Localization

All in-game texts should be supplied as DescriptionIds (= Translation Keys) with a corresponding entry in the language file. This enables translation and uses the full markdown formatting system.

Key Principles

1. Offer primary language texts directly in the provider — use this.pageTitle(), this.pageText(), this.entryName(), etc. to register English texts inline. This is the most convenient approach and keeps text together with the content it belongs to.
2. Provide translations via language files — for other languages, add entries to /assets/<mod_id>/lang/<locale>.json (or use additional language provider caches).
3. Never inline raw strings in JSON — always use DescriptionIds so the translation system can pick up the text.

How It Works

When a page references a DescriptionId like "book.example.entry.page0.text", Modonomicon looks up the corresponding value in the language file at runtime. The value can contain markdown formatting.

{
  "book.example.entry.page0.text": "This is **bold** and _italic_ text."
}

Datagen Approach (Recommended)

In datagen, provide your primary language (English) texts directly in the entry/category provider using helper methods. The texts are automatically registered as DescriptionIds and added to the language provider cache.

Here is an example from the demo book:

@Override
protected void generatePages() {
    this.page("page1", () -> BookTextPageModel.create()
            .withTitle(this.context().pageTitle())
            .withText(this.context().pageText())
    );

    this.pageTitle("Basic Formatting");
    // \s tells java to keep the spaces at the end of the line.
    // Due to markdown using multiple spaces to indicate a line break, we need to keep the spaces.
    this.pageText("""
            **This is bold**    \s 
            *This is italics*    \s
            ++This is underlined++
            """);
}

this.pageTitle() and this.pageText() both register the text as a DescriptionId and return it for use in the page model. The same pattern applies to this.entryName() and this.entryDescription() for entry-level texts.

Providing Translations

For non-English languages, use:

• this.add(this.lang("ru_ru"), "my.text.key", "Русский текст");
• Or create additional language provider caches and hand them to the book sub provider.

Tips

• Use CrowdIn or similar tools for community translations.
• The translation key format is up to you, but following a consistent pattern like <modid>.book.<book_id>.<category>.<entry>.<page>.<field> makes maintenance easier.
• Translatable content can be nested in markdown texts using the <t>my.description.id</t> syntax. See Formatting for details.

Reference

See AdvancedFormattingEntry.java and BasicFormattingEntry.java for complete datagen examples.