using Translations inside formula scripts?

[jamie]

Hi,

Just wondering how one would use translations inside the formula scripts? language\translate(LABEL, CATEGORY, SCOPE) doesn't give a whole lot of clarity on how to select a particular translation. Normally, it's language\translate('file.tag')

[rabii]

it is simple

in the documentation there is an example that explain it all

language\translate('passwordWillBeSent', 'messages', 'User') 

So here we are translating the key passwordWillBeSent which exist under category messages of the User which will return this (Password will be sent to user's email address.)

This is the key in the json file

https://github.com/espocrm/espocrm/blob/575a63b22c6793feb6098fca7cac2aa961d42c5e/application/Espo/Resources/i18n/en_US/User.json#L112

[jamie]

rabii o, sweet, that does help, it's inverted from what I thought.

Though I am looking to do my own translations, for example, to send out an invoice that automatically translates 'pay via bank account', or 'click here for terms and conditions'

You have shown me how to access them, though, with the location of the translations, i worry that they aren't "upgrade safe", perhaps yuri could clear that up for me?

[rabii]

what do you mean by

i worry that they aren't "upgrade safe" ??

[jamie]

rabii well if i add or edit the system files with the next espo upgrade, they will be removed. it would be much better to have a list of my own translations that i can referance

[rabii]

Simply add these list of translation in the metadata in custom folder and espocrm will merge them and will prioritise custom ones on original.

[jamie]

rabii too cool! but how will espo know what folder to look in? sorry i am well new to espo as i am sure you can tell, feel free to talk to me like a total newb that wants to learn

[rabii]

jamie

No worries i totally understand and that is why we are here to share and help each other

totally fine. espocrm looks for two folder paths for metadata

custom/Espo/Custom/Resources/i18n/en_US/ 

OR

custom/Espo/Modules/YourModuleName/Resources/i18n/en_US/ 

This above for looking for translation files e.g same goes for metadata entityDefs - clientDefs - selectDefs etc

Espocrm metedata is briallntly done and give you so much flexibility - it is very powerful. you can read more on docs

https://docs.espocrm.com/development/metadata/

[jamie]

Hey man, you're just the best! Thanks for taking the time to explain it to

[rabii]

jamie

translation syntax is almost identical in both backend and frontend. Since you want to use this in template helper i would advise to use translation in the front end (i don't think your use case requires backend translation) - so front-end will be suitable (js level or template level) - see below translation syntax in both backend and frontend.

PHP level

$this->language->translate($keywordYouWantToTranslate, 'messages', User::ENTITY_TYPE) 

JS level

this.translate('passwordWillBeSent', 'messages', 'User') 

Smarty (template html)

<div>{{translate 'passwordWillBeSent' category='messages' scope='User'}}</div>​ 

[jamie]

jamie

translation syntax is almost identical in both backend and frontend. Since you want to use this in template helper i would advise to use translation in the front end (i don't think your use case requires backend translation) - so front-end will be suitable (js level or template level) - see below translation syntax in both backend and frontend.

PHP level

$this->language->translate($keywordYouWantToTranslate, 'messages', User::ENTITY_TYPE) 

JS level

this.translate('passwordWillBeSent', 'messages', 'User') 

Smarty (template html)

 {{translate 'passwordWillBeSent' category='messages' scope='User'}} 

as ever more than i needed but so useful to have the smarty details as well

[jamie]

jamie

Smarty (template html)

 {{translate 'passwordWillBeSent' category='messages' scope='User'}} 

for some reason this doesn't work when i use it inside a pdf template but i can access the same translation via php also from inside the pdf template

[rabii]

i am not sure what you mean ? there is no pdf template (when creating a custom pdf helper you return an html there is no template involved. again unless you share code it is difficult to understand you is the situation and any fixed suggest will be just a gamble.

[jamie]

i think the code would be a bit complicated to share as it's massive, but I'll share some snippets. What I am doing is generating a PDF using the built-in dompdf generator. This then goes into the database and grabs the template, and within the template, a few template helper PHP files are called

The template, here you can see i call the helper pdfBankDetails and the string i want to translate, i can get the string from inside the helper but not the template its self

<table class="mt-5">
<tr>
<td width="50%">
{{translate 'bankCode' category='bankdetails' scope='PDF'}}
{{pdfBankDetails accountNumber=cHidenBankAccountNumber iban=cIBAN}}
</td>
<td class="text-md text-right text-top">
<b>{{assignedUser.salutationName}} {{assignedUserName}}<br>{{assignedUser.title}}</b><br>
for and on behalf of<br> {{assignedUser.company}}
</td>
</tr>
</table>

The important part of the helper that works great

$lables['bankCode'] = $language->translate('bankCode', 'bankdetails', 'PDF'); 

And here is the translation file called PDF.json

{
"bankdetails": {
"bankdetails": "Bank Details",
"bank": "bank",
"swiftCode": "Swift Code",
"IBANNo": "IBAN No",
"bankCode": "Bank Code",

[rabii]

you can't use this {{translate 'bankCode' category='bankdetails' scope='PDF'}} inside the template - it won't work. in this case you need to create a custom helper for translating language something as below

Create a file custom/Espo/Custom/Resources/metadata/app/templateHelpers.json:

{
    "translate": "Espo\\Custom\\TemplateHelpers\\Translate"
} 

Then add the backend

<?php
// replace with your proper namespace
namespace Espo\Custom\TemplateHelpers;
use Espo\Core\Htmlizer\Helper;
use Espo\Core\Htmlizer\Helper\Data;
use Espo\Core\Htmlizer\Helper\Result;
use Espo\Core\Di;
class Translate implements Helper, Di\DefaultLanguageAware
{
    use Di\DefaultLanguageSetter;

    public function render(Data $data): Result
    {
        
        $label = $data->getArgumentList()[0] ?? '';
        $category = $data->getArgumentList()[1] ?? null;
        $scope = $data->getArgumentList()[2] ?? null;
        if (!$label || !is_string($label)) {
            return Result::createEmpty();
        }
      
        $label = $this->defaultLanguage->translate(
            $label,
            $category,
            $scope
        );
        return Result::create($label);
    }
}​

Then you can use this

{{translate 'bankCode' category='bankdetails' scope='PDF'}} 

[jamie]

rabii well ain't that going to explain it all! This I might be able to use to my advantage, thanks!

[rabii]

cool
cheers