How to Find Missing or Unused Translation Messages
When maintaining an application or bundle, you may add or remove translation
messages and forget to update the message catalogs. The debug:translation
command helps you to find these missing or unused translation messages templates:
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{# messages can be found when using the trans filter and tag #}
{% trans %}Symfony is great{% endtrans %}
{{ 'Symfony is great'|trans }}Caution
The extractors can't find messages translated outside templates, like form labels or controllers. Dynamic translations using variables or expressions in templates are not detected either:
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{# this translation uses a Twig variable, so it won't be detected #}
{% set message = 'Symfony is great' %}
{{ message|trans }}Suppose your application's default_locale is fr and you have configured
en as the fallback locale (see Translations and
Translations for how to configure these). And suppose
you've already setup some translations for the fr locale:
- XML
- YAML
- PHP
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<!-- translations/messages.fr.xlf -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<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="1">
<source>Symfony is great</source>
<target>J'aime Symfony</target>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
</xliff>and for the en locale:
- XML
- YAML
- PHP
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<!-- translations/messages.en.xlf -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<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="1">
<source>Symfony is great</source>
<target>Symfony is great</target>
</trans-unit>
</body>
</file>
</xliff>To inspect all messages in the fr locale for the application, run:
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$ php bin/console debug:translation fr
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
State Id Message Preview (fr) Fallback Message Preview (en)
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
unused Symfony is great J'aime Symfony Symfony is great
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------It shows you a table with the result when translating the message in the fr
locale and the result when the fallback locale en would be used. On top
of that, it will also show you when the translation is the same as the fallback
translation (this could indicate that the message was not correctly translated).
Furthermore, it indicates that the message Symfony is great is unused
because it is translated, but you haven't used it anywhere yet.
Now, if you translate the message in one of your templates, you will get this output:
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$ php bin/console debug:translation fr
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
State Id Message Preview (fr) Fallback Message Preview (en)
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
Symfony is great J'aime Symfony Symfony is great
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------The state is empty which means the message is translated in the fr locale
and used in one or more templates.
If you delete the message Symfony is great from your translation file
for the fr locale and run the command, you will get:
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$ php bin/console debug:translation fr
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
State Id Message Preview (fr) Fallback Message Preview (en)
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
missing Symfony is great Symfony is great Symfony is great
--------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------The state indicates the message is missing because it is not translated in
the fr locale but it is still used in the template. Moreover, the message
in the fr locale equals to the message in the en locale. This is a
special case because the untranslated message id equals its translation in
the en locale.
If you copy the content of the translation file in the en locale to the
translation file in the fr locale and run the command, you will get:
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$ php bin/console debug:translation fr
---------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
State Id Message Preview (fr) Fallback Message Preview (en)
---------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------
fallback Symfony is great Symfony is great Symfony is great
---------- ------------------ ---------------------- -------------------------------You can see that the translations of the message are identical in the fr
and en locales which means this message was probably copied from English
to French and maybe you forgot to translate it.
By default, all domains are inspected, but it is possible to specify a single domain:
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$ php bin/console debug:translation en --domain=messagesWhen the application has a lot of messages, it is useful to display only the
unused or only the missing messages, by using the --only-unused or
--only-missing options:
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$ php bin/console debug:translation en --only-unused
$ php bin/console debug:translation en --only-missing