i18n best practices

Provide a message bundle in your module. It makes translation easier. A translator can work with a plain text file and doesn’t need to touch the code. A message bundle is a collection of .properties files. Each file contains key-value pairs of translated user interface text such as labels and messages. The keys in all .properties files of the same bundle are identical but the values are language specific translations.

We recommend the following i18n filename patterns, for apps and modules, respectively:

Make sure the locale is correct. Magnolia follows the Java locale notation.

Keep your message bundles in the following folders:

Whenever possible (see here for more details and restrictions), use generic, i.e. shorter i18n keys. The shorter the form, the more modules will exist where the key can be instantly reused.

Use UTF-8 character encoding in .properties files.

Create separate message bundles for user interface labels and template labels. Don’t store these two groups of text in the same properties files or message bundles. They are aimed at different audiences and have different localization requirements.

Example: Message files in the Travel Demo