Modding:Modder Guide/APIs/Translation
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The translation API lets you translate your mod, and include all languages in one release package for SMAPI to use automatically based on the game language.
Overview
SMAPI reads translations from files in your mod folder. When you request a translation, it will automatically handle locale fallback (e.g. if a translation isn't available in pt-BR.json, SMAPI will check pt.json and default.json). Translations can be a simple string, or they can include tokens to inject values into the translation.
i18n folder
File structure
SMAPI reads translations from JSON files in an i18n subfolder in your mod folder:
YourMod/ i18n/ default.json es.json pt.json manifest.json YourMod.dll
The default.json file includes the default text that will be shown if a more specific translation isn't available, and you create a separate file for each language. Each translation file should have one of these file names:
Language | File name | Notes |
---|---|---|
Chinese | zh.json | |
French | fr.json | 1.3.35 beta only. |
German | de.json | |
Italian | it.json | 1.3.35 beta only. |
Japanese | ja.json | |
Hungarian | hu.json | 1.3.35 beta only. |
Korean | ko.json | 1.3.35 beta only. |
Portuguese | pt.json | |
Russian | ru.json | |
Spanish | es.json | |
Turkish | tr.json | 1.3.35 beta only. |
File format
Each .json file should contain a flat key→value lookup with your default text. Each key is case-insensitive, and can contain alphanumeric, underscore, hyphen, and dot characters. Feel free to add JavaScript comments to organise or document your translations. For example:
{
// example translations
"item-type.label": "Item type",
"item-type.fruit-tree": "{{fruitName}} tree",
}
The {{fruitName}}
in the above example is a token. You can add any tokens you want (each having only letters in the name), and replace them with a different value in code (see reading translations below).
Tips for translators
- Save i18n files with UTF-8 encoding to avoid broken symbols in-game.
- Type
reload_i18n
into the SMAPI console and hit enter to reload translations without exiting the game. (If a mod internally cached a translation, it may not be updated.)
Reading translations
Once your i18n files are set up, you can read translations for the current locale:
// read a simple translation
string label = helper.Translation.Get("item-type.label");
// read a translation which uses tokens (accepts an anonymous object, dictionary, or model)
string text = helper.Translation.Get("item-type.fruit-tree", new { fruitName = "apple" });
The helper.Translate(…) method returns a fluent interface — you can keep calling methods on its return value to customise the translation. (See IntelliSense for a description of the available methods.) To get the text, simply assign it to a string:
// use fluent chain
string text = helper.Translate(key).Tokens(tokens).Tokens(moreTokens).Assert();
If your code has a lot of translation calls, you can make it less verbose by aliasing the translation helper:
var i18n = helper.Translation;
i18n.Get("item-type.fruit-tree", new { fruitName = i18n.Get("apple") });