Marking arrays of translations safe using html suffix

Before Rails 6

Before Rails 6, keys with the _html suffix in the language locale files are automatically marked as HTML safe. These HTML safe keys do not get escaped when used in the views.

1# config/locales/en.yml
2
3en:
4  home:
5    index:
6      title_html: <h2>We build web & mobile applications</h2>
7      description_html:
8        We are a dynamic team of <em>developers</em> and <em>designers</em>.
9      sections:
10        blogs:
11          title_html: <h3>Blogs & publications</h3>
12          description_html:
13            We regularly write our blog. Our blogs are covered by <strong>Ruby
14            Inside</strong> and <strong>Ruby Weekly Newsletter</strong>.
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1<!-- app/views/home/index.html.erb -->
2
3<%= t('.title_html') %>
4<%= t('.description_html') %>
5
6<%= t('.sections.blogs.title_html') %>
7<%= t('.sections.blogs.description_html') %>
Copy

Once rendered, this page looks like this.

This way of marking translations as HTML safe by adding _html suffix to the keys does not work as expected when the value is an array.

1
2# config/locales/en.yml
3
4en:
5home:
6index:
7title_html: <h2>We build web & mobile applications</h2>
8description_html: We are a dynamic team of <em>developers</em> and <em>designers</em>.
9sections:
10blogs:
11title_html: <h3>Blogs & publications</h3>
12description_html: We regularly write our blog. Our blogs are covered by <strong>Ruby Inside</strong> and <strong>Ruby Weekly Newsletter</strong>.
13services:
14title_html: <h3>Services we offer</h3>
15list_html: - <strong>Ruby on Rails</strong> - React.js &#9883; - React Native &#9883; &#128241;
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1
2<!-- app/views/home/index.html.erb -->
3
4<%= t('.title_html') %>
5<%= t('.description_html') %>
6
7<%= t('.sections.blogs.title_html') %>
8<%= t('.sections.blogs.description_html') %>
9
10<%= t('.sections.services.title_html') %>
11
12<ul>
13  <% t('.sections.services.list_html').each do |service| %>
14    <li><%= service %></li>
15  <% end %>
16<ul>
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The rendered page escapes the unsafe HTML while rendering the array of translations for the key .sections.services.list_html even though that key has the _html suffix.

A workaround is to manually mark all the translations in that array as HTML safe using the methods such as #raw or #html_safe.

1
2<!-- app/views/home/index.html.erb -->
3
4<%= t('.title_html') %>
5<%= t('.description_html') %>
6
7<%= t('.sections.blogs.title_html') %>
8<%= t('.sections.blogs.description_html') %>
9
10<%= t('.sections.services.title_html') %>
11
12<ul>
13  <% t('.sections.services.list_html').each do |service| %>
14    <li><%= service.html_safe %></li>
15  <% end %>
16<ul>
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Arrays of translations are trusted as HTML safe by using the '_html' suffix in Rails 6

In Rails 6, the unexpected behavior of not marking an array of translations as HTML safe even though the key of that array has the _html suffix is fixed.

1# config/locales/en.yml
2
3en:
4home:
5index:
6title_html: <h2>We build web & mobile applications</h2>
7description_html: We are a dynamic team of <em>developers</em> and <em>designers</em>.
8sections:
9blogs:
10title_html: <h3>Blogs & publications</h3>
11description_html: We regularly write our blog. Our blogs are covered by <strong>Ruby Inside</strong> and <strong>Ruby Weekly Newsletter</strong>.
12services:
13title_html: <h3>Services we offer</h3>
14list_html: - <strong>Ruby on Rails</strong> - React.js &#9883; - React Native &#9883; &#128241;
Copy

1
2<!-- app/views/home/index.html.erb -->
3
4<%= t('.title_html') %>
5<%= t('.description_html') %>
6
7<%= t('.sections.blogs.title_html') %>
8<%= t('.sections.blogs.description_html') %>
9
10<%= t('.sections.services.title_html') %>
11
12<ul>
13  <% t('.sections.services.list_html').each do |service| %>
14    <li><%= service %></li>
15  <% end %>
16<ul>
Copy

We can see above that we no longer need to manually mark the translations as HTML safe for the key .sections.services.title_html using the methods such as #raw or #html_safe since that key has the _html suffix.

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To learn more about this feature, please checkout rails/rails#32361.