Translation for strings in @Theia/* packages

[arunswarnam]

Hi!
I have a use case where I am interested in providing translations for all user facing strings including the ones that are coming from @Theia scoped packages. Until version @theia/1.19.0 I was able to use the @theia/cli command
yarn extract --output ../output.json --root ../node_modules/@theia/ --logs ../log.txt --files "**/*.tsx" --files "**/*.ts" which nicely extracted and placed all the strings into output.json but with @theia/1.26.0 I am noticing change in the behavior of the command:

1. It doesn't maintain the hierarchy of strings like for example @theia/cli gives the following output.json
   @Theia : 1.19.0

{
    "vscode": {
        "editorOptions": {
                    "acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter": "Controls whether suggestions should be accepted on commit characters ..."
          }
      }
}

@Theia 1.26.0

 {
   "acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter": "Controls whether suggestions should be accepted on commit characters.
  }

2. @theia/cli misses to extract some strings in version 1.26.0 like if you notice in the attached output.txt strings with key vscode/fileActions/newFolder seem to be missing in 1.26.0.

output_theia1.19.0.txt
output_theia1.26.0.txt

This will prevent us from bringing our own translations.

[vince-fugnitto]

@arunswarnam thank you for the discussion:

1. I believe acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter is already translated by default when using vscode language-packs:

theia/packages/core/src/common/i18n/nls.metadata.json

Line 4778 in c9b9b43

"acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter",

For other items (theia-specific translations that are not supported in packs) there is a hierarchy:

...
"theia": {
  "callhierarchy": {
    "open": "Open Call Hierarchy"
  },
...
}

2, newFolder is translated by vscode language-packs by default (toDefaultLocalizedCommand):

theia/packages/workspace/src/browser/workspace-commands.ts

Lines 97 to 101 in c9b9b43

	export const NEW_FOLDER = Command.toDefaultLocalizedCommand({
	id: 'file.newFolder',
	category: FILE_CATEGORY,
	label: 'New Folder'
	});

theia/packages/core/src/common/i18n/nls.metadata.json

Line 6926 in c9b9b43

"newFolder",

[arunswarnam]

@vince-fugnitto Thank you for responding. I understand vscode language packs are capable of bringing in translations for keys that used to start with vscode/ but we couldn't use vscode-language packs for some restrictions and we are trying to explore if we can bring in our own translations.

1. With theia version 1.26.0, I attempted to override the translation for both keys ( acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter and vscode/editorOptions/acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter) through my custom localization provider . I see Theia is able to pick up translations offered for the key vscode/editorOptions/acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter similar to the key coming from the language pack.

[vince-fugnitto]

@arunswarnam unfortunately, we currently do not support (nor plan to support any time soon) other ways to translate parts of the code from vscode without the language-packs.

I believe that you'll need to implement and maintain this use-case for your application, and we cannot guarantee the the output of nls-extract won't change going forward as we continue simplifying and refining the process.

Alternatively, you can inspire yourself from the nls-extract command to produce an output that is most helpful for yourself rather than use the default one directly. The functionality is implemented in @theia/localization-manager.

---

Note: if helpful you can also take a look at vscode-loc for the translations of vscode strings.

[arunswarnam]

I just made small edit to my previous comment. In this case all we need is to make sure the full key path (vscode/...) is logged when we extract. Let me check if there is an easier way to customize the nls-extract to produce the output in a desired way as suggested.