Translatable behavior extension for Doctrine 2

Translatable behavior offers a very handy solution for translating specific record fields in diferent languages. Further more, it loads the translations automatically for a locale currently used, which can be set to Translatable Listener on it`s initialization or later for other cases through the Entity itself

Features:

Automatic storage of translations in database
ORM and ODM support using same listener
Automatic translation of Entity or Document fields then loaded
ORM query can use hint to translate all records without issuing additional queries
Can be nested with other behaviors
Annotation, Yaml and Xml mapping support for extensions

2012-01-28

Created personal translation which maps through real foreign key constraint. This dramatically improves the management of translations

2012-01-04

Refactored translatable to be able to persist, update many translations using repository, issue #224

2011-12-11

Added more useful translation query hints: Override translatable locale, inner join translations instead left join, override translation fallback

2011-11-08

Thanks to @acasademont Translatable now does not store translations for default locale. It is always left as original record value. So be sure you do not change your default locale per project or per data migration. This way it is more rational and unnecessary to store it additionaly in translation table.

Update 2011-04-21

Implemented multiple translation persistense through repository

Update 2011-04-16

Made an ORM query hint to hook into any select type query, which will join the translations and let you filter, order or search by translated fields directly. It also will translate all selected collections or simple components without issuing additional queries. It also supports translation fallbacks
For performance reasons, translation fallbacks are disabled by default

Update 2011-04-04

Made single listener, one instance can be used for any object manager and any number of them

Note list:

You can test live on this blog
Public Translatable repository is available on github
Using other extensions on the same Entity fields may result in unexpected way
May inpact your application performace since it does an additional query for translation if loaded without query hint
Last update date: 2012-02-15

Portability:

Translatable is now available as Bundle ported to Symfony2 by Christophe Coevoet, together with all other extensions

This article will cover the basic installation and functionality of Translatable behavior

Content:

Including the extension
Entity example
Document example
Yaml mapping example
Xml mapping example
Basic usage examples
Persisting multiple translations
Using ORM query hint
Advanced usage examples
Personal translations

Setup and autoloading

Read the documentation or check the example code on how to setup and use the extensions in most optimized way.

Translatable annotations:

@Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation\Translatable it will translate this field
@Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation\TranslationEntity(class="my\class") it will use this class to store translations generated
@Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation\Locale or @Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation\Language this will identify this column as locale or language used to override the global locale

Translatable Entity example:

Note: that Translatable interface is not necessary, except in cases there you need to identify entity as being Translatable. The metadata is loaded only once then cache is activated

<?php
namespace Entity;

use Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation as Gedmo;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Gedmo\Translatable\Translatable;

/**
 * @ORM\Table(name="articles")
 * @ORM\Entity
 */
class Article implements Translatable
{
    /** @ORM\Id @ORM\GeneratedValue @ORM\Column(type="integer") */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Translatable
     * @ORM\Column(name="title", type="string", length=128)
     */
    private $title;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Translatable
     * @ORM\Column(name="content", type="text")
     */
    private $content;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Locale
     * Used locale to override Translation listener`s locale
     * this is not a mapped field of entity metadata, just a simple property
     */
    private $locale;

    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;
    }

    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    public function setContent($content)
    {
        $this->content = $content;
    }

    public function getContent()
    {
        return $this->content;
    }

    public function setTranslatableLocale($locale)
    {
        $this->locale = $locale;
    }
}

Translatable Document example:

<?php
namespace Document;

use Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation as Gedmo;
use Doctrine\ODM\MongoDB\Mapping\Annotations as ODM;
use Gedmo\Translatable\Translatable;

/**
 * @ODM\Document(collection="articles")
 */
class Article implements Translatable
{
    /** @ODM\Id */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Translatable
     * @ODM\String
     */
    private $title;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Translatable
     * @ODM\String
     */
    private $content;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Locale
     * Used locale to override Translation listener`s locale
     * this is not a mapped field of entity metadata, just a simple property
     */
    private $locale;

    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;
    }

    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    public function setContent($content)
    {
        $this->content = $content;
    }

    public function getContent()
    {
        return $this->content;
    }

    public function setTranslatableLocale($locale)
    {
        $this->locale = $locale;
    }
}

Yaml mapping example

Yaml mapped Article: /mapping/yaml/Entity.Article.dcm.yml

---
Entity\Article:
  type: entity
  table: articles
  gedmo:
    translation:
      locale: localeField
# using specific personal translation class:
#     entity: Translatable\Fixture\CategoryTranslation
  id:
    id:
      type: integer
      generator:
        strategy: AUTO
  fields:
    title:
      type: string
      length: 64
      gedmo:
        - translatable
    content:
      type: text
      gedmo:
        - translatable

Xml mapping example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<doctrine-mapping xmlns="http://doctrine-project.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-mapping"
                  xmlns:gedmo="http://gediminasm.org/schemas/orm/doctrine-extensions-mapping">

    <entity name="Mapping\Fixture\Xml\Translatable" table="translatables">

        <id name="id" type="integer" column="id">
            <generator strategy="AUTO"/>
        </id>

        <field name="title" type="string" length="128">
            <gedmo:translatable/>
        </field>
        <field name="content" type="text">
            <gedmo:translatable/>
        </field>

        <gedmo:translation entity="Gedmo\Translatable\Entity\Translation" locale="locale"/>

    </entity>

</doctrine-mapping>

Basic usage examples: {#basic-examples}

Currently a global locale used for translations is "en_us" which was set in TranslationListener globaly. To save article with its translations:

<?php
$article = new Entity\Article;
$article->setTitle('my title in en');
$article->setContent('my content in en');
$em->persist($article);
$em->flush();

This inserted an article and inserted the translations for it in "en_us" locale only if en_us is not the default locale in case if default locale matches current locale - it uses original record value as translation

Now lets update our article in diferent locale:

<?php
// first load the article
$article = $em->find('Entity\Article', 1 /*article id*/);
$article->setTitle('my title in de');
$article->setContent('my content in de');
$article->setTranslatableLocale('de_de'); // change locale
$em->persist($article);
$em->flush();

This updated an article and inserted the translations for it in "de_de" locale To see and load all translations of Translatable Entity:

<?php
// reload in different language
$article = $em->find('Entity\Article', 1 /*article id*/);
$article->setLocale('ru_ru');
$em->refresh($article);

$article = $em->find('Entity\Article', 1 /*article id*/);
$repository = $em->getRepository('Gedmo\Translatable\Entity\Translation');
$translations = $repository->findTranslations($article);
/* $translations contains:
Array (
    [de_de] => Array
        (
            [title] => my title in de
            [content] => my content in de
        )

    [en_us] => Array
        (
            [title] => my title in en
            [content] => my content in en
        )
)*/

As far as our global locale is now "en_us" and updated article has "de_de" values. Lets try to load it and it should be translated in English

<?php
$article = $em->getRepository('Entity\Article')->find(1/* id of article */);
echo $article->getTitle();
// prints: "my title in en"
echo $article->getContent();
// prints: "my content in en"

Persisting multiple translations

Usually it is more convinient to persist more translations when creating or updating a record. Translatable allows to do that through translation repository. All additional translations will be tracked by listener and when the flush will be executed, it will update or persist all additional translations.

Note: these translations will not be processed as ordinary fields of your object, in case if you translate a slug additional translation will not know how to generate the slug, so the value as an additional translation should be processed when creating it.

Example of multiple translations:

<?php
// persisting multiple translations, assume default locale is EN
$repository = $em->getRepository('Gedmo\\Translatable\\Entity\\Translation');
// it works for ODM also
$article = new Article;
$article->setTitle('My article en');
$article->setContent('content en');

$repository->translate($article, 'title', 'de', 'my article de')
    ->translate($article, 'content', 'de', 'content de')
    ->translate($article, 'title', 'ru', 'my article ru')
    ->translate($article, 'content', 'ru', 'content ru')
;

$em->persist($article);
$em->flush();

// updating same article also having one new translation

$repo
    ->translate($article, 'title', 'lt', 'title lt')
    ->translate($article, 'content', 'lt', 'content lt')
    ->translate($article, 'title', 'ru', 'title ru change')
    ->translate($article, 'content', 'ru', 'content ru change')
    ->translate($article, 'title', 'en', 'title en (default locale) update')
    ->translate($article, 'content', 'en', 'content en (default locale) update')
;
$em->flush();

Using ORM query hint

By default, behind the scenes, when you load a record - translatable hooks into postLoad event and issues additional query to translate all fields. Imagine that, when you load a collection, it may issue a lot of queries just to translate those fields. Including array hydration, it is not possible to hook any postLoad event since it is not an entity being hydrated. These are the main reasons why TranslationWalker was created.

TranslationWalker uses a query hint to hook into any select type query, and when you execute the query, no matter which hydration method you use, it automatically joins the translations for all fields, so you could use ordering filtering or whatever you want on translated fields instead of original record fields.

And in result there is only one query for all this happyness.

If you use translation fallbacks it will be also in the same single query and during the hydration process it will replace the empty fields in case if they do not have a translation in currently used locale.

Now enough talking, here is an example:

<?php
$dql = <<<___SQL
  SELECT a, c, u
  FROM Article a
  LEFT JOIN a.comments c
  JOIN c.author u
  WHERE a.title LIKE '%translated_title%'
  ORDER BY a.title
___SQL;

$query = $em->createQuery($dql);
// set the translation query hint
$query->setHint(
    \Doctrine\ORM\Query::HINT_CUSTOM_OUTPUT_WALKER,
    'Gedmo\\Translatable\\Query\\TreeWalker\\TranslationWalker'
);

$articles = $query->getResult(); // object hydration
$articles = $query->getArrayResult(); // array hydration

And even a subselect:

<?php
$dql = <<<___SQL
  SELECT a, c, u
  FROM Article a
  LEFT JOIN a.comments c
  JOIN c.author u
  WHERE a.id IN (
    SELECT a2.id
    FROM Article a2
    WHERE a2.title LIKE '%something_translated%'
      AND a2.status = 1
  )
  ORDER BY a.title
___SQL;

$query = $em->createQuery($dql);
$query->setHint(
    \Doctrine\ORM\Query::HINT_CUSTOM_OUTPUT_WALKER,
    'Gedmo\\Translatable\\Query\\TreeWalker\\TranslationWalker'
);

NOTE: if you use memcache or apc. You should set locale and other options like fallbacks to query through hints. Otherwise the query will be cached with a first used locale

<?php
// locale
$query->setHint(
    \Gedmo\Translatable\TranslatableListener::HINT_TRANSLATABLE_LOCALE,
    'en', // take locale from session or request etc.
);
// fallback
$query->setHint(
    \Gedmo\Translatable\TranslatableListener::HINT_FALLBACK,
    1, // fallback to default values in case if record is not translated
);

$articles = $query->getResult(); // object hydration

Theres no need for any words anymore.. right? I recommend you to use it extensively since it is a way better performance, even in cases where you need to load single translated entity.

Note: Even in COUNT select statements translations are joined to leave a possibility to filter by translated field, if you do not need it, just do not set the hint. Also take into account that it is not possibble to translate components in JOIN WITH statement, example

JOIN a.comments c WITH c.message LIKE '%will_not_be_translated%'`

Note: any find related method calls cannot hook this hint automagically, we will use a different approach when persister overriding feature will be available in Doctrine

In case if translation query walker is used, you can additionally override:

Overriding translation fallback

<?php
$query->setHint(Gedmo\TranslationListener::HINT_FALLBACK, 1);

will fallback to default locale translations instead of empty values if used. And will override the translation listener setting for fallback.

<?php
$query->setHint(Gedmo\TranslationListener::HINT_FALLBACK, 0);

will do the opposite.

Using inner join strategy

<?php
$query->setHint(Gedmo\TranslationListener::HINT_INNER_JOIN, true);

will use INNER joins for translations instead of LEFT joins, so that in case if you do not want untranslated records in your result set for instance.

Overriding translatable locale

<?php
$query->setHint(Gedmo\TranslationListener::HINT_TRANSLATABLE_LOCALE, 'en');

would override the translation locale used to translate the resultset.

Note: all these query hints lasts only for the specific query.

Advanced examples:

Default locale

In some cases we need a default translation as a fallback if record does not have a translation on globaly used locale. In that case Translation Listener takes the current value of Entity. So if default locale is specified and it matches the locale in which record is being translated - it will not create extra translation but use original values instead. If translation fallback is set to false it will fill untranslated values as blanks

To set the default locale:

<?php
$translatableListener->setDefaultLocale('en_us');

To set translation fallback:

<?php
$translatableListener->setTranslationFallback(true); // default is false

Note: Default locale should be set on the TranslatableListener initialization once, since it can impact your current records if it will be changed. As it will not store extra record in translation table by default.

If you need to store translation in default locale, set:

<?php
$translatableListener->setPersistDefaultLocaleTranslation(true); // default is false

This would always store translations in all locales, also keeping original record translated field values in default locale set.

Translation Entity

In some cases if there are thousands of records or even more.. we would like to have a single table for translations of this Entity in order to increase the performance on translation loading speed. This example will show how to specify a different Entity for your translations by extending the mapped superclass.

ArticleTranslation Entity:

<?php
namespace Entity\Translation;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Gedmo\Translatable\Entity\MappedSuperclass\AbstractTranslation;

/**
 * @ORM\Table(name="article_translations", indexes={
 *      @ORM\Index(name="article_translation_idx", columns={"locale", "object_class", "field", "foreign_key"})
 * })
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="Gedmo\Translatable\Entity\Repository\TranslationRepository")
 */
class ArticleTranslation extends AbstractTranslation
{
    /**
     * All required columns are mapped through inherited superclass
     */
}

Note: We specified the repository class to be used from extension. It is handy for specific methods common to the Translation Entity

Note: This Entity will be used instead of default Translation Entity only if we specify a class annotation @Gedmo\TranslationEntity(class="my\translation\entity"):

<?php
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * @ORM\Table(name="articles")
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @Gedmo\TranslationEntity(class="Entity\Translation\ArticleTranslation")
 */
class Article
{
    // ...
}

Now all translations of Article will be stored and queried from specific table

Personal translations

Translatable has AbstractPersonalTranslation mapped superclass, which must be extended and mapped based on your entity which you want to translate. Note: translations are not automapped because of user preference based on cascades or other possible choices, which user can make. Personal translations uses foreign key constraint which is fully managed by ORM and allows to have a collection of related translations. User can use it anyway he likes, etc.: implementing array access on entity, using left join to fill collection and so on.

Note: that query hint will work on personal translations the same way. You can always use a left join like for standard doctrine collections.

Usage example:

<?php
namespace Entity;

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Gedmo\Mapping\Annotation as Gedmo;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @Gedmo\TranslationEntity(class="Entity\CategoryTranslation")
 */
class Category
{
    /**
     * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Translatable
     * @ORM\Column(length=64)
     */
    private $title;

    /**
     * @Gedmo\Translatable
     * @ORM\Column(type="text", nullable=true)
     */
    private $description;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(
     *   targetEntity="CategoryTranslation",
     *   mappedBy="object",
     *   cascade={"persist", "remove"}
     * )
     */
    private $translations;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->translations = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    public function getTranslations()
    {
        return $this->translations;
    }

    public function addTranslation(CategoryTranslation $t)
    {
        if (!$this->translations->contains($t)) {
            $this->translations[] = $t;
            $t->setObject($this);
        }
    }

    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;
    }

    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    public function setDescription($description)
    {
        $this->description = $description;
    }

    public function getDescription()
    {
        return $this->description;
    }

    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->getTitle();
    }
}

Now the translation entity for the Category:

<?php
namespace Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Gedmo\Translatable\Entity\MappedSuperclass\AbstractPersonalTranslation;

/**
 * @ORM\Entity
 * @ORM\Table(name="category_translations",
 *     uniqueConstraints={@ORM\UniqueConstraint(name="lookup_unique_idx", columns={
 *         "locale", "object_id", "field"
 *     })}
 * )
 */
class CategoryTranslation extends AbstractPersonalTranslation
{
    /**
     * Convinient constructor
     *
     * @param string $locale
     * @param string $field
     * @param string $value
     */
    public function __construct($locale, $field, $value)
    {
        $this->setLocale($locale);
        $this->setField($field);
        $this->setContent($value);
    }

    /**
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Category", inversedBy="translations")
     * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="object_id", referencedColumnName="id", onDelete="CASCADE")
     */
    protected $object;
}

Some example code to persist with translations:

<?php
// assumes default locale is "en"
$food = new Entity\Category;
$food->setTitle('Food');
$food->addTranslation(new Entity\CategoryTranslation('lt', 'title', 'Maistas'));

$fruits = new Entity\Category;
$fruits->setParent($food);
$fruits->setTitle('Fruits');
$fruits->addTranslation(new Entity\CategoryTranslation('lt', 'title', 'Vaisiai'));
$fruits->addTranslation(new Entity\CategoryTranslation('ru', 'title', 'rus trans'));

$em->persist($food);
$em->persist($fruits);
$em->flush();

This would create translations for english and lithuanian, and for fruits, ru additionally.

Easy like that, any suggestions on improvements are very welcome

Example code to use Personal Translations with (Symfony2 Sonata) i18n Forms:

Suppose you have a Sonata Backend with a simple form like:

<?php
protected function configureFormFields(FormMapper $formMapper)    {
    $formMapper
        ->with('General')
        ->add('title', 'text')
        ->end()
    ;
}

Then you can turn it into an 118n Form by providing the following changes.

<?php
protected function configureFormFields(FormMapper $formMapper)
{
    $formMapper
        ->with('General')
            ->add('title', 'translatable_field', array(
                'field'                => 'title',
                'personal_translation' => 'ExampleBundle\Entity\Translation\ProductTranslation',
                'property_path'        => 'translations',
            ))
        ->end()
    ;
}

To accomplish this you can add the following code in your bundle:

https://gist.github.com/2437078

/Form/TranslatedFieldType.php /Form/EventListener/addTranslatedFieldSubscriber.php /Resources/services.yml

Then you can change to your needs:

    'field'                => 'title', //you need to provide which field you wish to translate
    'personal_translation' => 'ExampleBundle\Entity\Translation\ProductTranslation', //the personal translation entity

Translations field type using Personal Translations with Symfony2:

You can use A2lixTranslationFormBundle to facilitate your translations.

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