How Do I Use Multiple po Files in CakePHP?

Question

I'm just beginning the process of exploring i18n in CakePHP and I can't seem to find the right combination of files and functions that will allow me to use multiple po files. If I want to use a single po file (default.po) for every bit of translatable text, that works fine, but I see that becoming an unmaintainable hairball very, very quickly. I've read the docs and the few articles I can find, but none really dive into i18n beyond the trivial use of one .po file.

Here's where I am right now:

• I've "baked" my po templates (.pot files) and copied those into app/locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES (I'm not going to be using the default text as the key so that I can easily spot missing keys). For now, I have -views-layouts-default.po and -views-pages-index.po.
• In those .po files, I've entered the text I want to use for each key.
• In my homepage (views/pages/index.ctp) and default layout (views/layouts/default.ctp) I've wrapped the text key I want to translate with the __() function.

When I load the homepage, though, all I see are they keys. No text has been translated. If I throw up a default.po file, though, any keys I drop in there are populated just fine. I'm clearly missing some piece of the puzzle, but I can't find it. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I found the piece I was missing thanks to the CakePHP Google Group. I had been playing with the __d() convenience function, but didn't have a clear picture of how to tie it together to my .po files. The answer is easy once you know it:

The domain translation:

__d ( 'login', 'PLEASE_LOGIN' );

Will look for the "PLEASE_LOGIN" key in the file named login.po. I didn't know (and hadn't read anywhere) that domain == po file name (without extension). Learning that made all the difference.