# Translations README

This is a basic sketch of the workflow needed to add translations:

# Adding/Updating Translations

## New languages
Create `staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/util/i18n/translations/kubectl/<language>/LC_MESSAGES/k8s.po`. There's
no need to update `translations/test/...` which is only used for unit tests.

There is an example [PR here](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/40645) which adds support for French.

Once you've added a new language, you'll need to register it in
`staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/util/i18n/i18n.go` by adding it to the `knownTranslations` map.

## Wrapping strings
There is a simple script in `staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/util/i18n/translations/extract.py` that performs
simple regular expression based wrapping of strings. It can always
use improvements to understand additional strings.

## Extracting strings
Once the strings are wrapped, you can extract strings from go files using
the `go-xgettext` command which can be installed with:

```console
go get github.com/gosexy/gettext/go-xgettext
```

Once that's installed you can run `./hack/update-translations.sh`, which
will extract and sort any new strings.

## Adding new translations
Edit the appropriate `k8s.po` file, `poedit` is a popular open source tool
for translations. You can load the `staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/util/i18n/translations/kubectl/template.pot` file
to find messages that might be missing.

Once you are done with your `k8s.po` file, generate the corresponding `k8s.mo`
file. `poedit` does this automatically on save, but you can also run
`./hack/update-translations.sh` to perform the `po` to `mo` translation.

We use the English translation as the `msgid`.

## Regenerating the bindata file

> Note: Regeneration of bindata is no more necessary for Kubernetes 1.22+ as
> the translations are now embedded into the binary at compile time.
> See: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99829

With the `mo` files up to date, you can now convert the generated files
into code using `go-bindata` command which can be installed with:

```console
go get github.com/go-bindata/go-bindata/...
```

Run `./hack/generate-bindata.sh`, this will turn the translation files
into generated code which will in turn be packaged into the Kubernetes
binaries.

## Extracting strings

There is a script in `staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/util/i18n/translations/extract.py` that knows how to do some
simple extraction. It needs a lot of work.

# Using translations

To use translations, you simply need to add:
```go
import pkg/i18n
...
// Get a translated string
translated := i18n.T("Your message in english here")

// Get a translated plural string
translated := i18n.T("You had % items", items)

// Translated error
return i18n.Error("Something bad happened")

// Translated plural error
return i18n.Error("%d bad things happened")
```