Message Extraction

Now that you've declared some messages, it's time to extract them.

Installation

npm

npm i -D @formatjs/cli

yarn

yarn add -D @formatjs/cli

Extraction

Add the following command to your package.json scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "extract": "formatjs extract"
  }
}

and execute with npm:

npm

npm run extract -- 'src/**/*.ts*' --ignore='**/*.d.ts' --out-file lang/en.json --id-interpolation-pattern '[sha512:contenthash:base64:6]'

yarn

yarn extract 'src/**/*.ts*' --ignore='**/*.d.ts' --out-file lang/en.json --id-interpolation-pattern '[sha512:contenthash:base64:6]'

ID Interpolation Pattern

Make sure this pattern matches idInterpolationPattern when you use babel-plugin-formatjs or @formatjs/ts-transformer in Bundling with formatjs or you'll get a MISSING_TRANSLATION error.

Given a file that has the following messages:

React

import * as React from 'react'
import {FormattedMessage, useIntl, injectIntl} from 'react-intl'

class PasswordChangeWithIntl extends React.Component {
  render() {
    const {intl} = this.props
    return (
      <li>
        <input
          placeholder={intl.formatMessage({
            defaultMessage: 'New Password',
            description: 'placeholder text',
          })}
        />
        <input
          placeholder={intl.formatMessage({
            id: 'explicit-id',
            defaultMessage: 'Confirm Password',
            description: 'placeholder text',
          })}
        />
      </li>
    )
  }
}

const PasswordChange = injectIntl(PasswordChangeWithIntl)

export function List(props) {
  const intl = useIntl()
  return (
    <section>
      <header>
        <FormattedMessage
          defaultMessage="Control Panel"
          description="title of control panel section"
        />
      </header>
      <ul>
        <li>
          <button>
            <FormattedMessage
              defaultMessage="Delete user {name}"
              description="Delete button"
              values={{
                name: props.name,
              }}
            />
          </button>
        </li>
        <PasswordChange />
      </ul>
    </section>
  )
}

Vue3

<template>
  <section>
    <header>
      {{
        $formatMessage({
          defaultMessage: 'Control Panel',
          description: 'title of control panel section',
        })
      }}
    </header>
    <ul>
      <li>
        <button>
          {{
            $formatMessage(
              {
                defaultMessage: 'Delete user {name}',
                description: 'Delete button',
              },
              {
                name: props.name,
              }
            )
          }}
        </button>
      </li>
      <li>
        <input :placeholder="newPwdPlaceholder" />
        <input :placeholder="confirmPwdPlaceholder" />
      </li>
    </ul>
  </section>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  inject: ['intl'],
  props: ['name'],
  data() {
    return {
      name: this.name,
      newPwdPlaceholder: intl.formatMessage({
        defaultMessage: 'New Password',
        description: 'placeholder text',
      }),
      confirmPwdPlaceholder: intl.formatMessage({
        id: 'explicit-id',
        defaultMessage: 'Confirm Password',
        description: 'placeholder text',
      }),
    }
  },
}
</script>

running the above command will create a file called lang/en.json:

{
  "hak27d": {
    "defaultMessage": "Control Panel",
    "description": "title of control panel section"
  },
  "haqsd": {
    "defaultMessage": "Delete user {name}",
    "description": "delete button"
  },
  "19hjs": {
    "defaultMessage": "New Password",
    "description": "placeholder text"
  },
  "explicit-id": {
    "defaultMessage": "Confirm Password",
    "description": "placeholder text"
  }
}

Message ID

During extraction, we'll preserve explicit declared IDs and insert a hash as an ID for messages without. We recommend against explicit IDs since it can cause collision.

Automatic ID Generation

Since manual IDs are discouraged, we've provided a babel plugin and a TypeScript AST transformer that will automatically insert message IDs in your transpiled code. For more details please visit Bundling with formatjs.

Translation Management System (TMS) Integration

The default format generated from @formatjs/cli might not work with the specific TMS/vendor you're working with. You can specify a custom formatter with --format <formatFile> that allows you to convert that format into something tailored to your TMS. For example:

If your vendor accepts the format like

{
  "[id]": {
    "string": "[message]",
    "comment": "[description]"
  }
}

you can run

npm

npm run extract -- "src/**/*.{ts,tsx,vue}" --out-file lang/en.json --id-interpolation-pattern '[sha512:contenthash:base64:6]' --format formatter.js

yarn

yarn extract "src/**/*.{ts,tsx,vue}" --out-file lang/en.json --id-interpolation-pattern '[sha512:contenthash:base64:6]' --format formatter.js

where formatter.js is:

exports.format = function (msgs) {
  const results = {}
  for (const [id, msg] of Object.entries(msgs)) {
    results[id] = {
      string: msg.defaultMessage,
      comment: msg.description,
    }
  }
  return results
}

We also provide several builtin formatters to integrate with 3rd party TMSes so feel free to create PRs to add more.

TMS	--format
BabelEdit	simple
Crowdin Chrome JSON	crowdin
Lingohub	simple
Localize's Simple JSON	simple
locize	simple
Lokalise Structured JSON	lokalise
Phrase Strings	simple
POEditor Key-Value JSON	simple
SimpleLocalize JSON	simple
Smartling ICU JSON	smartling
Transifex's Structured JSON	transifex