Question

I’m tinkering with an error system where I use enums to identify errors. The enums are contained serverside and converted into JS objects, but I don’t know where to keep my error messages.

Errors enum

public enum MyError
{
    InvalidThingFormat = 1001,
    AllowedThingsExceeded = 1002
}

Generated JavaScript “enum”

var MyError= {InvalidThingFormat :1001,AllowedThingsExceeded:1002};

And do checking like

switch(data.error) {
    case MyError.InvalidThingFormat:
        alert("Format validation failed");
        break;
    // etc.
}

So far I like how this feels but I don’t like the hardcoded error messages; so where would I put my localization/internationalization of the human readable error message?

Should there also be a backend translation set that I push out in JS or should the translations be only on the JS side, handled by some other method? What would the code look like; Error.GetMessage(MyError.AllowedThingsExceeded)?

Answer 1

You would have several javascript files, each named for their localization. IE:

en-us.js:

var ErrorMessages = {
    "1001" : "Invalid thing",
    "1002" : "Too many things."
};

es-mx.js: (Note, I don’t actually know spanish)

var ErrorMessages = {
    "1001" : "Cosa no válido",
    "1002" : "Demasiadas cosas"
};

So on and so forth.

So you would include en-us.js as a default, then after that, include whatever the appropriate localization is.

You could then use it like so:

 var errMsg = ErrorMessages[MyError.InvalidThingFormat];

or

 var errMsg = ErrorMessages["1001"];