How to Translate Validation Constraint Messages

Version: 4.4
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How to Translate Validation Constraint Messages

The validation constraints used in forms can translate their error messages by creating a translation resource for the validators translation domain.

First of all, install the Symfony translation component (if it's not already installed in your application) running the following command:

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$ composer require symfony/translation

Suppose you've created a plain-old-PHP object that you need to use somewhere in your application:

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// src/Entity/Author.php
namespace App\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:

  • Annotations
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  • PHP 
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// src/Entity/Author.php
namespace App\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

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

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

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<!-- translations/validators/validators.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="author.name.not_blank">
                <source>author.name.not_blank</source>
                <target>Please enter an author name.</target>
            </trans-unit>
        </body>
    </file>
</xliff>

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.