Phrase CLI Debug locale_mapping Error

The locale_mapping parameter is required when using the phrase push command to upload a CSV file to update a Phrase Strings project.

Table of Contents

Problem

When using the phrase push command to upload a CSV file to update a Phrase Strings project, I kept encountering the following error:

API response: {"message":"Validation failed","errors":[{"resource":"Upload","field":"locale_mapping","message":"You must provide a locale_mapping parameter."}]}
ERROR: 422 Unprocessable Entity

Solution

Contrary to what the Phrase Strings Upload a new file API documentation suggests, the locale_mapping parameter is mandatory when using the phrase push command with a CSV file.

Here is the correct configuration for the .phrase.yml file:

phrase: access_token: #access_token project_id: #project_id file_format: csv push: sources: - file: ./upload-translations.csv params: file_format: csv locale_mapping: {"en": "2"} pull: targets: - file: ./<locale_name>-translations.csv

How to Configure locale_mapping Parameter

Below is a snippet from the .phrase.yml template file:

locale_mapping: {"LANGUAGE_CODE": "COLUMN"} (object) #Optional, format specific (Excel, CSV) mapping between locale names and the columns the translations to those locales are contained in.

In my case, I had to map the en locale to the 2 column in the CSV file.

locale_mapping: {"en": "2"}

If you need to map multiple locales, you can configure it as follows:

locale_mapping: {"en": "2", "ja": "3"}

Warning – Plural Forms

⚠️ Warning: If you are working with plural forms, ensure you use the correct plural suffixes for each language specified in the locale_mapping parameter.

For example, English and Japanese have different plural forms:

• For English, use zero, one, and other.
• For Japanese, use zero and other.

Adding a Japanese translation for the one plural form generates a new key instead of updating the existing key for the other plural form.

Background & Environment

• Phrase CLI version: 2.23.2
• Device:
  • ProductName: macOS
  • ProductVersion: 14.4.1
  • BuildVersion: 23E224