i18n-docs is a ruby gem that helps you to keep translations stored in Google Docs. This makes it easier for translators and project members to coordinate changes and updates. In addition, the standard features of Google Docs are super handy for this process: revision tracking, authorization, publishing, etc.

Although we use it with Google Docs, it could be used with any CSV file.

this gem is currently in use and tested with Rails 3.1. It probably works with other 3.x versions, but probably not 2.x at the moment.

• download translations from multiple Google spreadsheets and store to YAML files
• import/export YAML files with a Google Spreadsheet
• check YAML files for missing translations (rake i18n:find_missing_keys)

Verify the quality of this gem by checking out this repo and running:

bundle install
rake test

Add the GEM to your project:

gem 'i18n-docs'

Create a configuration file in config/translations.yml:

files:
  navigation.yml: "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=ab43...34f3&single=true&gid=0&output=csv"
  forms.yml: "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ap...XveWc&single=true&gid=0&output=csv"
  ... etc ...

Finally, let Rails know what locales you will be using. Add this to config/application.rb:

module Web
  class Application < Rails::Application
    # add yml path
    config.i18n.load_path += Dir[Rails.root.join('config', 'locales', '*', '*.yml').to_s]
    # locals to support:
    config.i18n.available_locales = [:en,:de,:it,:fr]
  end
end

This defines which languages and translation files to import from a Google Spreadsheet. The content of the Spreadsheet URL is stored to a file called e.g. example1.yml within folders config/locales/en and all other detected locales.

Load rake tasks in your Rakefile:

require 'i18n-docs'

spec = Gem::Specification.find_by_name 'i18n-docs'
load "#{spec.gem_dir}/lib/tasks/store_translations.rake"

Create environment task in your Rakefile:

task :environment do
  ...
end

The minimal scope of this task is to set up I18n.available_locales.

Translations will be stored under config/locales in project root directory. Don't forget to setup I18n accordingly:

I18n.load_path = Dir[File.join(MyProject.root, 'config', 'locales', '**', '*.yml')]

And to load them:

I18n.backend.load_translations

Following Rake tasks are added by the GEM to your Rails project:

• rake i18n:export_translations Export all language files to CSV files (ENV 'locale' have to set for non-'en' locales else only files contained in 'en' folder are considered)
• rake i18n:import_translations Download translations from Google Spreadsheet and save them to YAML files.
• rake i18n:missing_keys Find and list translation keys that do not exist in all locales

• At Google Docs, create a new spreadsheet for your translations. The first column is the translation key, the other columns are the languages:
• use option File -> Publish To the Web
• use get a link to generate a unique url that points to the CSV spreadsheet
• From now on you should only update translations in Google Docs and run rake i18n:import_translations in the application to get changes. You can also export your

You can include a set of substitions for preprocessing the CSV after downloading it and before parsing it. Here is an example that replaces non-breaking spaces with normal ones.

files:
  navigation.yml: "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=ab43...34f3&single=true&gid=0&output=csv"

substitutions:
  - from: "\u00A0"
    to: ' '

I case of the error OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError: SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=SSLv3 read server certificate B: certificate verify failed when running rake i18n:import_translations Follow this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12562697/opensslsslsslerror-ssl-connect-returned-1-errno-0-state-sslv3-read-server-ce?answertab=active#tab-top

Pull requests welcome!

• create mocked tests that do not have to download our sample CSV files
• automate the creation of files in config/locales
• automate the detection of which languages are supported
• validate use with rails 2.x, other 3.x versions

• usable outside of rails

• rename module to be inline with the gem-name
• various cleanups

• add version.rb
• content downloaded is forced to UTF-8
• translation keys read are not downcased anymore
• fixes a bug when loading documents with an empty key
• create tmp directory if it does not exist
• strip spaces from keys

• YANKED from rubygems.org, sorry

• get in sync with Rubygems.org version

• update docs, license. Push to Rubygems.org.

• open sourced: changed name and description.

• removed loading of awesome_print from the rake task. It was breaking download

This gem is sponsored by local.ch. It is licensed under the MIT license. If you're a ruby developer and want to work with us in Switzerland, please check out our jobs page.