-n, --name <string> optional ↵ | output filename

[ryders]

I'm mucking around trying to understand the output filename option from the command line.

I've tried several different calls and each seem to make very little sense; At first I thought this is my understanding that is not correct so I would appreciate if anyone could enlighten me...

root@c76c41e1100c:/usr/src/app/src# jsontt ./assets/i18n/en.json -m google2 -f en -t sl -n ./assets/i18n/sl.json -fb no -cl 1
✔ DONE! 719 of 719 translated.
 All files are created! You can find them in the same folder as the original file.
 Could not save the file.
 For Slovenian --> /./assets/i18n/sl.json.sl.json created.
 
root@c76c41e1100c:/usr/src/app/src# jsontt ./assets/i18n/en.json -m google2 -f en -t sl -n assets/i18n/ -fb no -cl 1
✔ DONE! 719 of 719 translated.
 All files are created! You can find them in the same folder as the original file.
 Could not save the file.
 For Slovenian --> /assets/i18n/.sl.json created.
 
root@c76c41e1100c:/usr/src/app/src# jsontt assets/i18n/en.json -m google2 -f en -t sl -n assets/i18n/ -fb no -cl 1
✔ DONE! 719 of 719 translated.
 All files are created! You can find them in the same folder as the original file.
 Could not save the file.
 For Slovenian --> /assets/i18n/.sl.json created.
 
root@c76c41e1100c:/usr/src/app/src# jsontt assets/i18n/en.json -m google2 -f en -t sl -n sl.json -fb no -cl 1
✔ DONE! 719 of 719 translated.
 All files are created! You can find them in the same folder as the original file.
 For Slovenian --> /sl.json.sl.json created.

-n value	actual result	notes
a full path and filename; -n ./assets/i18n/sl.json	a slash (/) is prepended, and a weird .filename.ext is appended to form; /./assets/i18n/sl.json.sl.json	Could not save the file.
relative folder only; -n assets/i18n/	/ is prepended and so is the . in front of the filename... /assets/i18n/.sl.json	Could not save the file.
just the filename; -n sl.json	same / prefix and .sl.json suffix; /sl.json.sl.json	file written in the correct folder, unlike what is suggested by output, but with a bad name

I don't understand why... this seems weird;

1. the file should be written in the current folder, or in the location specified
2. the filename should NOT (ever!) be prefixed with . yet this seems consistent in all my tests

So as per the documentation I proceeded to try jsontt your/path/to/file.json, answer a few questions, and sure enough, the output file is created in the same folder as the source, and with the correct name. And sure enough, using any permutation of the -n <filename> as per man and --help just - doesn't - work!!

Suggestions & Questions;

1. you really ought to rename this -n flag to -p... this is not a "filename" option, this is a file "prefix" option. 🤯🤯 with all due respect to the work done so far... the documentation cannot read 'filename'!
2. so my remaining question then; How do I suppress all user interaction if I cannot supply the filename? 😵😵

[ParvinEyvazov]

Hi @ryders, sorry for the confusion.

Because of the multiple translation stuff, we always make the output file ends with <short_name_of_lang>.json
So we added -n or --name option to add a prefix to these files.

I know, when there is only 1 file, it doesnt make sense, but in multiple translation options we cant make a single name for all files.

Long story short, -n is just a prefix. If you don`t want to put a prefix to your output file, just do not add it to cli. When CLI will ask it again to you, just press enter to pass. It is an optional field.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you have more doubts.

[ryders]

Hi @ParvinEyvazov,

Thanks for the input. Indeed, I understand different projects have different requirements. Not to worry.

My project has just short of 170 angular components, all organised in different sub/folders, each with their own translation and localisation. Each json is 5-500 lines. Granted I absolutely do not want to hit "[enter][enter][enter][enter]" for each, so I must pass all arguments to jsontt call -- which I gather is not possible; in other words jsontt doesn't run unattended / without human interaction.

I maintain that the option being called name (or any derivative of 'filename') is very misleading and strongly suggest changing to prefix. As to whether or not my use case is unique or out-of-scope to consider, I leave with you.

I also note that #68 (nudge #35) clearly doesn't work for me; the hole file is re-translated every time.

I would also like to suggest that a simple 'pretty print' would be nice -- the decision to 'minify' (well ahem, not print line returns and spacing!) should not be made by jsontt.

Not to criticise here you've got a great piece of code and I hope this feedback will make it feel more pro, and less 'script-kiddy'-like 😉

[ParvinEyvazov]

These are great feedbacks! Thank you so much @ryders.

Here are the steps we will work on it:

• update name -> prefix
• ability to pass empty to prefix

Also, about the #68 , we did not push the changes to the new version because it was not tested properly, and because it is such a big change, that can break everything. We will push them soon after proper testing.

Also pretty print would be a great feature. We will consider that.