How to Translate Validation Constraint Messages

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Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 7.3 (the current stable version).

If you're using validation constraints with the Form component, then translating the error messages is easy: simply create a translation resource for the validators domain.

To start, suppose you've created a plain-old-PHP object that you need to use somewhere in your application:

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        // src/AppBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace AppBundle\Entity;

class Author
{
    public $name;
}
    

Add constraints through any of the supported methods. Set the message option to the translation source text. For example, to guarantee that the $name property is not empty, add the following:

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        // src/AppBundle/Entity/Author.php
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    /**
     * @Assert\NotBlank(message="author.name.not_blank")
     */
    public $name;
}
    

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        # src/AppBundle/Resources/config/validation.yml
AppBundle\Entity\Author:
    properties:
        name:
            - NotBlank: { message: 'author.name.not_blank' }
    

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        <!-- src/AppBundle/Resources/config/validation.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<constraint-mapping xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping
        http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping/constraint-mapping-1.0.xsd">

    <class name="AppBundle\Entity\Author">
        <property name="name">
            <constraint name="NotBlank">
                <option name="message">author.name.not_blank</option>
            </constraint>
        </property>
    </class>
</constraint-mapping>
    

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        // src/AppBundle/Entity/Author.php

// ...
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\NotBlank;

class Author
{
    public $name;

    public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
    {
        $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('name', new NotBlank(array(
            'message' => 'author.name.not_blank',
        )));
    }
}
    

Now, create a validators catalog file in the app/Resources/translations directory:

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        <!-- app/Resources/translations/validators.en.xlf -->
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xliff version="1.2" xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2">
    <file source-language="en" datatype="plaintext" original="file.ext">
        <body>
            <trans-unit id="author.name.not_blank">
                <source>author.name.not_blank</source>
                <target>Please enter an author name.</target>
            </trans-unit>
        </body>
    </file>
</xliff>
    

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        # app/Resources/translations/validators.en.yml
author.name.not_blank: Please enter an author name.
    

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        // app/Resources/translations/validators.en.php
return array(
    'author.name.not_blank' => 'Please enter an author name.',
);
    

You may need to clear your cache (even in the dev environment) after creating this file for the first time.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.

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