=encoding utf8
=head1 NAME
Log::Report::Translator::Context - handle translation contexts
=head1 SYNOPSIS
# usually, the context information is in a separate file
textdomain 'my-domain'
, config => $filename;
=head1 DESCRIPTION
[Added in Log::Report v1.00]
The "contexts" concept in (GNU's version of) gettext, has a
very restricted purpose: to separate two (accidental) uses of the
same message-id, under different circumstances. The same msgid may
translated diffently in one file or the other.
For instance, two libraries used in the same application, or two
componentent within a single library both want to used the same
default text (which usually is very short)
char * t1 = pgettext('interface', 'None');
char * t2 = pgettext('selections', 'None');
Some translation setups use the library name consequently as msgctxt.
But, the name "context" is pretending much more power than the gettext
libraries are capable of: it usually only behaves like a namespace.
For L<Log::Report|Log::Report>, the power of "context" is extended with selecting
between alternatives for the use of a msgid B<on the same spot>.
For instance, the gender of the user of the website determines whether
`he' or `she' needs to be used in the translation. In this example,
the gender is set as context keyword in the message:
my ($name, $sex) = ('Jack', 'male');
print __x"{name<gender} found his key", name => $name
, _context => "gender=$sex";
=head1 METHODS
=head2 Constructors
=over 4
=item Log::Report::Translator::Context-E<gt>B<new>(%options)
-Option--Default
rules {}
=over 2
=item rules => HASH
=back
=back
=head2 Attributes
=over 4
=item $obj-E<gt>B<rules>()
Returns a HASH to the simplified context maps.
=back
=head2 Action
=over 4
=item $obj-E<gt>B<ctxtFor>( $message, $lang, [$context] )
Returns a pair of the MSGID stripped from context markup, and the
context evaluated into the msgctxt string. The $message is a
L<Log::Report::Message|Log::Report::Message> object. The $context is the default context
for a certain textdomain.
my ($msgid, $msgctxt) = $context->ctxtFor($msg, $lang, $context);
=item $obj-E<gt>B<expand>($msgid, $language, %options)
Expand the context settings into all possible combinations which need
translations in the PO file. This may depend on the $language.
The $msgid is used in error messages.
=item $obj-E<gt>B<needDecode>($source, STRING|ARRAY|HASH|PAIRS)
=item Log::Report::Translator::Context-E<gt>B<needDecode>($source, STRING|ARRAY|HASH|PAIRS)
Converts the context settings passed with the MSGID, into a HASH which will
be matched to the context providers.
=back
=head1 DETAILS
The "contexts" concept in (GNU's version of) gettext, has a
very restricted purpose: to separate two (accidental) uses of the
same message-id, under different circumstances. The same msgid may
translated diffently in one file or the other.
For instance, two libraries used in the same application, or two
componentent within a single library both want to used the same
default text (which usually is very short)
char * t1 = pgettext('interface', 'None');
char * t2 = pgettext('selections', 'None');
Some translation setups use the library name consequently as msgctxt.
But, the name "context" is pretending much more power than the gettext
libraries are capable of: it usually only behaves like a namespace.
=head2 Contexts in Log::Report
For L<Log::Report|Log::Report>, the power of "context" is extended with selecting
between alternatives for the use of a msgid B<on the same spot>.
For instance, the gender of the user of the website determines whether
`he' or `she' needs to be used in the translation. In this example,
the gender is set as context keyword in the message:
my ($name, $sex) = ('Jack', 'male');
print __x"{name<gender} found his key", name => $name
, _context => "gender=$sex";
This would also be possible in traditional gettext, although probably
rarely used. A complication is that the scripts to maintain the po
tables are not too smart; do not understand complex code constructs.
Probably this would beed needed:
if(sex==MALE)
{ printf pgettext('male', "%s found his key\n", name);
}
else
{ printf pgettext('female', "%s found her key\n", name);
}
=head2 Using context_rules
In Log::Report's extended concept of "contexts", you can select between
multiple translations for the same msgid, when they
=over 4
=item * appear with different purpose (like gnu's concept of contexts)
=item * need alternative translation sets B<on the same spot>
=item * interpolate global parameters in messages
=back
In the standard gettext set-up, some msgid may accidentally collide
between two different uses. For instance, whether you translate the word
"Open" in the menu for "Files" to mean "open a file", and the word "Open"
in the status display meaning "the file is open". In some languages,
these translations may differ. Using a msgctxt keyword will cause the
same msgid to appear twice in the PO-file.
But, there is a much broader need for context sensitive translations,
which is not in the provided by standard gettext: environmental
information or parameters may influence the translation more than simply
solvable by inserted parameters.
For instance, the gender of the user of the website determines whether
`he' or `she' needs to be used. In this example, the gender is set as
context keyword in the message:
$name = 'Jack';
print __x"{name} found her key", name => $name;
You may try to solve this via:
my ($name, $gender) = ('Jack', 'male');
print __x"{name} found {personal} key", name => $name
, personal => ($gender eq 'male' ? 'his' : 'her'); # No!
This does not translate! For one, you would need to translate C<his> and
C<her> to the language as well. But in some languages, the differences
between addressed genders have more impact on the whole sentence.
So, Log::Report translations add extra syntax:
my ($name, $gender) = ('Jack', 'male');
print __x"{name<gender} found her key", name => $name
, _context => "gender=$gender";
The C<gender> marking tells the translation table builder (xgettext-perl)
and the translation handler that there is a context active.
Now, the English PO-file has
# gender alternatives 'male' and 'female'
msgctxt "gender=male"
msgid "{name} found his key"
msgstr "{name} found his key"
msgctxt "gender=female"
msgid "{name} found his key"
msgstr "{name} found her key"
To make this work, both the application and the C<xgettext-perl> script
must share information to understand which genders are available. See
the section on "Configuration" below.
Another example:
print __x"greetings{<style}";
# style alternatives 'formal' and 'informal'
msgctxt "style=formal"
msgid "greetings"
msgstr "Dear Sir/Madam,"
msgctxt "style=informal"
msgid "greetings"
msgstr "Hey buddy,"
As can be seen, the '<style' marking may be added inside the '{}' of
a filled-in parameter, or may appear on its own. These markings are
removed from the msgid in the PO file, so that you may freely add them to
the strings used in your program without disturbing existing translations.
=head3 Specifying the context per Message
You need to specify the context at each message which is influenced by
the context. This can be a comma separated list of words, an ARRAY, or
a HASH:
_context => 'gender=male'
_context => 'gender=male,agegroup=adult,married=yes'
_context => [ 'gender=male', 'agegroup=adult', 'married=yes']
_context => [ qw/gender=male agegroup=adult married=yes/ ]
my @context = (qw/gender=male agegroup=adult married=yes/);
_context => \@context;
Probably the
my %context = (gender => 'male', agegroup => 'adult', married => 'yes');
my %context = qw/gender male agegroup adult married yes/;
_context => \%context;
Standard gettext only allows a single keyword (=string)
C<Log::Report> permits you to set-up a context for a whole
text-domain, which means that multiple context rules may be active at
any moment.
=head3 Global parameters
You can use contexts to set global interpolation parameters. For instance,
running a pure perl webserver, you may serve multiple domains. Some of
the log messages may need to show that domain name. Of course, you can
collect (or pass on) the hostname when throwing the error... something
like this:
# can I access $vhost easily?
error __x"For {host}, login failed for {user}"
, host => $vhost->name, user => $user;
Via contexts:
# when you know the vhost: (max once per request)
textdomain->setContext(host => $vhost->name); # or updateContext
# until you reconfigure the context
error __x"For {_context.host}, login failed for {user}", user => $user;
The context values are always available for interpolation.
=head3 Specifying the context per Domain
Above examples are to be specified per message. You may also
set a default. The top of your modules set the text-domain (name
of the translation table) for all strings found in those files.
In this case, for instance "webpages"
# Log::Report::textdomain()
(textdomain 'webpages')->setContext(%context);
This context is used as defaults, the C<_context> attribute used by
strings are overruling these.
=head3 The msgctxt
The gnutext implementation of the context is very simple. This is to
be expected from a library written in C. The msgctxt alternatives
are matched against the context keywords of the message. In all or
none of the alternatives match, then just a random translation is
chosen.
In the simplest form, the msgctxt field contains a single keyword
(not containing a comma).
msgctxt "gender=male"
But you can do more. B<Be warned> that most (all?) existing tools
which smartly edit PO-files do not understand these constructs: they
see the msgctxt as dump string without meaning.
msgctxt "agegroup=baby,agegroup=grandparent" # baby OR grandparent
msgctxt "gender=male agegroup=adult" # both male AND adult
So, a comma separated list of alternatives. If any matches, then the
rule is selected.
=head3 Configuration
The tools which handle translations expect the msgctxt to be static.
For instance, contain a filename where the string is used to disambigue
accidental collissions of the use of the same msgid for different
purposes.
Now, we have designed far more flexible contexts. We need to generate all
possible msgctxt values while extracting msgids to update the PO-files.
Therefore, we need a map-file.
The context maps are included in a configuration file which is passed to
xgettext-perl and to the program which uses contexts.
See L<Log::Report::Domain::readConfig()|Log::Report::Domain/"Attributes">.
Example of such configuration file: (JSON syntax and Perl syntax)
=== JSON === ==== Perl ===
{ {
"context_rules" : { context_rules => {
"gender" : [ gender => [
"male", 'male',
"female" 'female'
] ]
} }
} }
or
{ {
"context_rules" : { context_rules => {
"gender" : { gender => {
"alternatives" : [ alternatives => [
"male", 'male',
"female", 'female',
"unknown" 'unknown'
] ]
... more config for 'gender' ...
} }
} }
} }
As "alternatives", we list the alternatives as known by the application
internals. Each msgid which contains a C<< {<gender} >> mark will be
replicated three times, in each language table. Each copy will be marked
with a different value from "alternatives".
However, languages differ. For instance, in some language we may address
the C<unknown> gender as being a male person. In other languages, the
translation can express this "unknown" personality. To get this to work,
you can use the C<msgctxt> construct.
The default C<msgctxt>, as used in the previous example, is simply mapping
the alternatives directly on msgctxt values which are the same:
{ { context_rules =>
"context_rules" : { { gender =>
"gender" : { { default => { qw/
"default" : { female female
"female" : "female", male male
"male" : "male" unknown male / }
"unknown" : "male", , 'nl,de' => { qw/
}, unknown x / }
"nl,de" : {
"unknown" : "x"
} }
... more configuration ...
}
... more context rules ...
} }
} }
By default, there will only be two msgid copies in a language file,
because at run-time the "unknown" is mapped on "male". An exception
for the Dutch (nl*) and German (de*) tables, which apparently support
the third gender.
If you are not interested for a certain tag, then put it on 'IGNORE'
as default or for your language.
"default" : "IGNORE", default => 'IGNORE'
"nl": "IGNORE" nl => 'IGNORE'
=head1 SEE ALSO
This module is part of Log-Report-Lexicon distribution version 1.13,
built on May 06, 2025. Website: F<http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/>
=head1 LICENSE
Copyrights 2007-2025 by [Mark Overmeer <[email protected]>]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
See F<http://dev.perl.org/licenses/>