README

Kirby Content Translator

Sometimes you may find yourself copying content from Kirby fields to your clipboard, only to paste it into a translation service of your choice. This plugin aims to simplify the translation process by providing a simple interface for translating a model's content (page, file, etc.), while allowing full flexibility in choosing which fields to translate.

With a single click, an editor can:

Synchronise content from the default language to the secondary language.
Translate content using the DeepL API or a custom translation service.

Key Features

🚌 Supports writer, blocks, layouts and other Kirby fields
🧮 Configure which fields should be translated
🌐 Translate all fields with one click
🌝 Panel buttons
🧩 Use DeepL API or custom translation service

Preview

For the following preview, I used the example section blueprint to synchronise the description and text fields, which are of type writer and blocks, respectively.

The default language in the example is English. The secondary language is German, to which the content is first synchronised (copied) and then translated.

Requirements

Kirby 4+

Kirby is not free software. However, you can try Kirby and the Starterkit on your local machine or on a test server as long as you need to make sure it is the right tool for your next project. … and when you’re convinced, buy your license.

Installation

Composer

composer require johannschopplich/kirby-content-translator

Download

Download and copy this repository to /site/plugins/kirby-content-translator.

Getting Started

DeepL Account

By default, this plugin uses the DeepL API to translate your content. You can use any other translation service by defining a custom translator function (see below).

In order to use the DeepL API, you have to create an account and generate an API key.

Panel Section

First, set up the Panel section in one of your blueprints, e.g. a page blueprint and configure the fields that should be synchronised and translated:

The syncableFields key defines the fields that should be copied from the default language to the secondary language when the user is editing content in any language but the default language and clicks the synchronise button.
The translatableFields key defines the fields that should be translated when the user clicks the translate button.

Below is an example configuration with common configuration options:

sections:
  contentTranslator:
    type: content-translator
    # Define field names which should be synced from the default language to other languages
    syncableFields:
      - text
      - description
      - tags
    # Define field names that should be translated
    translatableFields:
      - text
      - description

Tip

By default, all built-in Kirby blocks that include a text-like field are pre-configured to be translated. You can override this behaviour by defining your own translatableBlocks configuration.

Finally, store the DeepL API key in your config file:

# /site/config/config.php
return [
    'johannschopplich.content-translator' => [
        // API key for the DeepL free or pro plan
        'DeepL' => [
            'apiKey' => 'abc123…'
        ]
    ]
];

Configuration

The following blueprint configuration options are available for the content-translator Panel section:

Key	Type	Default	Description
`syncableFields`	Array	`[]`	The fields that should be copied from the default language to the secondary language when the user is editing content in any language but the default language.
`translatableFields`	Array	`[]`	The fields that should be translated when the user clicks the translate button.
`translatableStructureFields`	Array	`[]`	The fields inside sections that should be translated. For the section field itself, add its field key to the `translatableFields` array.
`translatableBlocks`	Array	See `sections.php`	The block names and their corresponding fields that should be translated when the user clicks the translate button. By default, all Kirby blocks that include a text-like field are translated.
`title`	Boolean	`false`	Whether the title of the model should be synchronised and translated.
`label`	String or Array	See `translations.php`	Optionally, you can translate the section label.
`confirm`	Boolean	`true`	Disable the confirmation dialog before either the synchronisation or translation process is started.

Tip

If no syncableFields are defined, the button to synchronise content will not be displayed.

Translatable Blocks

If you create custom Kirby blocks, you probably want to translate their content as well. To do so, you can define the block names and their corresponding fields that should be translated when the user clicks the translate button:

sections:
  contentTranslator:
    type: content-translator
    # Given the `text` field is of type `blocks`
    translatableFields:
      - text
    # Define the field names inside blocks which should be translated
    translatableBlocks:
      # Example: translate the `alt` and `caption` fields of the `myImage` block
      myImage:
        - alt
        - caption
      # Example: translate the `caption` field of the `myGridCard` block
      myGridCard:
        - caption

Note

The blocks configuration for built-in Kirby blocks is defined in sections.php.

Translatable Structure Fields

The plugin translates fields within structures. The structures may be part of the current model or a block. For example, if you have a structure field with a text field inside, you can translate the text field by first adding it to the translatableStructureFields array:

translatableStructureFields:
  - text

Then, depending on whether the structure field is part of the current model or a block, you need to add the key of the structure field to the translatableFields or translatableBlocks array:

# When your structure is part of the current model:
translatableFields:
  - myStructure

# Or else, if your structure is part of a block:
translatableBlocks:
  myBlockWithStructure:
    - structureInBlock

Translating the Title

You can enable to synchronise and translate the title of a model by setting the title section property to true:

sections:
  contentTranslator:
    type: content-translator
    title: true

Important

Technically speaking, the title is not part of the content of a Kirby model. That's why you can't revert changes made to the title, as opposed to fields. Also, when synchronising content, the title will be overwritten. Because of these caveats, have to opt-in to synchronise and translate the title.

Section Label

Optionally, you can translate the section label by adding a label key:

sections:
  contentTranslator:
    type: content-translator
    # Either use a single label for all languages
    label: Translator
    # Or use language codes for multilingual labels
    # label:
    #   en: Translator
    #   de: Übersetzer

Skip Dialogs Before Synchronising/Translating

To make sure an editor doesn't accidentally synchronise or translate content and thus overwrite existing translations, a confirmation dialog is displayed before the process is started. If you want to skip this dialog, you can set the confirm key to false:

sections:
  contentTranslator:
    type: content-translator
    confirm: false

Global Configuration Defaults

Instead of defining the configuration in every blueprint, you can also define global defaults in your config file. This is especially useful if, for example, every page's blocks should be translated the same way.

Note

Local blueprint configurations will always override global defaults.

# /site/config/config.php
return [
    'johannschopplich.content-translator' => [
        'syncableFields' => ['text', 'description'],
        'translatableFields' => ['text', 'description'],
        'translatableBlocks' => [
            'heading' => ['text'],
            'text' => ['text'],
            'image' => ['alt', 'caption']
        ],
        'confirm' => false
    ]
]

Allow Overwriting Content of the Default Language

With the default plugin configuration, the synchronisation process will only copy content from the default language to secondary languages. If you want to allow overwriting content of the default language, you can set the allowOverwrite key to true. This will enable you to synchronise content from the secondary language to the default language.

# /site/config/config.php
return [
    'johannschopplich.content-translator' => [
        'allowDefaultLanguageOverwrite' => true
    ]
]

Custom Translator Function

Instead of using the DeepL API, you can define a custom translator callback that accepts the text to be translated, the source language code and the target language code. The plugin expects a string to be returned.

# /site/config/config.php
return [
    'johannschopplich.content-translator' => [
        'translateFn' => function (string $text, string|null $sourceLanguageCode, string $targetLanguageCode): string {
            // Your custom translation logic
            return myCustomTranslateFunction($text, $sourceLanguageCode, $targetLanguageCode);
        }
    ]
];

johannschopplich / kirby-content-translator

Maintainers

Details

README

Kirby Content Translator

Key Features

Preview

Requirements

Installation

Composer

Download

Getting Started

DeepL Account

Panel Section

Configuration

Translatable Blocks

Translatable Structure Fields

Translating the Title

Section Label

Skip Dialogs Before Synchronising/Translating

Global Configuration Defaults

Allow Overwriting Content of the Default Language

Custom Translator Function

License