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NAME

Locale::Maketext::Utils - Adds some utility functionality and failure handling to Local::Maketext handles

SYNOPSIS

In MyApp/Localize.pm:

    package MyApp::Localize;
    use Locale::Maketext::Utils; 
    use base 'Locale::Maketext::Utils'; 
  
    our $Encoding = 'utf8'; # see below
    
    # no _AUTO
    our %Lexicon = (...

Make all the language Lexicons you want. (no _AUTO)

Then in your script:

   my $lang = MyApp::Localize->get_handle('fr');

Now $lang is a normal Locale::Maketext handle object but now there are some new methods and failure handling which are described below.

our $Encoding

If you set your class's $Encoding variable the object's encoding will be set to that.

   my $enc = $lh->encoding(); 

$enc is $MyApp::Localize::fr::Encoding || $MyApp::Localize::Encoding || encoding()'s default

our $Onesided

Setting this to a true value treats the class's %Lexicon as one sided. What that means is if the hash's keys and values will be the same (IE your main Lexicon) you can specify it in the key only and leave the value blank.

So instead of a Lexicon entry like this:

   q{Hello I love you won't you tell me your name} => q{Hello I love you won't you tell me your name},

You just do:

    q{Hello I love you won't you tell me your name} => '',
    

The advantages are a smaller file, less prone to mistyping or mispasting, and most important of all someone translating it can simply copy it into their module and enter their translation instead of having to remove the value first.

Aliasing

In your package you can create an alias with this:

   __PACKAGE__->make_alias($langs, 1);
   or
   MyApp::Localize->make_alias([qw(en en_us i_default)], 1);
   
   __PACKAGE__->make_alias($langs);
   or
   MyApp::Localize::fr->make_alias('fr_ca');
   

Where $langs is a string or a reference to an array of strings that are the aliased language tags.

You must set the second argument to true if __PACKAGE__ is the base class.

The reason is there is no way to tell if the pakage name is the base class or not.

This needs done before you call get_handle() or it will have no effect on your object really.

Ideally you'd put all calls to this in the main lexicon to ensure it will apply to any get_handle() calls.

Alternatively, and at times more ideally, you can keep each module's aliases in them and then when setting your obj require the module first.

METHODS

$lh->print($key, @args);

Shortcut for

    print $lh->maketext($key, @args);

$lh->fetch($key, @args);

Alias for

    $lh->maketext($key, @args);

$lh->say($key, @args);

Like $lh->print($key, @args); except appends $/ || \n

$lh->get($key, @args);

Like $lh->fetch($key, @args); except appends $/ || \n

$lh->get_base_class()

    Returns the base class of the object. So if $lh is a MyApp::Localize::fr object then it returns MyApp::Localize

$lh->get_language_tag()

Returns the real language name space being used, not language_tag()'s "cleaned up" one

$lh->langtag_is_loadable($lang_tag)

Returns 0 if the argument is not a language that can be used to get a handle.

Returns the language handle if it is a language that can be used to get a handle.

$lh->lang_names_hashref()

This returns a hashref whose keys are the language tags and the values are the name of language tag in $lh's native langauge.

It can be called several ways:

  • Give it a list of tags to lookup

        $lh->lang_names_hashref(@lang_tags)
  • Have it search @INC for Base/Class/*.pm's

        $lh->lang_names_hashref() # IE no args
  • Have it search specific places for Base/Class/*.pm's

        local $lh->{'_lang_pm_search_paths'} = \@lang_paths; # array ref of directories
        $lh->lang_names_hashref() # IE no args

The module it uses for lookup (Locales::Language) is only required when this method is called.

The module it uses for lookup (Locales::Language) is currently limited to two character codes but we try to handle it gracefully here.

Does not ensure that the tags are loadable, to do that see below.

$lh->loadable_lang_names_hashref()

Exactly the same as $lh->lang_names_hashref() (because it calls that method...) except it only contains tags that are loadable.

Has additional overhead of calling $lh->langtag_is_loadable() on each key. So most likely you'd use this on a single specific place (a page to choose their language setting for instance) instead of calling it on every instance your script is run.

$lh->append_to_lexicons( $lexicons_hashref );

This method allows modules or script to append to the object's Lexicons

Each key is the language tag whose Lexicon you will prepend its value, a hashref, to.

So assuming the key is 'fr', then this is the lexicon that gets appended to:

__PACKAGE__::fr::Lexicon

The only exception is if the key is '_'. In that case the main package's Lexicon is appended to:

__PACKAGE__::Lexicon

    $lh->append_to_lexicons({
        '_' => {
            'Hello World' => 'Hello World',
        },
        'fr' => {
            'Hello World' => 'Bonjour Monde',
        }, 
    });

$lh->remove_key_from_lexicons($key)

Removes $key from every lexicon. What is removed is stored in $lh->{'_removed_from_lexicons'}

If defined, $lh->{'_removed_from_lexicons'} is a hashref whose keys are the index number of the $lh->_lex_refs() arrayref.

The value is the key and the value that that lexicon had.

This is used internally to remove _AUTO keys so that the failure handler below will get used

Automatically _AUTO'd Failure Handling with hooks

This module sets fail_with() so that failure is handled for every Lexicon you define as if _AUTO was set and in addition you can use the hooks below.

This functionality is turned off if:

  • _AUTO is set on the Lexicon (and it was not removed internally for some strange reason)

  • you've changed the failure function with $lh->fail_with() (If you do change it be sure to restore your _AUTO's inside $lh->{'_removed_from_lexicons'})

The result is that a key is looked for in the handle's Lexicon, then the default Lexicon, then the handlers below, and finally the key itself (Again, as if _AUTO had been set on the Lexicon). I find this extremely useful and hope you do as well :)

$lh->{'_get_key_from_lookup'}

If lookup fails this code reference will be called with the arguments ($lh, $key, @args)

It can do whatever you want to try and find the $key and return the desired string.

   return $string_from_db;

If it fails it should simply:

   return;

That way it will continue on to the part below:

$lh->{'_log_phantom_key'}

If $lh->{'_get_key_from_lookup'} is not a code ref, or $lh->{'_get_key_from_lookup'} returned undef then this method is called with the arguments ($lh, $key, @args) right before the failure handler does its _AUTO wonderfulness.

Project example

Main Class:

    package MyApp::Localize;
    use Locale::Maketext::Utils; 
    use base 'Locale::Maketext::Utils'; 

    our $Onesided = 1;
    our $Encoding = 'utf8'; 
    
    __PACKAGE__->make_alias([qw(en en_us i_default)], 1);
    
    our %Lexicon = (
        'Hello World' => '',
    );
    
    1;

French class:

    package MyApp::Localize::fr;
    use Locale::Maketext::Utils; 
    use base 'Locale::Maketext::Utils'; 

    __PACKAGE__->make_alias('fr_ca');
    
    our %Lexicon = (
        'Hello World' => 'Bonjour Monde',
    );
    
    1;
              

SEE ALSO

Locale::Maketext, Locales::Language

SUGGESTIONS

If you have an idea for a method that would fit into this module just let me know and we'll see what can be done

AUTHOR

Daniel Muey, http://drmuey.com/cpan_contact.pl

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2006 by Daniel Muey

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.6 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.