Search options

Hi, I don't know if this post should be placed here, but if someone find this useful (PHP PO File extractor) to build a .pot / .po for your custom FrontAccounting module.

1) Put the extractor in your FA tree fa-pot.php at the FrontAccounting root (same folder that has index.php).
Example path when using XAMPP: C:\xampp\htdocs\frontaccounting\fa-pot.php

2) Run it against your custom module
You pass the module folder as the argument and redirect output to a .pot file.

Windows (XAMPP)
Open CMD
cd C:\xampp\htdocs\frontaccounting
C:\xampp\php\php.exe fa-pot.php modules\YourModule > modules\YourModule\lang\new_language_template\LC_MESSAGES\yourmodule.pot  Note:This will create the clean PO file without translations

Linux / macOS
open console
cd /var/www/html/frontaccounting
php fa-pot.php modules/YourModule > modules/YourModule/lang/new_language_template/LC_MESSAGES/yourmodule.pot  Note:This will create the clean PO file without translations

Make sure the lang/new_language_template/LC_MESSAGES folders exists inside your module (create it if not).

3) What the script actually extracts
By default it scans files with extensions:
.php .inc .tpl .phtml .db  and pulls strings from these gettext calls:
_("msg") / gettext("msg")
ngettext("singular","plural", $n)
pgettext("context","msg") / _p("context","msg")
Only literal strings are captured (that’s how gettext tools work).
If you have code like _("Hello ".$name), rewrite it to:
sprintf(_("Hello %s"), $name)
so the constant part is extractable.

4) Customizing (if your code uses other wrappers or file types)
Open fa-pot.php and edit:
Recognized functions (near the top, $KEYS):
'_'        => ['type'=>'simple','args'=>[1]],
'gettext'  => ['type'=>'simple','args'=>[1]],
'ngettext' => ['type'=>'plural','args'=>[1,2]],
'pgettext' => ['type'=>'context','args'=>[1,2]],
'_p'       => ['type'=>'context','args'=>[1,2]],
// add your own, e.g.
// 'N_' => ['type'=>'simple','args'=>[1]],

Scanned extensions ($EXTS):
$EXTS = ['php','inc','tpl','phtml', 'db']; // add 'module' or others if you need

5) Create a locale .po from the .pot
If you have GNU gettext tools, this is easiest:
# Example for Spanish (Spain)
msginit --no-translator \
  --input=modules/YourModule/lang/new_language_template/LC_MESSAGES/yourmodule.pot \
  --locale=es_ES.UTF-8 \
  --output-file=modules/YourModule/lang/new_language_template/LC_MESSAGES/es_ES.po
No gettext tools? Just copy the .pot to .po and edit the header:
# in modules/YourModule/lang/new_language_template/LC_MESSAGES/es_ES.po
"Language: es_ES\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);\n"
Common plural forms:
Spanish/English: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1);
French: nplurals=2; plural=(n > 1);
Portuguese (pt_BR): nplurals=2; plural=(n > 1);
Keep files UTF-8 (no BOM).

6) Where to keep the files in a FA module
A simple, module-local layout works fine:
modules/YourModule/
lang/
    yourmodule.pot
    es_ES.po
    fr_FR.po
FrontAccounting typically uses its own PO loader (not PHP’s gettext() extension), so you don’t need .mo unless your code explicitly uses native gettext. If you do, compile with:
msgfmt -o modules/YourModule/lang/es_ES.mo modules/YourModule/lang/es_ES.po

7) Quick sanity check
Open the generated .pot — you should see blocks like:
#: modules/YourModule/somefile.php:42
msgid "Customer"
msgstr ""
If it’s empty:
Your strings might be dynamic/concatenated.
File extensions not in $EXTS.
Wrapper names not listed in $KEYS.
Wrong path passed to the script.

8) Tiny example
Source:
echo _("Customer");
echo sprintf(_("Open %s invoice"), $ref);
echo ngettext("%d item","%d items", $n);
echo pgettext("button","Save");
Extracted (snippet):
msgid "Customer"
msgstr ""
msgid "Open %s invoice"
msgstr ""
msgid "%d item"
msgid_plural "%d items"
msgstr[0] ""
msgstr[1] ""
msgctxt "button"
msgid "Save"
msgstr ""

9) Typical errors & fixes
Path not found: modules/YourModule
→ Check the path you pass to the script; use quotes if there are spaces.
'php' is not recognized on Windows
→ Use full path to php.exe: C:\xampp\php\php.exe.
Empty POT or missing lines
→ Strings are not literal or wrappers/EXTS not configured.
Encoding/accents look broken
→ Ensure source files and PO are UTF-8 and header has charset=UTF-8.

I would love if someone do this more "user friendly" so an average person can translate the system and modules to any language

Hi,

Hope someone can help me, I'm trying to manage a Customer Debit note in the system (in my country a debit note must be a different type of transaction and a different type of document), the concept behind it is the opossite of a credit note allowing to debit the customer´s account, increasing the accounts receivable amount.

What I've done so far is a copy of the credit notes applications and scripts changing those files to debit, creating a new transaction type 14 (ST_CUSTDEBIT), but when I want to create the journal entries I must modify the sales_credit_db.inc (this is the file I suppose create the GL transactions), I copy the file and renamed as sales_debit_db.inc, but I still get the same result as the credit note.

My questions are how the credit note creates the journal entries? and Which functions are used in the creation of GL lines when process credit notes?

Thanks for your help