ChamberOrchestra Translation Bundle

A Symfony 8 bundle for multilingual applications. Provides two complementary i18n systems:

1. Entity localization — multi-locale Doctrine entity pairs with automatic ORM relationship mapping at runtime.
2. Form field localization — database-backed translation keys for individual form fields with XLIFF export.

Features

• Automatic ORM mapping via TranslateSubscriber: maps oneToMany/manyToOne associations at runtime — no manual Doctrine mapping required.
• Locale fallback chain in translate(): requested locale → language fallback (en_US → en) → kernel default locale.
• TranslatableProxyTrait for transparent property delegation: $post->title reads from the current translation without extra calls.
• Form field localization via localization: true on TextType, TextareaType, and WysiwygType — stores opaque UUID-based keys in the entity, displays human-readable values in the form.
• LocalizationLoaderChain — tagged, prioritized loader chain for resolving existing translation values; extend with custom loaders.
• ExportTranslationCommand (translation:export) — writes un-exported Translation records to +intl-icu.{locale}.xliff files grouped by domain, then marks them as exported.
• CMS integration (optional, requires chamber-orchestra/cms-bundle) — TranslationsType collection pre-populated per locale, rendered as Bootstrap nav tabs.

Requirements

• PHP ^8.5
• Symfony 8.0 (framework-bundle, form, translation, uid, console, http-foundation)
• Doctrine ORM ^3.0 + DoctrineBundle ^3.0

Optional:

• chamber-orchestra/doctrine-clock-bundle — required if translatable entities use TimestampCreateTrait
• chamber-orchestra/cms-bundle — CMS form integration (TranslationsType, AbstractTranslatableDto)

Installation

composer require chamber-orchestra/translation-bundle

Enable the bundle in config/bundles.php:

return [
    // ...
    ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\ChamberOrchestraTranslationBundle::class => ['all' => true],
];

Usage

System 1: Entity Localization

Define a translatable/translation entity pair. The TranslateSubscriber maps their Doctrine relationship automatically.

Translatable entity — implements TranslatableInterface + uses TranslatableTrait:

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Contracts\Entity\TranslatableInterface;
use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Entity\TranslatableTrait;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
class Post implements TranslatableInterface
{
    use TranslatableTrait;

    #[ORM\Id, ORM\GeneratedValue, ORM\Column]
    private int $id;

    // No manual Doctrine mapping needed for $translations —
    // TranslateSubscriber wires it automatically at loadClassMetadata.
}

Translation entity — implements TranslationInterface + uses TranslationTrait. The class name must be the translatable class name suffixed with Translation:

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Contracts\Entity\TranslationInterface;
use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Entity\TranslationTrait;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
#[ORM\Table(name: 'post_translation')]
class PostTranslation implements TranslationInterface
{
    use TranslationTrait;

    #[ORM\Id, ORM\GeneratedValue, ORM\Column]
    private int $id;

    #[ORM\Column]
    public string $title = '';

    // $locale and $translatable are provided by TranslationTrait.
    // The ManyToOne → Post association is mapped automatically.

    public function __construct(Post $post, string $locale, string $title)
    {
        $this->translatable = $post;
        $this->locale = $locale;
        $this->title = $title;
    }

    public function getId(): int { return $this->id; }
}

Reading translations:

// Current request locale (injected by TranslateSubscriber on postLoad):
$post->translate()->title;

// Explicit locale:
$post->translate('ru')->title;

// Fallback chain: fr_CA → fr → kernel default locale:
$post->translate('fr_CA')->title;

Template shorthand with TranslatableProxyTrait — delegates $post->title to $post->translate()->title:

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Entity\TranslatableProxyTrait;

class Post implements TranslatableInterface
{
    use TranslatableTrait;
    use TranslatableProxyTrait; // enables $post->title in Twig

    // ...
}

{# Both are equivalent after using TranslatableProxyTrait: #}
{{ post.translate().title }}
{{ post.title }}

What TranslateSubscriber does automatically:

System 2: Form Field Localization

Add localization: true to any TextType, TextareaType, or WysiwygType field. The entity stores an opaque key; the form shows the human-readable value.

use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\TextType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\Extension\Core\Type\TextareaType;

class ServiceType extends AbstractType
{
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options): void
    {
        $builder
            ->add('name', TextType::class, [
                'localization' => true,
                'localization_domain' => 'messages',   // default: 'messages'
                'localization_context' => ['ui' => 'service_name'], // optional, passed to TranslationEvent
            ])
            ->add('description', TextareaType::class, [
                'localization' => true,
            ]);
    }
}

What happens on submit:

1. TranslatableTypeExtension dispatches a TranslationEvent(key, value, context).
2. Your listener persists the Translation entity:

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Events\TranslationEvent;
use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Entity\Translation;
use Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\Attribute\AsEventListener;

#[AsEventListener]
final class TranslationPersistListener
{
    public function __construct(private readonly EntityManagerInterface $em) {}

    public function __invoke(TranslationEvent $event): void
    {
        $translation = Translation::create($event->key, $event->value, $event->context);
        $this->em->persist($translation);
    }
}

3. The entity stores the key (messages@name.{uuid}), not the human-readable text. Symfony's translator resolves it at render time once exported.

Export stored translations to XLIFF:

php bin/console translation:export

Writes {domain}+intl-icu.{locale}.xliff files to %translator.default_path%, marks records as exported, and dispatches TranslationExportedEvent.

Translation key format:

{domain}@[prefix.]uuid

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Utils\TranslationHelper;
use Symfony\Component\Uid\Uuid;

$uuid = Uuid::v7();
$key  = TranslationHelper::getLocalizationKey('messages', $uuid, 'service');
// → "messages@service.{uuid}"

TranslationHelper::getDomain($key);  // "messages"
TranslationHelper::getId($key);      // Uuid instance
TranslationHelper::getMessage($key); // "service.{uuid}"

CMS Integration (optional)

Requires chamber-orchestra/cms-bundle. Renders per-locale tabs in CMS edit forms:

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Cms\Form\Type\TranslatableTypeTrait;

class PostType extends AbstractType
{
    use TranslatableTypeTrait; // adds $builder->add('translations', TranslationsType::class, ...)

    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options): void
    {
        $this->addTranslationsField($builder, PostTranslationType::class);
    }
}

Configure available locales in config/services.yaml:

parameters:
    chamber_orchestra.translation_locales: [ru, en, de]

Custom Localization Loaders

Implement LocalizationLoaderInterface and tag the service with chamber_orchestra.localization_loader. The LocalizationLoaderChain resolves existing translations by priority:

use ChamberOrchestra\TranslationBundle\Form\Loader\LocalizationLoaderInterface;

final class DatabaseLocalizationLoader implements LocalizationLoaderInterface
{
    public function load(string $key): ?string
    {
        // Return the human-readable value for this key, or null to pass through.
    }
}

# config/services.yaml
App\Localization\DatabaseLocalizationLoader:
    tags:
        - { name: chamber_orchestra.localization_loader, priority: 10 }

Testing

Integration tests require a PostgreSQL database. Set DATABASE_URL or use the default from phpunit.xml.dist:

composer install
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@127.0.0.1:5432/mydb?serverVersion=17&charset=utf8" \
    ./vendor/bin/phpunit

Run only unit tests (no database required):

./vendor/bin/phpunit --testsuite Unit

License

MIT