jQuery Simple Internationalization (i18n) Support

jquery.simplei18n.js

// This snippet shows how to add simple internationalization (i18n)
// functionality to your jQuery plugin
// The concept is general enough to apply to any library and not just jQuery
// This is based slightly on how elFinder does its i18n functionality
;(function($, window, document, undefined) {

// Create your plugin on the $.fn namespace
// We are using @plugin as an alias so that we can attach properties to it
// later on without having to do $.fn.plugin.propertyName etc
var plugin = $.fn.plugin = function(options) {
  // Initialize the settings using the defaults (which we define later)
  var settings = $.extend(plugin.defaults, options);

  // Define our i18n function
  var i18n = function(key, replacements) {
    // Set the language
    var lang = settings.lang;
    
    // Pick out the correct dictionary and get the corresponding string
    var dict = plugin.i18n[lang] || plugin.i18n[plugin.defaults.lang];
    var string = dict[key];

    // If any replacements have been defined, replace all '$1', '$2', ...
    // placeholders in the order of the @replacements array
    if (replacements) $.each(replacements, function(idx, replacement) {
      var placeholder = '$' + (idx + 1);
      string = string.replace(placeholder, replacement);
    });
    
    return string;
  };

  // Rest of your plugin, where you can now use i18n with the languages that
  // are registered with the plugin
  // E.g. var title    = i18n('TITLE')
  //      var errorMsg = i18n('ERROR', [someErrorBasedVariable])
};

// Default plugin options
// Since these are publicly exposed on $.fn.plugin, people using the plugin can
// modify the default settings to their likings
plugin.defaults = {
  lang: 'en',        // Seems sensible to make 'language' an option in this case
  // ...
};

// Initialize i18n dictionary set
plugin.i18n = {};

// Our first dictionary
plugin.i18n.en = {
  'TITLE'    : 'Title',
  'SUBTITLE' : 'Subtitle',
  'ERROR'    : 'There was an error processing $1!',
  // All the strings you want ...
};

})(jQuery, window, document);

// Now when people want to add their own language sets to your plugin, they
// can just create their own files that extend the @plugin.i18n object
// E.g. jquery.plugin.de.js might look like this:
;(function($, window, document, undefined) {

// Sorry if these are inaccurate: this was done just using Google Translate
$.fn.plugin.i18n.de = {
  'TITLE'    : 'Titel',
  'SUBTITLE' : 'Untertitel',
  'ERROR'    : 'Es gab einen Fehler Verarbeitung $1!',
  // And all the other strings ...
};

})(jQuery, window, document);