Replace {} placeholders with ### and escape quotes in strings in POT file

json-to-pot.js

@@ -1,9 +1,49 @@
+// More about the structure of .po files:
+// https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/PO-Files.html#PO-Files
+
+/*
+ * white-space
+ #  translator-comments
+ #. extracted-comments
+ #: reference…
+ #, flag…
+ #| msgid previous-untranslated-string
+ msgid untranslated-string
+ msgstr translated-string
+ */
+
 const json = require('./src/locales/en.json')
+const fs = require('fs')
 
 const curlyRegex = new RegExp('{[a-z]*}')
 const containsCurlyWord = (string) => curlyRegex.test(string)
 const checkStringForVars = (string) =>
-  containsCurlyWord(string) ? '(Do not translate words in curly braces)' : ''
+  containsCurlyWord(string) ? '(Do not translate words between ###)' : ''
+
+/**
+ * For GlotPress to display warning when the translators try to
+ * replace placeholders with something else, we need to wrap the
+ * placeholders with `###word###`
+ * @param string
+ * @return {string}
+ */
+const replaceVarsPlaceholders = (string) => {
+  if (!containsCurlyWord(string)) {
+    return string
+  }
+  const variable = /{(?<variable>[a-z]*)}/g
+  return string.replace(variable, `###$<variable>###`)
+}
+
+/**
+ * Replace placeholder format for variables,
+ * escape quotes (in a different PR)
+ * @param string
+ * @return {string}
+ */
+const processValue = (string) => {
+  return escapeQuotes(replaceVarsPlaceholders(string))
+}
 
 const findPath = (ob, key) => {
   const path = []
@@ -41,6 +81,8 @@ const findPath = (ob, key) => {
   return path.join('.')
 }
 
+const escapeQuotes = (str) => str.replace(/"/g, '\\"')
+
 // POT Syntax
 
 // msgctxt context
@@ -56,7 +98,7 @@ function potTime(json, parent = json) {
 
 # ${findPath(parent, key)}.${key} ${checkStringForVars(value)}
 msgctxt "${findPath(parent, key)}.${key}"
-msgid "${value}"
+msgid "${processValue(value)}"
 msgstr ""`
     }
     if (typeof value === 'object') {
@@ -67,4 +109,10 @@ msgstr ""`
 }
 
 const potFile = potTime(json)
-
+try {
+  const fileName = 'test.pot'
+  fs.writeFileSync(fileName, potFile)
+  console.log(`Successfully wrote pot file to ${fileName}`)
+} catch (err) {
+  console.error(err)
+}