Introduction

Composer Translation Validator is a Composer plugin that validates translation files in your PHP projects. It automatically detects translation files based on naming conventions and runs a comprehensive set of validators to ensure translation quality.

Why Use Translation Validation?

Translation files are critical for internationalized applications. Common issues include:

• Missing translations - Keys exist in one language but not others
• Duplicate keys - Same key defined multiple times in a file
• Placeholder mismatches - Variables like {name} differ between languages
• Empty values - Translations that are blank or whitespace-only
• HTML inconsistencies - Tags differ between language versions
• Encoding problems - UTF-8 BOM or invalid characters

These issues can cause runtime errors, display raw key names to users, or break formatting. The Translation Validator catches these problems before they reach production.

Key Features

Auto-Detection

The plugin automatically detects and groups related translation files. It recognizes files organized by:

• Prefix: en.messages.xlf, de.messages.xlf (TYPO3 style)
• Suffix: messages.en.yaml, messages.de.yaml (Symfony style)
• Directory: en/messages.php, de/messages.php (Laravel style)

Multiple Formats

Supports the most common translation file formats:

• XLIFF (.xlf, .xliff) - TYPO3 CMS
• YAML (.yaml, .yml) - Symfony Framework
• JSON (.json) - Laravel, Symfony, frontend frameworks
• PHP Arrays (.php) - Laravel, Symfony

Comprehensive Validation

11 built-in validators covering:

• Structural issues (mismatches, duplicates)
• Content issues (empty values, encoding)
• Consistency (placeholders, HTML tags)
• Code quality (key naming, nesting depth)

CI/CD Integration

Output formats for different environments:

• CLI - Human-readable console output
• JSON - Machine-readable for custom processing
• GitHub - Annotations in GitHub Actions

Next Steps

• Installation - Add the plugin to your project
• Quick Start - Run your first validation