Translatable attributes in a template

A translatable attribute holds one value per language, so reading it needs a language code — through i18n.t. Read it bare and you get the whole list of translations as {key: "de", value: ...} pairs, not a value. This page covers i18n.t and i18n.has, the channel’s languages in export.culture_codes, and translated attribute labels.

Read one language — i18n.t

{{ record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.t 'en-US' }}

With a fallback when that language has no entry:

{{ record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.t 'en-US' 'No value available' }}

A value stored as an empty string is an entry, so the fallback does not replace it. For “non-empty, or the fallback”, add object.default:

{{ record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.t 'en-US' | object.default 'No value available' }}

Which code finds what

The codes are the ones configured under Settings → Languages. A code with a region also answers to its bare language code; the reverse is not true.

Configured in the account	i18n.t 'en-US'	i18n.t 'en'
en-US	finds it	finds it
en	finds nothing	finds it
de-DE and de-AT	—	'de' resolves to just one of them; pass the full code

Caution

A code that matches nothing returns an empty value silently — no error, no log entry.

Check whether a language has a value — i18n.has

True if the attribute has an entry stored for exactly that language.

{{ if record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.has 'de-DE' }}
  <description>{{ record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.t 'de-DE' }}</description>
{{ end }}

i18n.has and i18n.t do not answer the same question

i18n.has checks only whether a key exists for that exact language. It does not follow the language fallback that i18n.t uses, and it returns true for a stored but empty value.

So the pairing above can still emit an empty <description>, and it can skip one where i18n.t would have produced a value from a fallback language. To guarantee a non-empty element, test the translated value instead:

{{ desc = record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.t 'de-DE' }}
{{ if desc != '' }}
  <description>{{ desc }}</description>
{{ end }}

The channel’s languages — export.culture_codes

export.culture_codes lists the languages in this channel — the ones selected, or all configured languages. export.language_codes gives the language part only, without the region.

{{ for code in export.culture_codes }}{{ code }} {{ end }}

en-US fr-FR

That is what lets one template serve every language:

{{ for c in export.culture_codes }}
  <name lang="{{ c }}">{{ record.my_translatable_attr | i18n.t c }}</name>
{{ end }}

export.culture_code_uc swaps the dash for an underscore, which some systems require:

{{ for code in export.culture_codes }}{{ code | export.culture_code_uc }} {{ end }}

en_US fr_FR

Note

“Culture” and “language” mean the same thing here. The template functions use culture — the technical term for a language as spoken in a particular region — while the app says language. If a language is configured without a region, culture_codes contains just the language code.

Attribute labels in each language

export.attr_label

An attribute’s label in one language, falling back to the attribute name when no translation exists.

{{ export.attr_label 'color' 'en-US' }}

export.xml_attr_labels

Builds a set of XML attributes carrying an attribute’s label in every language of the channel.

<field {{ export.xml_attr_labels 'color' 'label_' }}/>

<field label_en-US="Color" label_de-DE="Farbe" />

Pass true as a third argument to use underscores in the language codes (label_en_US).

For the other attribute metadata — name, whether it is required or translatable — see attribute metadata.

What to read next

• The data in a template — record, variants, and plain attributes
• Template function reference — everything callable
• Testing and debugging templates — when a value comes out empty