# Interpolation-feature suggestion: **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails I18n\ **Created:** [February 1, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705 "2010-02-01T18:40:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/1 "2010-02-01T18:40:47Z")
Messaged to Sven directly, but maybe makes more sense to share: After using i18n for quite some time and extending i with own extensions/powers I found one features that is lacking that really should be useful feature in the core. It has to do with interpolations; a feature related to José Valim’s patch seen here: [http://github.com/svenfuchs/i18n/commit/2c50bd209f3fc24fe9dfa694c81be64340f09b7d](http://github.com/svenfuchs/i18n/commit/2c50bd209f3fc24fe9dfa694c81be64340f09b7d). I’m quite experienced in Ruby, but I found it “not time efficient enough” to understand all the core code since I scanned it for 15 minutes - there’s no documentation on the methods at all, so it’s not very easy for me right now to patch this. What I want to do is to support re-using translations within the document, like so: en: settings: emails: support: “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid” some\_strings: hello: “Please say hello to us at {{:settings.emails.support}}” goodbye: “Please say goodbye to us at {{:settings.emails.support}}” Hope the sample says it all: In other words when interpolation is symbol - i.e. leading “:”-sign - it should be parsed as a lookup key instead of using a passed hash parameter/variable. It would be ideal, becuase many times translation editors are not the actual programmers so would be good if the YAML file is all there is for the translator guy/girl. So I guess you see why it’s very convenient. But consider I want to patch this…could you give me a fast pointer on where this belongs? I ended up in “interpolations\_compiler.rb”, but as mentioned the code is not documented so It’s a maze. Would appreciate any help. Oh, and: Do you agree that this would be awesome addition to I18n core? ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/2 "2010-02-03T17:00:00Z")
_knock_, _knock_ grimen ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/3 "2010-02-03T17:34:32Z")
Hi Grimen, sorry for the late response. Yes, I think your idea would make a great addition to I18n. But … I’m a bit hesitant of altering the API right away especially when it comes to interpolation. Also, we’d need to make sure that it works with the InterpolationCompiler if that’s included. What would you think of implementing this as an optional module that overwrites Backend::Base#interpolate ([i18n/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb at master · ruby-i18n/i18n · GitHub](http://github.com/svenfuchs/i18n/blob/master/lib/i18n/backend/base.rb#L179)) so we can play with it and keep it optional for a while? I’d pull and include it to the I18n gem so it gets some attention. ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/4 "2010-02-03T17:39:48Z")
Ummm, btw just in case your not aware of this. You can always avoid the repetition of that email address by injecting that value yourself: t(:“some\_strings.hello”, :emai =\> t(:“settings.email”)) That obviously leaves control to the programmer though while your idea would translators allow to do it themselves … ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/5 "2010-02-03T20:20:47Z")
No problem, just knocking the list to be sure. 😉 Yes, understandable. Adding an experimental module would be an ideal start - I very much will be able to test it out in my current project too (which got loads of repeated interpolations for more variant communication to the end user). I think I’ll look at it asap then! grimen ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/6 "2010-02-03T20:26:03Z")
Yes, I use that quite a lot but it’s starting to get messy after a while - and it’s static stuff so it feels wrong to recursively call it like so, makes sense to dynamic content such as :count =\> @collection.size, etc. =) grimen ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/7 "2010-02-26T06:17:15Z")
Sven, got a chance to review this? grimen ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 7:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/8 "2010-02-13T07:40:17Z")
OK, now I had some time to realize it: > > > Without "key interpolations": > > interpolate "file {{file}} opened by \\\\{{user}}…", :file =\> 'test.txt', :user =\> 'Mr. X' # =\> "file test.txt opened by {{user}}" > > With "key interpolations": > > translate :"file.name" # =\> "manifesto.txt" > > interpolate "file {{:file.name}} opened by \\\\{{user}}", :user =\> 'Mr. X' # =\> "file manifesto.txt opened by {{user}}" Initial version, so up for review that is. As mentioned in a comment I avoided to mess with the core-ext for now that actually should be a better idea: String#% regex only looking for non-symbols: > …because of: > I guess that is identical to Ruby 1.9 implementation of it, so maybe my little way around it is okay as it’s all happen under the hood. Reflections? grimen ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/9 "2010-03-03T00:05:07Z")
Hey Grimen, yes, I had a look. Sorry for not getting back to you earlier. One thing that held me back is that I’ve been pondering to entirely pull our String core class patch out of the I18n library for a bunch of reasons. Maybe the most important one is that we’ve managed to break completely unrelated things (like rcov) by patching Ruby core classes. Obviously this is a risk every Ruby dev should know by now but somehow this sneaked into this now pretty widely used library. At the point when we added that Ruby 1.9 String interpolation backport I think it was a great step forward for us. Today I believe that this rather should go into ActiveSupport (and maybe be optional anyway). As your usecase shows in I18n we will want to be in a position to go beyond that interpolation api. Roughly, my thinking is to - rip off the current String core extension and put it somewhere where people can pick it if they want it - in I18n have a more streamlined implementation that is more open to usecases like yours So, yes, I think we should support that case but maybe rethink the implementation. Wdyt ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2010, 10:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/10 "2010-03-07T10:25:56Z")
OK, so how can I go further with this from here? Sounds like it will be on the shelf for a while, so maybe I could make and effort to get there faster somehow? grimen ---
**Author:** ![grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@grimen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/grimen)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interpolation-feature-suggestion/182705/11 "2010-03-03T00:09:48Z")
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 00:04, Sven F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > At the point when we added that Ruby 1.9 String interpolation backport I think it was a great step forward for us. Today I believe that this rather should go into ActiveSupport (and maybe be optional anyway) It’s there already, but I suppose you knew that : [http://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active\_support/core\_ext/string/interpolation.rb](http://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/interpolation.rb)