I18nEntries - TranslateBehavior CRUD

This page describes the CRUD interface for managing translations stored in CakePHP's TranslateBehavior tables.

Overview

The I18nEntries controller provides:

• Overview of all translation tables in your database
• List, view, edit, and delete translation entries
• Batch auto-translation using configured translation engines
• Glossary suggestions from existing PO translations
• Support for both EAV and ShadowTable strategies

Supported Table Strategies

EAV Strategy (*_i18n tables)

Tables following the Entity-Attribute-Value pattern:

• id - Primary key
• locale - Language code (e.g., de_CH, en_US)
• model - Model name (optional)
• foreign_key - Reference to the source record
• field - Name of the translated field
• content - The translated text
• auto - Boolean flag for machine translations (optional)

Example table name: articles_i18n

ShadowTable Strategy (*_translations tables)

Tables with direct field columns:

• id - Foreign key to source record
• locale - Language code
• Actual field columns (e.g., name, description, title)
• auto - Boolean flag for machine translations (optional)

Example table name: articles_translations

Auto Field

The auto boolean field is used to track whether a translation was:

• Machine-generated (auto = true): Created by automatic translation
• Manual (auto = false): Created or edited by a human

Benefits

1. Safe re-translation: Auto-translated entries can be safely overwritten when running batch translations
2. Quality tracking: Easy identification of entries that need human review
3. Workflow support: Filter to show only manual or only auto-translated entries

Adding the Auto Field

When generating migrations via the TranslateBehavior generator, check the "Include auto field" option. Or add it manually:

// In a migration
$table->addColumn('auto', 'boolean', [
    'default' => false,
    'null' => false,
    'comment' => 'True if translation was machine-generated',
])->update();

Usage

Routes

Loading Translate with routes registers these actions through the Admin prefix. No additional route block is needed.

Available Actions

Action	URL	Description
index	/admin/translate/i18n-entries	Overview of all translation tables
entries	/admin/translate/i18n-entries/entries/{tableName}	List entries for a table
view	/admin/translate/i18n-entries/view/{tableName}/{id}	View single entry
edit	/admin/translate/i18n-entries/edit/{tableName}/{id}	Edit an entry
delete	/admin/translate/i18n-entries/delete/{tableName}/{id}	Delete an entry
autoTranslate	POST /admin/translate/i18n-entries/auto-translate/{tableName}	Batch translate entries
batchUpdateAuto	POST /admin/translate/i18n-entries/batch-update-auto/{tableName}	Mark entries as auto/manual

Filtering

The entries list supports filtering by:

• Locale: Filter by language
• Field: Filter by translated field (EAV only)
• Auto/Manual: Filter by translation type (if auto field exists)
• Search: Full-text search in content

Auto-Translation

The auto-translate feature uses the configured translation engine (Google Translate, etc.) to translate entries. It:

1. Gets the source text from the base table
2. Translates to the target locale
3. Marks a new machine translation as auto = true. Filling empty fields in a row that already contains manual content preserves its manual classification.

Only entries with auto = true or empty content are translated to protect manual edits.

Glossary Suggestions

When viewing or editing an entry, glossary suggestions are shown from existing PO translations. This helps maintain consistent terminology across your application.

Configuration

The feature uses the standard Translate plugin configuration for translation engines:

// In config/app.php or config/app_local.php
'Translate' => [
    'engine' => \Translate\Translator\Engine\Google::class,
],

Security

• Table names are validated to prevent SQL injection
• Only tables ending with _i18n or _translations are accessible
• System tables (migrations, queues, etc.) are excluded