CakePHP 3.0.8 translate behavior and data validation (requirePresence, notEmpty)

Question

My problem is simple, yet I can't figure out how to solve it.

My website is multilanguage. I want the user to be able to add an article in multiple language if he wants, while requiring the inputs of his language (depending on his locale).

Problem is, with CakePHP's conventions about translation, all the inputs must end with the field's name, no matter what language. So all the fields has the same rule for the same field. I can't make one "name" required while another in another language not required.

For example, the default language's input would be:

<input type="text" name="name" required="required" maxlength="45" id="name">

And below that, another language's input for the same field:

<input type="text" name="locales[fr_CA][name]" required="required" maxlength="45" id="locales-fr-ca-name">

The "required" attribute is automatically added to both because of these rules:

$validator
    ->requirePresence('name', 'create')
    ->notEmpty('name')
    ->add('name', [
        'length' => [
            'rule' => ['minLength', 10],
            'message' => 'The title needs to be at least 10 characters long.',
        ]
    ]);

Note: I have to change the locale to the default (en_US) when I save to be able to save in multiple languages + the default language (otherwise the default inputs are saved in the default table AND in the i18n table).

if ($this->request->is('post')) {
    I18n::locale('en_US');
    // ......

EDIT: So here's the complete piece of code when I save (IngredientsController.php)

public function add() {
    $ingredient = $this->Ingredients->newEntity();
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        $ingredient = $this->Ingredients->patchEntity($ingredient, $this->request->data);

        if(isset($this->request->data['locales'])) {
            foreach ($this->request->data['locales'] as $lang => $data) {
                $ingredient->translation($lang)->set($data, ['guard' => false]);
            }
        }

        $locale = I18n::locale(); // At this point the locale is fr_CA (not de default)
        I18n::locale('en_US'); // Change the locale to the default

        if ($this->Ingredients->save($ingredient)) {
            $this->Flash->success(__('The ingredient has been saved.'));
            I18n::locale($locale); // Put the locale back to the user's locale
            return $this->redirect(['action' => 'index']);
        } else {
            I18n::locale($locale);
            $this->Flash->error(__('The ingredient could not be saved. Please, try again.'));
        }
    }

    $this->set(compact('ingredient'));
    $this->set('_serialize', ['ingredient']);
}

I set the default locale is the bootstrap.php

/**
 * Set the default locale. This controls how dates, number and currency is
 * formatted and sets the default language to use for translations.
 */
ini_set('intl.default_locale', 'en_US');
Configure::write('Config.locales', ['fr_CA']);

I determine the user's locale in the AppController.php

public function beforeFilter(Event $event)
{
    $locales = Configure::read('Config.locales');
    $boom = explode(',', str_replace('-', '_', $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']));
    $user_lang = substr($boom[0], 0, 2);

    // This piece of code is only to change the locale to fr_CA even if the user's language is just fr or fr_FR
    if(in_array($user_lang, Configure::read('Config.langs'))) {
        if(in_array($boom[0], $locales)) {
            I18n::locale($boom[0]);
        } else {
            foreach ($locales as $locale) {
                if(substr($locale, 0, 2) == $user_lang) {
                    I18n::locale($locale);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    $this->set('locales', $locales);
    $this->set('locale', I18n::locale());
}

So if I save while being in a different locale than the default, the same default inputs will be saved in the ingredients table AND in the i18n table in fr_CA

Answer 1

Defaults saved in translation table

The fact that the input for the default language is being stored in the translation table in case the default locale has been changed, seems to be the expected behavior, just like when reading data where it will retrieve the data with respect to the current locale, the same applies when saving data.

Cookbook > Database Access & ORM > Behaviours > Translate > Saving in Another Language

Changing the locale to the default is a workaround, but it might be a little too invasive, as it will interfer with any code that uses that value to check the current locale. It's better to directly set the desired locale on the table

$Ingredients->locale(I18n::defaultLocale());

or, which is the least invasive option, on the main entity instead

$ingredient->_locale = I18n::defaultLocale();

Also the former is what the linked docs sesction is describing, but not actually showing, that needs to be fixed.

Fields picking up "wrong" validation rules

While I can see why the form helper, respectively the entity context, picks up validation rules for the "wrong" fields, ie xyz.name fields pick up those for the name field, I can't tell whether this is how it is ment to work.

• https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/blob/3.0.10/src/View/Form/EntityContext.php#L394
• https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/blob/3.0.10/src/View/Form/EntityContext.php#L439

Since it wouldn't pick up nested errors, I guess this is the expected behavior, but I'm not sure, so I'd suggest to create an issue over at GitHub for clarification. In any case, there are various ways to work around this, for example by renaming the fields, or by setting the required option to false.

echo $this->Form->input('locales.fr_CA.name', [
    // ...
    'required' => false
]);

In your example this is pretty much just a frontend issue, as the fields are not going to be actually validated on the server side.

Another option would be to use a custom translation table class, with validation specific to translations, that actually apply to the used fields, however this is probably not that advisable unless you actually want to apply any validation at all.

Apply validation/application rules to translated columns

For the sake of completion, let's cover validation/application rules too.

In order to actually apply validation and/or application rules, and have them recognized in forms, you'll have use a custom translation table class that holds the rules, and you must use the actual property name that the translate behavior uses for the hasMany associated translation table, which is _i18n.

Here's an example.

src/Model/Table/IngredientsI18nTable.php

namespace App\Model\Table;

use Cake\Datasource\EntityInterface;
use Cake\ORM\RulesChecker;
use Cake\ORM\Table;
use Cake\Validation\Validator;

class IngredientsI18nTable extends Table
{
    public function initialize(array $config) {
        $this->entityClass('Ingredient');
        $this->table('i18n');
        $this->displayField('id');
        $this->primaryKey('id');
    }

    public function validationDefault(Validator $validator) {

        $validator
            ->allowEmpty('name')
            ->add('name', 'valid', [
                'rule' => function ($value, $context) {
                    return false;
                }
            ]);
        return $validator;
    }

    public function buildRules(RulesChecker $rules)
    {
        $rules->add(
            function (EntityInterface $entity, $options) {
                return false;
            },
            'i18nName',
            [
                'errorField' => 'name'
            ]
        );

        return $rules;
    }
}

IngredientsTable

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // ...

    $this->addBehavior('Translate', [
        // ...
        'translationTable' => 'IngredientsI18n'
    ]);
}

View template

echo $this->Form->hidden('_i18n.0.locale', ['value' => 'fr_FR']);
echo $this->Form->input('_i18n.0.name');

echo $this->Form->hidden('_i18n.1.locale', ['value' => 'da_DK']);
echo $this->Form->input('_i18n.1.name');

// ...

Now the fields will pick up the correct validator, and thus are not being marked as required. Also validation will be applied when creating/patching entities, and finally application rules are being applied too. However I can't guarantee that this doesn't have any side effects, as the Translate behavior internally doesn't seem to account for the situation that the _i18n property has been set externally!

Also you'll still have to set the translations on the entity using translations() in order for the translations to be saved correctly!

foreach ($this->request->data['_i18n'] as $translation) {
    $ingredient->translation($translation['locale'])->set('name', $translation['name']);
}