magento 2: 'i18n:collect-phrases' command creates different csv files

Question

php bin\magento i18n:collect-phrases -o "C:\xampp\htdocs\magento\app\design\i18n\xx_YY.csv" -m 

collects all phrases in the magento application and outputs a csv file with 4 columns:

php bin\magento i18n:collect-phrases -o "C:\xampp\htdocs\magento\app\design\i18n\xx_YY2.csv" C:\xampp\htdocs\magento\app\design\frontend

collects all phrases in app\design\frontend and outputs a csv file with 2 columns:

What is the difference in the two files ?

Also I'm currently using de_DE.csv from https://github.com/splendidinternet/Magento2_German_LocalePack_de_DE which (i think) translates the whole magento application. Why does this file have 2 columns instead of 4 (like the xx_YY.csv I created) ?

Also, when I install a new theme , can I just collect all phrases from that theme into a csv file (2 columns) -> then copy and paste it's content into the end of the file de_DE.csv and everything will work ?

Answer 1

The CSV with 4 columns is the global CSV for all modules. That's why it contains 3rd column as module and 4th column as Module_Name.This file should be placed in i18n folder parallel to app.

The CSV with 2 columns is the CSV required for each module. That's why module name is not specified in it. This file is located under i18n folder of each module.

Answer 2

The csv with 4 columns is used to create language package with composer.

In official doc http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.1/config-guide/cli/config-cli-subcommands-i18n.html#config-cli-subcommands-xlate-dict :

-m | --magento Required to create a language package from this translation dictionary. If used, searches the directories that contain bin/magento. This option adds themes or modules to each line in the dictionary.

Answer 3

You will get all the text with module and theme name with this command :

bin/magento i18n:collect-phrases --output="<csv file path and name>" --magento

In this first you have to create a csv file on any path of your magento directory and set full path (absolute path) of your file here "". It will export all the text with module/theme name.