Please use camelCase where applicable.

You mean varDescription and varLabel all over?

Yes.

camelCase done.

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on b0f943a

As you said, if this is accepted, we need extend to more variables

Since most descriptions have been removed from labels, let's only check $varDescription when there is a description. $varDescription can be 0 so check for empty string. Furthermore I would say there is no need for $varDescription and $varLabel. Here is my proposed code. The same can be done with $varLabel.

		// Description preprocess
		$description = !empty($this->description) ? $this->description : null;

                if (!empty($description) && $this->translateDescription)
                {
                        // Do we have a text variable to use when displaying the description?
                        if ($this->varDescription !== '')
                        {
                                $description = Text::sprintf($description, $this->varDescription);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                                $description = Text::_($description);
                        }
                }

Since Formfield was modified, I have to redo this patch anyway. Will also modify its code.

@Quy @SharkyKZ @carlitorweb
You now can test with the new code.

For me it is hard to find a use case for this pr, where you have two hard coded values in the XML definition to put into the label or description. Why not directly add them.

@laoneo the specific use case would be for a plugin like system http headers where we have a large number of terms that should never be translated and it is currently hard to notify tt to ignore those terms

$varDescription and $varLabel are obsolete.

$varDescription and $varLabel are obsolete.

Hmm, why do we have $hint or $type then? (just for my knowledge).

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 26059d8

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 26059d8

RTC

Drone restarted.

Restarted drone again... Failure is not due to this PR.
@Webdongle @laoneo Can you merge this?

@infograf768 I do not (and never have) had ability to merge on github. Also I have resigned from bugsquad.

oops, sorry. I meant @wilsonge ?

it has been a year - will this be merged or not? Is it waiting on something

Not as it is. I don't want to have this forced single string. The concept is almost there but this needs to be able to take a list of items otherwise we're just going to hit massive limitations. Trying to sort this in a vaguely b/c way for form fields is super complicated tho :(

Just my 2cents, if you need variables in your language strings, you may as well set a new description in the code using something like $this->form->setFieldAttribute('description, 'a new string').

Other than that I would say we can close this as it can be solved in a different and more flexible way.

I have tested this item ? unsuccessfully on 6c96029

This needs to be looked at again according to the comments made. Would be worth revisiting and taking in to account @george and @RolandS comments

@flo-the-cat tagged the wrong George. @wilsonge is this one still on your radar?

@infograf768 your thoughts on whether it's still needed in light of the conversation in 2019?

Or per @roland-d comment should it be closed.

Commenting on this PR as part of a "Outstanding PR Status List" exercise to work on reducing the number of outstanding PR that have been otherwise orphaned, neglected or forgotten instead of being merged. See Glip Bugs & Fun @ Home channel for more information.

I still think this would be a nice improvement to avoid wrong translation of some strings that should not be translated.

Read #20525 (comment)

I don't think @roland-d proposal solves the issue and fail to understand @wilsonge comment.

@infograf768 I think the issue is that the example you gave in the first post doesnt really show a good example of how this would be used. If you post an example using one of the com_csp forms I think people might understand the need for this more.

Example with label (in these cases, sprintf is not used.)

Modifying xml to add varLabel in the 2 following cases in /administrator/components/com_csp/config.xml

		<field
			name="contentsecuritypolicy"
			type="radio"
			label="COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY"
			layout="joomla.form.field.radio.switcher"
			default="0"
			varLabel="href='https://scotthelme.co.uk/content-security-policy-an-introduction' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>Content Security Policy (CSP)"
			>
			<option value="0">JDISABLED</option>
			<option value="1">JENABLED</option>
		</field>
[...]
		<field
			name="frame_ancestors_self_enabled"
			type="radio"
			label="COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY_FRAME_ANCESTORS_SELF_ENABLED"
			description="COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY_FRAME_ANCESTORS_SELF_ENABLED_DESC"
			layout="joomla.form.field.radio.switcher"
			default="1"
			showon="contentsecuritypolicy:1[AND]contentsecuritypolicy_mode!:detect"
			varLabel="frame-ancestors 'self'"
			>
			<option value="0">JDISABLED</option>
			<option value="1">JENABLED</option>
		</field>

Original strings:

; Please do not translate the following language string
COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY="<a href='https://scotthelme.co.uk/content-security-policy-an-introduction' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>Content Security Policy (CSP)</a>"

; Please do not translate the following language string
COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY_FRAME_ANCESTORS_SELF_ENABLED="frame-ancestors 'self'"

Modified strings:

COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY="<a %s </a>"
COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY_FRAME_ANCESTORS_SELF_ENABLED="%s"

Result

For a string like

; Please do not translate 'max-age' in the following language string
PLG_SYSTEM_HTTPHEADERS_HSTS_MAXAGE_DESC="This option sets the time for 'max-age', it is specified in seconds. The default value is 31536000, which corresponds to one year"

the sprintf can be used with varDescription and we would have

PLG_SYSTEM_HTTPHEADERS_HSTS_MAXAGE_DESC="This option sets the time for '%s', it is specified in seconds. The default value is 31536000, which corresponds to one year"

If this PR is improved to allow multiple variables, we could also simplify a string like

; Please do not translate 'Content-Security-Policy' & 'Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only' in the following language string
COM_CSP_CONTENTSECURITYPOLICY_REPORT_ONLY_DESC="Use the header 'Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only' instead of 'Content-Security-Policy'."

Thank you - I think people should be able to see the benefit of this now

I am moving this to 4.1, we are in beta and this is a new feature.

So this did not make it in 4.0 and from my point of view will not make it into 4.1 either, although I see the benefit of the whole idea the limitations stated by @wilsonge are still valid (especially that you can only add one variable...) and TBH for me it feels super complicated when strings are splitted up in several %s, too.

I think this could be reconsidered, when we would go for "custom named placeholders" to make language keys more clear. (See: https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/blob/4.1-dev/libraries/src/Language/Text.php#L113-L122)