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Version: 2.1.0

i18n - Using git

A possible translation strategy is to version control the translation files with Git (or any other VCS).

Tradeoffs​

This strategy has advantages:

  • Easy to get started: just commit the i18n folder to Git
  • Easy for developers: Git, GitHub and pull requests are mainstream developer tools
  • Free (or without any additional cost, assuming you already use Git)
  • Low friction: does not require signing up to an external tool
  • Rewarding: contributors are happy to have a nice contribution history

Using Git also present some shortcomings:

  • Hard for non-developers: they do not master Git and pull-requests
  • Hard for professional translators: they are used to SaaS translation softwares and advanced features
  • Hard to maintain: you have to keep the translated files in sync with the untranslated files

:::note

Some large-scale technical projects (React, Vue.js, MDN, TypeScript, Nuxt.js, etc.) use Git for translations.

Refer to the Docusaurus i18n RFC for our notes and links studying these systems.

:::

Initialization​

This is a walk-through of using Git to translate a newly initialized English Docusaurus website into French, and assume you already followed the i18n tutorial.

Prepare the Docusaurus site​

Initialize a new Docusaurus site:

npx create-docusaurus@latest website classic

Add the site configuration for the French language:

docusaurus.config.js
module.exports = {
  i18n: {
    defaultLocale: 'en',
    locales: ['en', 'fr'],
  },
  themeConfig: {
    navbar: {
      items: [
        // ...
        {
          type: 'localeDropdown',
          position: 'left',
        },
        // ...
      ],
    },
  },
  // ...
};

Translate the homepage:

src/pages/index.js
import React from 'react';
import Translate from '@docusaurus/Translate';
import Layout from '@theme/Layout';

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Layout>
      <h1 style={{margin: 20}}>
        <Translate description="The homepage main heading">
          Welcome to my Docusaurus translated site!
        </Translate>
      </h1>
    </Layout>
  );
}

Initialize the i18n folder​

Use the write-translations CLI command to initialize the JSON translation files for the French locale:

npm run write-translations -- --locale fr

  1 translations written at i18n/fr/code.json
 11 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-theme-classic/footer.json
  4 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-theme-classic/navbar.json
  3 translations written at i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current.json

:::tip

Use the --messagePrefix '(fr) ' option to make the untranslated strings stand out.

Hello will appear as (fr) Hello and makes it clear a translation is missing.

:::

Copy your untranslated Markdown files to the French folder:

mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current
cp -r docs/** i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current

mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-blog
cp -r blog/** i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-blog

mkdir -p i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pages
cp -r src/pages/**.md i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pages
cp -r src/pages/**.mdx i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-pages

Add all these files to Git.

Translate the files​

Translate the Markdown and JSON files in i18n/fr and commit the translation.

You should now be able to start your site in French and see the translations:

npm run start -- --locale fr

You can also build the site locally or on your CI:

npm run build
# or
npm run build -- --locale fr

Repeat​

Follow the same process for each locale you need to support.

Maintenance​

Keeping translated files consistent with the originals can be challenging, in particular for Markdown documents.

Markdown translations​

When an untranslated Markdown document is edited, it is your responsibility to maintain the respective translated files, and we unfortunately don't have a good way to help you do so.

To keep your translated sites consistent, when the website/docs/doc1.md doc is edited, you need backport these edits to i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current/doc1.md.

JSON translations​

To help you maintain the JSON translation files, it is possible to run again the write-translations CLI command:

npm run write-translations -- --locale fr

New translations will be appended, and existing ones will not be overridden.

:::tip

Reset your translations with the --override option.

:::

Localize edit URLs​

When the user is browsing a page at /fr/doc1, the edit button will link by default to the unlocalized doc at website/docs/doc1.md.

Your translations are on Git, and you can use the editLocalizedFiles: true option of the docs and blog plugins.

The edit button will link to the localized doc at i18n/fr/docusaurus-plugin-content-docs/current/doc1.md.