Globalize is a cross-platform JavaScript library for internationalization and localization that uses the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR).
Overview
Globalize provides number formatting and parsing, date and time formatting and parsing, currency formatting, unit formatting, message formatting (ICU message format pattern), and plural support.
Design Goals:
- Leverages the Unicode CLDR data and follows its UTS#35 specification.
- Keeps code separate from i18n content. Doesn't host or embed any locale data in the library. Empowers developers to control the loading mechanism of their choice.
- Allows developers to load as much or as little data as they need. Avoids duplicating data if using multiple i18n libraries that leverage CLDR.
- Keeps code modular. Allows developers to load the i18n functionalities they need.
- Runs in browsers and Node.js, consistently across all of them.
- Makes globalization as easy to use as jQuery.
Globalize is based on the Unicode Consortium's Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR), the largest and most extensive standard repository of locale data available. CLDR is constantly updated and is used by many large applications and operating systems, to always have access to the most accurate and up-to-date locale data.
Usage
Since Globalize doesn't bundle any localization data, it has to be first initialized using some CLDR content:
var Globalize = require( "globalize" ); Globalize.load( require( "cldr-data" ).entireSupplemental() ); Globalize.load( require( "cldr-data" ).entireMainFor( "en", "es" ) ); Globalize("en").formatDate(new Date()); // > "11/27/2015" Globalize("es").formatDate(new Date()); // > "27/11/2015"History
Globalize was first announced in October 2010 by John Resig1 and originally developed by David Reed, sponsored by Microsoft, under the name jQuery Globalization plugin,2 built on top of an export of the .net locale database.3 From there the dependency on jQuery was removed4 and the project renamed to Globalize.5 In a much larger effort, the project was entirely rewritten on top of Unicode's CLDR, making use of its comprehensive and accurate coverage of all kinds of localization data.6
References
Announcement of jQuery Globalization on jQuery Blog http://blog.jquery.com/2010/10/04/new-official-jquery-plugins-provide-templating-data-linking-and-globalization/ ↩
Initial commit of jQuery Globalization on GitHub https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/commit/3fc4b83d15a3337d5d9e70efebb36a4a8af0f861 ↩
The source files for the generator on GitHub https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/tree/3fc4b83d15a3337d5d9e70efebb36a4a8af0f861/generator ↩
GitHub commit that starts a non-jQuery dependent version of the library https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/commit/252f8ad0f668dbc63c7c43deef160acc9b3c9746 ↩
Final GitHub commit to rename the repo from jquery-global to Globalize https://github.com/globalizejs/globalize/commit/5cdac721d5ac49e708dc690fc15d60c7dc526bac ↩
Announcement of Globalize 1.0 http://blog.jquery.com/2015/04/23/announcing-globalize-1-0/ ↩