react-native-translation';
 
export default class MyView extends React.Component {
  render() {
 
    const button: {
      "en-US" : "Hello !",
      "fr-FR" : "Salut !",
    } 
 
    return (
        <View style = {styles.container}>
          
          {/*
          Display "Hello !" before pressing button
          and "Salut !" after pressing the button
          */}
          <TransText style = {styles.text} dictionary={dic.message}/>
 
          <TranslationConsumer>
            {({ language, updateLanguage }) => {
              return(<Button title={"Change Language"} onPress={() = {updateLanguage("fr-FR")}}/>)
            }}
          </TranslationConsumer>
 
          <Button title={getTranslation(dic.button)} onPress={()=>{alert()}}/>
        </View>
    );
  }
}

4 - Translate raw data with getRedirection()

You may use some raw data in your app, that you will need to translate.

1 - Your data

For exemple your app use food vocabulary, you have your english data in a enFood.json file :

{
  "vegetables" : ["Carrot","Avocado"],
  "fruits" : ["Apple","Orange"],
  "meat" : ["Beef", "Chicken", "Pork"]
}

You can create other files for other languages or put all in one file

And for the example we have the French translation in a frFood.json file :

{
  "vegetables" : ["Carrote","Avocat"],
  "fruits" : ["Pomme","Orange"],
  "meat" : ["Boeuf", "Poulet", "Porc"]
}

2 - Your redirector

You then need to create a dictionary that will redirect the datas:

foodRedirector.js :

const enFood = require('/pathToFile/enFood.json')
const frFood = require('/pathToFile/frFood.json')
 
const foodRedirector = {
  "en-US" : enFood,
  "fr-FR" : frFood
}
 
export default foodRedirector

3 - Get your translated data

Now it is all set !

You can now use the getRedirection():

!! The getRedirection function must use inside the component class/function to access the context

// Import component
import {getRedirection} from 'react-native-translation'
import foodRedirector from '/pathToFile/foodRedirector'
...
 
// Initialize data
// !! Inside the component class/function
const food = getRedirection(foodRedirector)
...

The food object is automaticaly translated

5 - TranslationConsumer : Customize whatever you want

In the previous section, I showed you an exemple of the <TranslationConsumer> use.
But the fact is you can use this component wherever you want inside the provider, and it will give you access no only to the updateLanguage() function, but also to the language variable that represents the current app language.
If you have the language you can get a translation with the getTranslationWithLang(language, dictionary, ?values).

Based on that, you can create auto translated component like <TransText> by yourself (for exemple: TransButton, TransInput, or whatever you want).

Components and functions detail

< LanguageProvider > component

Create an Translation context in the provided language

Prop	Type	Required	Description	Default value
language	string	Yes	The selectioned language	defaultLanguage
defaultLanguage	string	No	Fallback language	"en-US"
translations	object	No	Default dictionaries object	null

< TransText > component

Renders a <Text> with the translated text.

Prop	Type	Required	Description	Default value
dictionary	string for searching in the default translations object, or directly an object	Yes	The object or path to object containing translations	null
values	object { string : any }	No	Variables to inject in the text	{ }

It can also take any prop a <Text> component can take.

This tab is also available for <AnimatedTransText>

getTranslation() function

Returns the text translated in the right language.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
dictionary	string for searching in the default translations object, or directly an object	Yes	The object or path to object containing translations
values	object { string : any }	No	Variables to inject in the text

getTranslationWithLang() function

Returns the text translated in the provided language.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
language	string	Yes	The language for the translation
dictionary	string for searching in the default translations object, or directly an object	Yes	The object or path to object containing translations
values	object { string : any }	No	Variables to inject in the text

getRedirection() function

Returns the text translated data in the right language.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
dictionary/redirector	redirector object	Yes	The object associating data to languages

getRedirectionWithLang() function

Returns the text translated data in the specified language.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
language	string	Yes	The language for the translation
dictionary/redirector	redirector object	Yes	The object associating data to languages

Contribution

Since this project is open-source, pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change. Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

License

MIT