angular / angular/angular-cli

CLI doesn't allow custom builder to pass additional extensions when building app for i18n extractions

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#27,264 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area: @angular-devkit/build-angular devkit/build-angular:i18n freq1: low severity3: broken type: bug/fix
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

### Command

extract-i18n

### Description

We're in the process of migrating from webpack to esbuild.
To provide custom esbuild plugins we decided to use custom builder (https://github.com/just-jeb/angular-builders).

It went smooth until we realised that `extract-i18` no longer works. It ends successfully but `messages.xlf` is empty.

It turned out that angular checks `builderName` to choose which bundler to use.

To fix that I decided to implement custom `extract-i18n` builder that will trick `angular/cli` and force using esbuild -
https://github.com/just-jeb/angular-builders/pull/1711

For the record `nrwl/nx` did the same - https://github.com/nrwl/nx/pull/21802

**The issue** is that `angular/cli` will not let us pass any extensions during i18n application compilation.

https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/blob/1034bb155b58a5f18eecf56409a3ff99d2ca4474/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/extract-i18n/application-extraction.ts#L59

It may lead to inconsistency between build and extract flow, which I suppose may lead to issues with i18n.

### Describe the solution you'd like

We should be able to pass custom extensions as for regular app building.

(bonus) would be really nice if these `if (builderName === ...` are replaced by something that is custom builder friendly 🙏

### Describe alternatives you've considered

Alternatively we could rewrite whole `extract-i18n` builder, but as 95% of the code would be the same - it seems pointless

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start in packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/extract-i18n/application-extraction.ts at the linked line and compare how regular application builds receive extensions. Verify that extract-i18n passes custom builder extensions during application compilation and that messages.xlf contains the extracted messages rather than being empty.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
angular, typescript
Domain
build-system, cli, internationalization
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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