Rails: How to use i18n with Rails 4 enums

Question

Rails 4 Active Record Enums are great, but what is the right pattern for translating with i18n?

Answer 1

Starting from Rails 5, all models will inherit from ApplicationRecord.

class User < ApplicationRecord
  enum status: [:active, :pending, :archived]
end

I use this superclass to implement a generic solution for translating enums:

class ApplicationRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
  self.abstract_class = true

  def self.human_enum_name(enum_name, enum_value)
    I18n.t("activerecord.attributes.#{model_name.i18n_key}.#{enum_name.to_s.pluralize}.#{enum_value}")
  end
end

Then I add the translations in my .yml file:

en:
  activerecord:
    attributes:
      user:
        statuses:
          active: "Active"
          pending: "Pending"
          archived: "Archived"

Finally, to get the translation I use:

User.human_enum_name(:status, :pending)
=> "Pending"