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diff --git a/intl/docs/locale.rst b/intl/docs/locale.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..6232e9308a --- /dev/null +++ b/intl/docs/locale.rst @@ -0,0 +1,601 @@ +.. role:: js(code) + :language: javascript + +================= +Locale management +================= + +A locale is a combination of language, region, script, and regional preferences the +user wants to format their data into. + +There are multiple models of locale data structures in the industry that have varying degrees +of compatibility between each other. Historically, each major platform has used their own, +and many standard bodies provided conflicting proposals. + +Mozilla, alongside with most modern platforms, follows Unicode and W3C recommendation +and conforms to a standard known as `BCP 47`_ which describes a low level textual +representation of a locale known as `language tag`. + +A few examples of language tags: *en-US*, *de*, *ar*, *zh-Hans*, *es-CL*. + +Locales and Language Tags +========================= + +Locale data structure consists of four primary fields. + + - Language (Example: English - *en*, French - *fr*, Serbian - *sr*) + - Script (Example: Latin - *Latn*, Cyrylic - *Cyrl*) + - Region (Example: United States - *US*, Canada - *CA*, Russia - *RU*) + - Variants (Example: Mac OS - *macos*, Windows - *windows*, Linux - *linux*) + +`BCP 47`_ specifies the syntax for each of those fields (called subtags) when +represented as a string. The syntax defines the allowed selection of characters, +their capitalization, and the order in which the fields should be defined. + +Most of the base subtags are valid ISO codes, such as `ISO 639`_ for +language subtag, or `ISO 3166-1`_ for region. + +The examples above present language tags with several fields omitted, which is allowed +by the standard. + +On top of that, a locale may contain: + + - extensions and private fields + These fields can be used to carry additional information about a locale. + Mozilla currently has partial support for them in the JS implementation and plans to + extend support to all APIs. + - extkeys and "grandfathered" tags (unfortunate language, but part of the spec) + Mozilla does not support these yet. + + +An example locale can be visualized as: + +.. code-block:: javascript + + { + "language": "sr", + "script": "Cyrl", + "region": "RU", + "variants": [], + "extensions": {}, + "privateuse": [], + } + +which can be then serialized into a string: **"sr-Cyrl-RU"**. + +.. important:: + + Since locales are often stored and passed around the codebase as + language tag strings, it is important to always use an appropriate + API to parse, manipulate and serialize them. + Avoid `Do-It-Yourself` solutions which leave your code fragile and may + break on unexpected language tag structures. + +Locale Fallback Chains +====================== + +Locale sensitive operations are always considered "best-effort". That means that it +cannot be assumed that a perfect match will exist between what the user requested and what +the API can provide. + +As a result, the best practice is to *always* operate on locale fallback chains - +ordered lists of locales according to the user preference. + +An example of a locale fallback chain may be: :js:`["es-CL", "es-ES", "es", "fr", "en"]`. + +The above means a request to format the data according to the Chilean Spanish if possible, +fall back to Spanish Spanish, then any (generic) Spanish, French and eventually to +English. + +.. important:: + + It is *always* better to use a locale fallback chain over a single locale. + In case there's only one locale available, a list with one element will work + while allowing for future extensions without a costly refactor. + +Language Negotiation +==================== + +Due to the imperfections in data matching, all operations on locales should always +use a language negotiation algorithm to resolve the best available set of locales, +based on the list of all available locales and an ordered list of requested locales. + +Such algorithms may vary in sophistication and number of strategies. Mozilla's +solution is based on modified logic from `RFC 5656`_. + +The three lists of locales used in negotiation: + + - **Available** - locales that are locally installed + - **Requested** - locales that the user selected in decreasing order of preference + - **Resolved** - result of the negotiation + +The result of a negotiation is an ordered list of locales that are available to +the system, and the consumer is expected to attempt using the locales in the +resolved order. + +Negotiation should be used in all scenarios like selecting language resources, +calendar, number formatting, etc. + +Single Locale Matching +---------------------- + +Every negotiation strategy goes through a list of steps in an attempt to find the +best possible match between locales. + +The exact algorithm is custom, and consists of a 6 level strategy: + +:: + + 1) Attempt to find an exact match for each requested locale in available + locales. + Example: ['en-US'] * ['en-US'] = ['en-US'] + + 2) Attempt to match a requested locale to an available locale treated + as a locale range. + Example: ['en-US'] * ['en'] = ['en'] + ^^ + |-- becomes 'en-*-*-*' + + 3) Attempt to use the maximized version of the requested locale, to + find the best match in available locales. + Example: ['en'] * ['en-GB', 'en-US'] = ['en-US'] + ^^ + |-- ICU likelySubtags expands it to 'en-Latn-US' + + 4) Attempt to look for a different variant of the same locale. + Example: ['ja-JP-win'] * ['ja-JP-mac'] = ['ja-JP-mac'] + ^^^^^^^^^ + |----------- replace variant with range: 'ja-JP-*' + + 5) Attempt to look for a maximized version of the requested locale, + stripped of the region code. + Example: ['en-CA'] * ['en-ZA', 'en-US'] = ['en-US', 'en-ZA'] + ^^^^^ + |----------- look for likelySubtag of 'en': 'en-Latn-US' + + 6) Attempt to look for a different region of the same locale. + Example: ['en-GB'] * ['en-AU'] = ['en-AU'] + ^^^^^ + |----- replace region with range: 'en-*' + +Filtering / Matching / Lookup +----------------------------- + +When negotiating between lists of locales, Mozilla's :js:`LocaleService` API +offers three language negotiation strategies: + +Filtering +^^^^^^^^^ + +This is the most common scenario, where there is an advantage in creating a +maximal possible list of locales that the user may benefit from. + +An example of a scenario: + +.. code-block:: javascript + + let requested = ["fr-CA", "en-US"]; + let available = ["en-GB", "it", "en-ZA", "fr", "de-DE", "fr-CA", "fr-CH"]; + + let result = Services.locale.negotiateLanguages(requested, available); + + result == ["fr-CA", "fr", "fr-CH", "en-GB", "en-ZA"]; + +In the example above the algorithm was able to match *"fr-CA"* as a perfect match, +but then was able to find other matches as well - a generic French is a very +good match, and Swiss French is also very close to the top requested language. + +In case of the second of the requested locales, unfortunately American English +is not available, but British English and South African English are. + +The algorithm is greedy and attempts to match as many locales +as possible. This is usually what the developer wants. + +Matching +^^^^^^^^ + +In less common scenarios the code needs to match a single, best available locale for +each of the requested locales. + +An example of this scenario: + +.. code-block:: javascript + + let requested = ["fr-CA", "en-US"]; + let available = ["en-GB", "it", "en-ZA", "fr", "de-DE", "fr-CA", "fr-ZH"]; + + let result = Services.locale.negotiateLanguages( + requested, + available, + undefined, + Services.locale.langNegStrategyMatching); + + result == ["fr-CA", "en-GB"]; + +The best available locales for *"fr-CA"* is a perfect match, and for *"en-US"*, the +algorithm selected British English. + +Lookup +^^^^^^ + +The third strategy should be used in cases where no matter what, only one locale +can be ever used. Some third-party APIs don't support fallback and it doesn't make +sense to continue resolving after finding the first locale. + +It is still advised to continue using this API as a fallback chain list, just in +this case with a single element. + +.. code-block:: javascript + + let requested = ["fr-CA", "en-US"]; + let available = ["en-GB", "it", "en-ZA", "fr", "de-DE", "fr-CA", "fr-ZH"]; + + let result = Services.locale.negotiateLanguages( + requested, + available, + Services.locale.defaultLocale, + Services.locale.langNegStrategyLookup); + + result == ["fr-CA"]; + +Default Locale +-------------- + +Besides *Available*, *Requested* and *Resolved* locale lists, there's also a concept +of *DefaultLocale*, which is a single locale out of the list of available ones that +should be used in case there is no match to be found between available and +requested locales. + +Every Firefox is built with a single default locale - for example +**Firefox zh-CN** has *DefaultLocale* set to *zh-CN* since this locale is guaranteed +to be packaged in, have all the resources, and should be used if the negotiation fails +to return any matches. + +.. code-block:: javascript + + let requested = ["fr-CA", "en-US"]; + let available = ["it", "de", "zh-CN", "pl", "sr-RU"]; + let defaultLocale = "zh-CN"; + + let result = Services.locale.negotiateLanguages(requested, available, defaultLocale); + + result == ["zh-CN"]; + +Chained Language Negotiation +---------------------------- + +In some cases the user may want to link a language selection to another component. + +For example, a Firefox extension may come with its own list of available locales, which +may have locales that Firefox doesn't. + +In that case, negotiation between user requested locales and the add-on's list may result +in a selection of locales superseding that of Firefox itself. + + +.. code-block:: none + + Fx Available + +-------------+ + | it, fr, ar | + +-------------+ Fx Locales + | +--------+ + +--------------> | fr, ar | + | +--------+ + Requested | + +----------------+ + | es, fr, pl, ar | + +----------------+ Add-on Locales + | +------------+ + +--------------> | es, fr, ar | + Add-on Available | +------------+ + +-----------------+ + | de, es, fr, ar | + +-----------------+ + + +In that case, an add-on may end up being displayed in Spanish, while Firefox UI will +use French. In most cases this results in a bad UX. + +In order to avoid that, one can chain the add-on negotiation and take Firefox's resolved +locales as a `requested`, and negotiate that against the add-ons' `available` list. + +.. code-block:: none + + Fx Available + +-------------+ + | it, ar, fr | + +-------------+ Fx Locales (as Add-on Requested) + | +--------+ + +--------------> | fr, ar | + | +--------+ + Requested | | Add-on Locales + +----------------+ | +--------+ + | es, fr, pl, ar | +-------------> | fr, ar | + +----------------+ | +--------+ + | + Add-on Available | + +-----------------+ + | de, es, ar, fr | + +-----------------+ + +Available Locales +================= + +In Gecko, available locales come from the `Packaged Locales` and the installed +`language packs`. Language packs are a variant of web extensions providing just +localized resources for one or more languages. + +The primary notion of which locales are available is based on which locales Gecko has +UI localization resources for, and other datasets such as internationalization may +carry different lists of available locales. + +Requested Locales +================= + +The list of requested locales can be read and set using :js:`LocaleService::requestedLocales` API. + +Using the API will perform necessary sanity checks and canonicalize the values. + +After the sanitization, the value will be stored in a pref :js:`intl.locale.requested`. +The pref usually will store a comma separated list of valid BCP47 locale +codes, but it can also have two special meanings: + + - If the pref is not set at all, Gecko will use the default locale as the requested one. + - If the pref is set to an empty string, Gecko will look into OS app locales as the requested. + +The former is the current default setting for Firefox Desktop, and the latter is the +default setting for Firefox for Android. + +If the developer wants to programmatically request the app to follow OS locales, +they can assign :js:`null` to :js:`requestedLocales`. + +Regional Preferences +==================== + +Every locale comes with a set of default preferences that are specific to a culture +and region. This contains preferences such as calendar system, way to display +time (24h vs 12h clock), which day the week starts on, which days constitute a weekend, +what numbering system and date time formatting a given locale uses +(for example "MM/DD" in en-US vs "DD/MM" in en-AU). + +For all such preferences Gecko has a list of default settings for every region, +but there's also a degree of customization every user may want to make. + +All major operating systems have a Settings UI for selecting those preferences, +and since Firefox does not provide its own, Gecko looks into the OS for them. + +A special API :js:`mozilla::intl::OSPreferences` handles communication with the +host operating system, retrieving regional preferences and altering +internationalization formatting with user preferences. + +One thing to notice is that the boundary between regional preferences and language +selection is not strong. In many cases the internationalization formats +will contain language specific terms and literals. For example a date formatting +pattern into Japanese may look like this - *"2018年3月24日"*, or the date format +may contains names of months or weekdays to be translated +("April", "Tuesday" etc.). + +For that reason it is tricky to follow regional preferences in a scenario where Operating +System locale selection does not match the Firefox UI locales. + +Such behavior might lead to a UI case like "Today is 24 października" in an English Firefox +with Polish date formats. + +For that reason, by default, Gecko will *only* look into OS Preferences if the *language* +portion of the locale of the OS and Firefox match. +That means that if Windows is in "**en**-AU" and Firefox is in "**en**-US" Gecko will look +into Windows Regional Preferences, but if Windows is in "**de**-CH" and Firefox +is in "**fr**-FR" it won't. +In order to force Gecko to look into OS preferences irrelevant of the language match, +set the flag :js:`intl.regional_prefs.use_os_locales` to :js:`true`. + +UI Direction +------------ + +Since the UI direction is so tightly coupled with the locale selection, the +main method of testing the directionality of the Gecko app lives in LocaleService. + +:js:`LocaleService::IsAppLocaleRTL` returns a boolean indicating if the current +direction of the app UI is right-to-left. + +Default and Last Fallback Locales +================================= + +Every Gecko application is built with a single locale as the default one. Such locale +is guaranteed to have all linguistic resources available, should be used +as the default locale in case language negotiation cannot find any match, and also +as the last locale to look for in a fallback chain. + +If all else fails, Gecko also support a notion of last fallback locale, which is +currently hardcoded to *"en-US"*, and is the very final locale to try in case +nothing else (including the default locale) works. +Notice that Unicode and ICU use *"en-GB"* in that role because more English speaking +people around the World recognize British regional preferences than American (metric vs. +imperial, Fahrenheit vs Celsius etc.). +Mozilla may switch to *"en-GB"* in the future. + +Packaged Locales +================ + +When the Gecko application is being packaged it bundles a selection of locale resources +to be available within it. At the moment, for example, most Firefox for Android +builds come with almost 100 locales packaged into it, while Desktop Firefox comes +with usually just one packaged locale. + +There is currently work being done on enabling more flexibility in how +the locales are packaged to allow for bundling applications with different +sets of locales in different areas - dictionaries, hyphenations, product language resources, +installer language resources, etc. + +Web Exposed Locales +==================== + +For anti-tracking or some other reasons, we tend to expose spoofed locale to web content instead +of default locales. This can be done by setting the pref :js:`intl.locale.privacy.web_exposed`. +The pref is a comma separated list of locale, and empty string implies default locales. + +The pref has no function while :js:`privacy.spoof_english` is set to 2, where *"en-US"* will always +be returned. + +Multi-Process +============= + +Locale management can operate in a client/server model. This allows a Gecko process +to manage locales (server mode) or just receive the locale selection from a parent +process (client mode). + +The client mode is currently used by all child processes of Desktop Firefox, and +may be used by, for example, GeckoView to follow locale selection from a parent +process. + +To check the mode the process is operating in, the :js:`LocaleService::IsServer` method is available. + +Note that :js:`L10nRegistry.registerSources`, :js:`L10nRegistry.updateSources`, and +:js:`L10nRegistry.removeSources` each trigger an IPC synchronization between the parent +process and any extant content processes, which is expensive. If you need to change the +registration of multiple sources, the best way to do so is to coalesce multiple requests +into a single array and then call the method once. + +Mozilla Exceptions +================== + +There's currently only a single exception of the BCP47 used, and that's +a legacy "ja-JP-mac" locale. The "mac" is a variant and BCP47 requires all variants +to be 5-8 character long. + +Gecko supports the limitation by accepting the 3-letter variants in our APIs and also +provides a special :js:`appLocalesAsLangTags` method which returns this locale in that form. +(:js:`appLocalesAsBCP47` will canonicalize it and turn into `"ja-JP-macos"`). + +Usage of language negotiation etc. shouldn't rely on this behavior. + +Events +====== + +:js:`LocaleService` emits two events: :js:`intl:app-locales-changed` and +:js:`intl:requested-locales-changed` which all code can listen to. + +Those events may be broadcasted in response to new language packs being installed, or +uninstalled, or user selection of languages changing. + +In most cases, the code should observe the :js:`intl:app-locales-changed` +and react to only that event since this is the one indicating a change +in the currently used language settings that the components should follow. + +Testing +======= + +Many components may have logic encoded to react to changes in requested, available +or resolved locales. + +In order to test the component's behavior, it is important to replicate +the environment in which such change may happen. + +Since in most cases it is advised for a component to tie its +language negotiation to the main application (see `Chained Language Negotiation`), +it is not enough to add a new locale to trigger the language change. + +First, it is necessary to add a new locale to the available ones, then change +the requested, and only that will result in a new negotiation and language +change happening. + +There are two primary ways to add a locale to available ones. + +Testing Localization +-------------------- + +If the goal is to test that the correct localization ends up in the correct place, +the developer needs to register a new :js:`FileSource` in :js:`L10nRegistry` and +provide a mock cached data to be returned by the API. + +It may look like this: + +.. code-block:: javascript + + let fs = new FileSource(["ko-KR", "ar"], "resource://mock-addon/localization/{locale}"); + + fs.cache = { + "resource://mock-addon/localization/ko-KR/test.ftl": "key = Value in Korean", + "resource://mock-addon/localization/ar/test.ftl": "key = Value in Arabic" + }; + + L10nRegistry.registerSources([fs]); + + let availableLocales = Services.locale.availableLocales; + + assert(availableLocales.includes("ko-KR")); + assert(availableLocales.includes("ar")); + + Services.locale.requestedLocales = ["ko-KR"]; + + let appLocales = Services.locale.appLocalesAsBCP47; + assert(appLocales[0], "ko-KR"); + +From here, a resource :js:`test.ftl` can be added to a `Localization` and for ID :js:`key` +the correct value from the mocked cache will be returned. + +Testing Locale Switching +------------------------ + +The second method is much more limited, as it only mocks the locale availability, +but it is also simpler: + +.. code-block:: javascript + + Services.locale.availableLocales = ["ko-KR", "ar"]; + Services.locale.requestedLocales = ["ko-KR"]; + + let appLocales = Services.locale.appLocalesAsBCP47; + assert(appLocales[0], "ko-KR"); + +In the future, Mozilla plans to add a third way for add-ons (`bug 1440969`_) +to allow for either manual or automated testing purposes disconnecting its locales +from the main application ones. + +Testing the outcome +------------------- + +Except of testing for reaction to locale changes, it is advised to avoid writing +tests that expect a certain locale to be selected, or certain internationalization +or localization data to be used. + +Doing so locks down the test infrastructure to be only usable when launched in +a single locale environment and requires those tests to be updated whenever the underlying +data changes. + +In the case of testing locale selection it is best to use a fake locale like :js:`x-test`, that +will not be present at the beginning of the test. + +In the case of testing for internationalization data it is best to use :js:`resolvedOptions()`, +to verify the right data is being used, rather than comparing the output string. + +In the case of localization, it is best to test against the correct :js:`data-l10n-id` +being set or, in edge cases, verify that a given variable is present in the string using +:js:`String.prototype.includes`. + +Deep Dive +========= + +Below is a list of articles with additional +details on selected subjects: + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 1 + + locale_env + locale_startup + +Feedback +======== + +In case of questions, please consult Intl module peers. + + +.. _RFC 5656: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5656 +.. _BCP 47: https://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp47#section-2.1 +.. _ISO 639: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php +.. _ISO 3166-1: https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html +.. _Intl.Locale: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1433303 +.. _fluent-locale: https://docs.rs/fluent-locale/ +.. _bug 1440969: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1440969 |