@formatjs/cli Can't use a custom formatter to extract messages to a non-JSON format

[jrnail23]

Which package?

@formatjs/cli

Describe the bug

The extract script runs stringify on the formatted extracted result, which produces invalid results for non-JSON based formats. In my case, I created a custom formatter to convert the extracted messages to CSV, since none of the JSON-based formats that our TMS (Phrase) accepts as an import/push source supports message descriptions.

As a workaround, I had to write an additional script to transform the output file's content to CSV format.

Expected behavior

I expected the resulting formatted file to contain the exact content produced by my custom formatter.

To address this issue while avoiding a breaking change to existing users, perhaps an optional flag can be introduced for the extract command to indicate that the supplied formatter's output should be written directly as an unformatted string (bypassing the stringify call).

[jrnail23]

FWIW, @longlho, if you're open to accepting a PR to address this, I'd be willing to submit one.

[longlho]

Yeah i'd be open to that

[jrnail23]

@longlho, do you have any preference for the naming of the CLI flag?

[jrnail23]

Actually, another way to go here might be that if the formatter result is a string, just return that string directly with no stringify, etc. That's simpler (no CLI flag needed) and seems unlikely to break existing usages. What do you think, @longlho?

[longlho]

I guess we can infer based on output extension?

[jrnail23]

that's not a bad idea. Are you thinking anything with *.json would be stringified, and anything else would not?

[longlho]

I think json should be the default and then *.csv uses the csv formatter

[jrnail23]

I wasn't looking to add a CSV formatter to the core project -- different usages might need different column names and CSV generation options.
I just wanted to be able to use my own custom CSV formatter.

Also, doing CSV correctly would probably require adding a new dependency, which I'm sure you don't take lightly.

[longlho]

Hmm I thought we already support custom formatter?

[jrnail23]

you do, but the point here is that the result of the custom formatter currently gets stringified by the extract function, which prevents it from working with non-JSON output formats (contaminates a valid CSV string).

https://github.com/formatjs/formatjs/blob/main/packages/cli-lib/src/extract.ts#L250

[longlho]

Kk hmm then maybe I can extend the formatter API to allow custom stringify? Does that work for u?

[jrnail23]

absolutely!

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[jrnail23]

(bumping to keep the stale bot away)

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[jrnail23]

@longlho, thanks for addressing this!