ruby script/plugin install svn://errtheblog.com/svn/plugins/gibberish

It's simple. Your default language, by default, is English (:en).

  >> "Hey there!"[:hey]
  => "Hey there!"

Gibberish looks in RAILS_ROOT/lang/*.yml for translation files. Say you have RAILS_ROOT/lang/es.yml, right? Gibberish will detect that you know about the :es language and will serve up translations defined in that file if requested to do so.

Here's a real simple example file (it's just "key: translation"):

  $ cat lang/es.yml
  hey: ey all?

And, as follows, a real simple example session:

  >> "Hey there!"[:hey]
  => "Hey there!"
  >> Gibberish.current_language
  => :en
  >> Gibberish.current_language = :es
  => :es
  >> "Hey there!"[:hey]
  => "ey all?"
  >> Gibberish.current_language = nil
  => nil
  >> "Hey there!"[:hey]
  => "Hey there!"

It even works with simple interpolation:

  >> "Hey, {name}!"[:hey_name, 'Chris']   
  => "Hey, Chris!"
  >> "{name} is from {place}"[:hey_place, 'Chris', 'the Dreamworld']
  => "Chris is from the Dreamworld"

Notice we don't use hashes (#) like normal Ruby interpolation. Also, the names of the variables in the brackets don't really mean much. Interpolation is done in order -- the first argument replaces the first variable in brackets, the second the second, etc.

Interpolation can also be done via hash:

  >> "{name} is from {place}"[:hey_place, { :place => 'Gotham City', :name => 'Batman' }]
  => "Batman is from Gotham City"

This of course works with your translations:

  $ cat lang/es.yml
  hey: ey all?
  hey_name: ola {name}!

  >> "Hey, {name}!"[:hey_name, 'Chris']   
  => "Hey, Chris!"
  >> Gibberish.current_language = :es
  => :es
  >> "Hey, {name}!"[:hey_name, 'Crist骲al']   
  => ola Crist骲al!

Neat. What other methods do we get?

The classic around_filter:

  class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
    around_filter :set_language

  private
    def set_language
      Gibberish.use_language(session[:language]) { yield }
    end
  end

For the duration of the block, :es is set as the language of choice. After the block is run everything returns to normal. Rad.

Finally, some checking methods, if you need them:

  >> Gibberish.default_language?
  => true
  >> Gibberish.current_language = :es
  => :es
  >> Gibberish.current_language 
  => :es
  >> Gibberish.default_language?
  => false

Languages are loaded by default at Rails startup. In dev mode, language YAML files are reloaded when modified. No need to reboot the server.

  >> Gibberish.load_languages!
  => [:es, :fr, :de, :kl]
  >> Gibberish.languages
  => [:es, :fr, :de, :kl]

More as it's needed.

There is currently no advanced documentation for this plugin.