README

Translation for the Scafera framework. UI string translation with locale management, RTL support, and Twig integration.

Internally adopts symfony/translation. Userland code never imports Symfony Translation types — boundary enforcement blocks it at compile time.

Provides: UI string translation for Scafera — Translator for lookup, LocaleManager for locale switching (with RTL detection). Flat JSON translation files with {name} parameter syntax (not Symfony's %name%). When scafera/frontend is installed, a companion bundle registers {{ t() }} and {{ locale_direction() }} Twig functions automatically.

Depends on: A Scafera host project whose architecture package defines a translations directory via getTranslationsDir() (e.g. support/translations/ in scafera/layered). Twig integration activates only when scafera/frontend is installed.

Extension points: None of its own — Translator and LocaleManager are consumed as services. New locales are picked up by adding {locale}.json files to the translations directory. Locale behavior is tuned via two parameters in config/config.yaml: scafera.translate.default_locale and scafera.translate.rtl_locales.

Not responsible for: Non-JSON translation formats (no YAML, no XLIFF — deliberate) · multi-level fallback chains (single fallback to default locale only) · choosing the translations directory (architecture package owns getTranslationsDir()) · direct use of Symfony\Component\Translation types in userland (blocked by TranslateBoundaryPass and TranslateBoundaryValidator).

This is a capability package. It adds optional translation to a Scafera project. It does not define folder structure or architectural rules — those belong to architecture packages.

What it provides

Translator — get translated strings with {name} parameter replacement
LocaleManager — locale switching, available locales, RTL detection
JsonFileLoader — loads flat JSON translation files (internal)
Twig integration — {{ t() }} and {{ locale_direction() }} (when scafera/frontend is installed)
Companion bundle auto-discovery via extra.scafera-bundles in composer.json

Design decisions

{name} parameter syntax, not %name% — translation files use {name} for parameter placeholders. This is engine-independent (Symfony uses %name%) and human-readable. Replacement is done after Symfony's trans() call via simple strtr().
Translations directory is architecture-owned — defined by getTranslationsDir() on the architecture package, not hardcoded. For scafera/layered, this is support/translations/.
JSON only — no YAML, no XLIFF. Flat key-value format. Keeps translation files simple and parseable by any tooling.
Companion bundle for Twig — the {{ t() }} function is registered via extra.scafera-bundles companion discovery (ADR-056), not by requiring scafera/frontend as a dependency. The translate package works without Twig.
Missing keys return the raw key — get('MISSING') returns 'MISSING', not an error. Fallback to default locale is automatic for keys that exist in another locale.

Installation

composer require scafera/translate

Requirements

PHP >= 8.4
scafera/kernel

Translation files

JSON files in the architecture-defined translations directory (e.g., support/translations/{locale}.json):

{
    "WELCOME": "Welcome to the app!",
    "GREETING": "Hello, {name}!"
}

Flat key-value format. No nesting, no YAML, no XLIFF. Parameters use {name} syntax — not Symfony's %name% format. This keeps translation files engine-independent and human-readable.

Usage

use Scafera\Translate\Translator;

$translator->get('WELCOME');                        // 'Welcome to the app!'
$translator->get('GREETING', ['name' => 'Alice']);  // 'Hello, Alice!'
$translator->has('WELCOME');                        // true
$translator->getLocale();                           // 'en'
$translator->getDirection();                        // 'ltr'

Missing keys return the raw key string. Fallback to the default locale is automatic.

Locale management

use Scafera\Translate\LocaleManager;

$localeManager->setLocale('ar');
$localeManager->getLocale();              // 'ar'
$localeManager->getDirection();           // 'rtl'
$localeManager->getDirection('en');       // 'ltr'
$localeManager->getAvailableLocales();    // ['ar', 'en']

Available locales are discovered from *.json files in the translations directory.

Twig integration

When scafera/frontend is installed, a companion bundle registers automatically:

<html dir="{{ locale_direction() }}">
    <h1>{{ t('WELCOME') }}</h1>
    <p>{{ t('GREETING', {name: user.name}) }}</p>
</html>

Configuration

All configuration is optional. The package works out of the box with sensible defaults.

Parameter	Default	Description
`scafera.translate.default_locale`	`en`	Default locale used when no locale is set. Also used as the fallback locale when a key is missing in the current locale.
`scafera.translate.rtl_locales`	`[ar, fa, ur]`	Locale codes that use right-to-left text direction. `LocaleManager::getDirection()` returns `'rtl'` for these.

Not configurable via parameters:

Translation files directory — defined by the architecture package via getTranslationsDir(). For scafera/layered, this is support/translations/.
File format — JSON only. No YAML, no XLIFF.
Fallback chain — always falls back to the default locale. No multi-level fallback.

To override defaults, add to config/config.yaml:

# config/config.yaml
parameters:
    scafera.translate.default_locale: fr
    scafera.translate.rtl_locales: [ar, fa, ur]

If you are using en as your default locale and the standard RTL set, no configuration is needed.

Boundary enforcement

Blocked	Use instead
`Symfony\Component\Translation\*`	`Scafera\Translate\Translator`

Enforced via compiler pass (build time) and validator (scafera validate). Detects use, new, and extends patterns.

License

MIT

scafera / translate

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