# Translation of plugins to other languages **URL:** \ **Category:** Devs: Plugins & API\ **Tags:** valuable, ui-ux\ **Created:** [April 1, 2021, 10:05am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715 "2021-04-01T10:05:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![henrikfalk](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/henrikfalk/32/10493_2.png) [@henrikfalk](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/henrikfalk)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2021, 10:05am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/1 "2021-04-01T10:05:52Z")
I asked Liam the “Calendar” plugin developer to support other languages and he replied: “I would love to see settings and dialogs get translated! I’ll check with the Obsidian devs to see there’s anything they can expose via the API to help with plugin localization.” I think this would be a valuable feature. /Henrik 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Moonbase59](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/moonbase59/32/13648_2.png) [@Moonbase59](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/Moonbase59)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 7:27am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/2 "2021-04-02T07:27:51Z")
Yup, a standardized way to do this would be great. ---
**Author:** ![Kir](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/kir/32/3511_2.png) [@Kir](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/Kir)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 10:20am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/3 "2021-05-30T10:20:52Z")
Adding a couple of modal windows to my plugin and also decided to look for plugins i18n support. Found this topic. Agree, would be nice to have a standardized way ---
**Author:** ![HaujetZhao](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/67e7ee/32.png) [@HaujetZhao](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/HaujetZhao)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:02am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/4 "2021-06-15T02:02:40Z")
Yes, that would greatly improve the comfort for users across the world ---
**Author:** ![aidenlx](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/aidenlx/32/13115_2.png) [@aidenlx](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/aidenlx)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/5 "2021-10-22T02:37:00Z")
I would recommend building a public platform to host and maintain all translations, both core and plugins, and pontoon may be a good project to start with: [GitHub - mozilla/pontoon: Mozilla's Localization Platform](https://github.com/mozilla/pontoon) ---
**Author:** ![Mara-Li](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/mara-li/32/12591_2.png) [@Mara-Li](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/Mara-Li)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/6 "2023-02-21T21:03:57Z")
Hello! For Obsidian Github Publisher, i wanted to update the translation file to using i18next, because some autocompletion will help me a lot during update. I tryed to do it, but get `undefined` everywhere, without error in console. I created the file `i18next.ts` in `plugin/i18n` and each translation file is in `json` My i18next.ts file : ```ts import i18next from 'i18next'; import {moment} from "obsidian"; import * as en from './locales/en.json'; import * as de from './locales/de.json'; //import fr from "./locales/fr.json"; //detect language const locale = moment.locale(); export const translationLanguage = locale ? moment.locale() : "en"; console.log("Init i18next") i18next.init({ lng:locale, fallbackLng: "en", resources: { en: { translation: en, }, de: { translation: de, } }, }); ``` I call the i18next like that : `i18next.t('somethings')` Maybe Obsidian Plugin can’t use json file ? ---
**Author:** ![derammo\_on\_github](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@derammo\_on\_github](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/derammo_on_github)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 4:07pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/7 "2023-02-22T16:07:36Z")
This was solved on Discord, right? ---
**Author:** ![Mara-Li](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/mara-li/32/12591_2.png) [@Mara-Li](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/Mara-Li)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/8 "2023-02-23T09:19:17Z")
Yes! I created two file : First : `i18next.ts` ```auto import {moment} from "obsidian"; import * as en from "./locales/en.json"; import * as fr from "./locales/fr.json"; export const ressources = { en: { translation: en }, fr: { translation: fr }, } as const; export const translationLanguage = Object.keys(ressources).find(i => i==moment.locale()) ? moment.locale() : "en"; ``` Second : `i18next.d.ts` ```auto import { ressources } from "./i18next"; declare module "i18next" { interface CustomTypeOptions { readonly resources: typeof ressources["en"]; readonly returnNull: false } } ``` After, in my `main.ts` I added the init in the start: ```auto i18next.init({ lng: translationLanguage, fallbackLng: "en", resources: ressources, }); ``` ---
**Author:** ![cheznine](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/cheznine/32/63979_2.png) [@cheznine](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/cheznine)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 2:09pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/9 "2024-10-04T14:09:13Z")
### Use case or problem There are some common libraries that Obsidian uses that would be great if plugin developers had access to as well. It was mentioned that `moment` is available, but there’s these that spring to mind (would love to hear more in the comments): - `i18next`: For localization of plugin UI text. - whatever lib Obsidian uses for drag-and-drop UI, if there is one (`SortableJS` ?) Has there been thinking on exposing other libraries aside from `moment` that Obsidian uses, that plugin devs could make use of? ### Proposed solution Allow `i18next` (and other libraries) to be importable from Obsidian. ### Current workaround (optional) - `i18next`: I amended Obsidian’s types to expose this object. (Example in comment below.) - drag-and-drop UI: I’ve added [`SortableJS`](https://github.com/SortableJS/Sortable) as a dependency. ---
**Author:** ![cheznine](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/cheznine/32/63979_2.png) [@cheznine](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/cheznine)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 2:10pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/10 "2024-10-04T14:10:06Z")
Literally within _days_ of externalizing my UI’s strings thanks to `i18next` , and providing [some instructions](https://github.com/chrisgurney/obsidian-note-toolbar/wiki/Help-translate-Note-Toolbar-%F0%9F%8C%90), I had _three_ contributors translate my plugin to Chinese (Simplified), German, and Ukrainian. Here’s how easy it was to **add localization to my plugin’s UI** : ```typescript // in types.d.ts declare global { // provides access to Obsidian's translation framework var i18next: any; } ... // in my plugin onload() i18next.addResourceBundle('en', 'plugin-note-toolbar', { hello: 'Hello!' }); i18next.addResourceBundle('es', 'plugin-note-toolbar', { hello: 'Hola!' }); ... // in my settings UI const t = i18next.getFixedT(null, 'plugin-note-toolbar', null); console.log(t('hello')); // prints "Hello!" if language is set to English, or "Hola!" if language is set to Español // falls back to English if other language strings aren't set ``` ---
**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:15pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/translation-of-plugins-to-other-languages/15715/11 "2024-10-04T15:15:20Z")
moved to developers and api