Zend Framework: per module translation sources

Matthijs — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:01:20 +0000

Separate modules should be able to have separate Zend_Translate sources. As can be read in my earlier post about module configuration, I am making my modules completely autonomous in their config. That also means they should have their own translation sources that are automatically added to the main Zend_Translate instance for easy reference. In this article I will show you how to set this up.

The standard zend application resource Zend_Application_Resource_Translate doesn’t support this. If you use that resource and include translate settings in your module.ini, a separate Zend_Translate instance will be added to the resource container for that module. By default, the resource also sets the registry key ‘Zend_Translate’ to the new instance every time the resource is called in the bootstrap process. Because you don’t know the module load order, you don’t know what instance the registry will contain.

This has an important drawback: the stock translate view helper, Zend_Form and other Zend_Translate aware ZF components automatically check for a Zend_Translate instance in the registry under the key ‘Zend_Translate’. This will lead to unexpected results.

There are workarounds, but they are not convenient in my opinion. Another example: to get at the translations for your module from your controller, you would have to do this:

$moduleTranslate = $this->getInvokeArg('bootstrap')->getResource('modules')
        ->offsetGet('modulenamehere')->getResource('translate');

to get to the main translate instance:

$mainTranslate = $this->getInvokeArg('bootstrap')->getResource('translate');

And the shortest version could not be used, because you wouldn’t know which instance it contains!

$unknownTranslate = Zend_Registry::get('Zend_Translate');

My solution was building a slightly different version of Zend_Application_Resource_Translate. It checks if the registry key is already set first. If not, it creates a new instance of Zend_Translate and assigns it to the registry. If there already is a registry key, the resource fetches the existing instance and calls addTranslation on it. This way, all your translation sources are neatly merged.

Usage example

Default translate settings in application.ini:

resources.translate.data = APPLICATION_PATH "/languages"
resources.translate.adapter = "Array"
resources.translate.options.scan = "filename"

Then, if you use my ModuleSetup resource as described in module config, you can set the module translation options in the module.ini for that module:

resources.translate.data = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/modulename/languages"

or, you can set the module config in your application.ini, as described in the Zend Framework reference:

modulename.resources.translate.data = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/modulename/languages"

* note: you can set all options for module translation sources the same way as for the application translate resource, except ‘adapter’. This is because Zend_Translate::addTranslation doesn’t support it.

application/languages/nl.php:

return array(
	'application' => 'applicatie',
);

application/modules/modulename/languages/nl.php:

return array(
	'module example' => 'module voorbeeld',
);

After bootstrap, Zend_Registry::get(‘Zend_Translate’) contains the merged tranlation sources. A var_dump of Zend_Registry::get(‘Zend_Translate’)->getMessages() will show:

array
    'application' => string 'applicatie' (length=10)
    'module example' => string 'module voorbeeld' (length=16)

Code

class Rexus_Application_Resource_Translate extends Zend_Application_Resource_ResourceAbstract
{
    const DEFAULT_REGISTRY_KEY = 'Zend_Translate';
 
    /**
     * @var Zend_Translate
     */
    protected $_translate;
 
    /**
     * Defined by Zend_Application_Resource_Resource
     *
     * @return Zend_Translate
     */
    public function init()
    {
        /*
         * The translate settings for the application.ini should be loaded first
         * to set all necessary defaults, most importantly the adapter to use
         *
         * Since we can't know the load order of modules and/or application bootstrap
         * we set the application translate as dependecy if we are not the main Bootstrap
         */
        if ('Bootstrap' !== get_class($this->getBootstrap())) {
            $this->getBootstrap()->getApplication()->bootstrap('translate');
        }
        return $this->getTranslate();
    }
 
    /**
     * Retrieve translate object
     *
     * @return Zend_Translate
     */
    public function getTranslate()
    {
        $options = $this->getOptions();
 
        if (!isset($options['data'])) {
            throw new Zend_Application_Resource_Exception(
                'No translation source data provided in the ini file for: '
                . get_class($this->getBootstrap()).'.'
            );
        }
 
        $adapter = isset($options['adapter']) ? $options['adapter'] : Zend_Translate::AN_ARRAY;
        $locale = isset($options['locale']) ? $options['locale'] : null;
        $translateOptions = isset($options['options']) ? $options['options'] : array();
 
        $key = ( isset ($options['registry_key']) && !is_numeric($options['registry_key']))
             ? $options['registry_key']
             : self::DEFAULT_REGISTRY_KEY;
 
        // If no translate object was set in the registry we create it.
        if (!Zend_Registry::isRegistered($key)) {
            $this->_createTranslation($adapter, $options['data'], $locale, $translateOptions);
 
        // if there is, we should add a translation source to the existing translate object
        } elseif (Zend_Registry::isRegistered($key)) {
            $this->_translate = Zend_Registry::get($key);
            $this->_addTranslation($options['data'], $locale, $translateOptions);
        }
 
        Zend_Registry::set($key, $this->_translate);
 
        return $this->_translate;
    }
 
    protected function _createTranslation($adapter, $data, $locale, $options)
    {
        $this->_translate = new Zend_Translate(
            $adapter, $data, $locale, $options
        );
    }
 
    protected function _addTranslation($data, $locale, $options)
    {
        $this->_translate->addTranslation(
            $data, $locale, $options
        );
    }
}

To use this resource instead of the stock one, just drop it into your library. It will automatically be chosen over the stock one, because it has the same name. Of course, this only works correctly if you set the prefix and path for your resources in your application.ini like this:

pluginPaths.Rexus_Application_Resource = "Rexus/Application/Resource"

Improvements and comments are always welcome.

vandenbos.org » Zend_Translate

Zend Framework: per module translation sources

Usage example

Code