RED._() behaviour

Core Development
1

Is there any particular reason why the definition of RED._() returns a string if i18n returned a string and will return the key sent to i18n in all other cases ? This prevents the use of {returnObjects: true} in options as documented here: https://www.i18next.com/translation-function/objects-and-arrays

If the key was not found, i18n will return the key anyway so I think maybe RED._() could be simplified from

RED["_"] = function() {
  var v = i18n.t.apply(null,arguments);
  if (typeof v === 'string') {
    return v;
  } else {
    return arguments[0];
  }
}

(as found here in lines 38-45: https://github.com/node-red/node-red/blob/master/packages/node_modules/%40node-red/editor-client/src/js/i18n.js)

to

RED["_"] = function() {
  return i18n.t.apply(null,arguments);
}
1 Like
2

I can't remember the full details, but yes, this was a choice made.

There are places (such as node status) where we are given a string and we check to see if it is a message catalog id. If it isn't then we return the key. A problem happens when someone sends the status value that matches the first part of a message id, such as debug. This would return the complete object under debug in the catalog - which we don't want. So we only allow look up of absolute messages and don't set returnObjects.

Do you have a particular need to use that feature?

1 Like
3

In one of my custom nodes, I'm using an object to write text in the cells of a table (text is using locales of course). It was easier to have an object/array rather than a different i18n key for each cell. Hence my use of returnObjects. In the meantime I've used the i18n.t() function directly instead of RED._(). But I suppose this is discouraged as RED._() is the official way ?

4

We don't expose the i18n internals so I'm not sure how you are using returnObjects in your code.

RED._() is the only official function we provide to get messages from the catalog. The i18n library is an internal implementation detail.

5

Mmmh ... ì18n is available in my browser's console that's why I'm using it instead of RED._() .. I assumed NR exposed it ... I'm embedding NR in my own app ... maybe I added i18n myself ? I don't remember doing that ... I should check where this comes from ...

6

i18n exposes itself on the global object, but that isn't intended for general use and nowhere in our docs is it highlighted

https://nodered.org/docs/creating-nodes/i18n

1 Like
7

Thanks for the explanation ! I'm not crazy after all :slight_smile: I can live with i18n for now, even though I'll have to be careful after updates ... any chance RED._() could implement a few features from the original i18n in the future ?

8

Its possible. But until today no-one has asked about it, so it has never been something on the backlog.

1 Like