# Fix: Handle whitespace-only translations properly

[khushal-winner]

Description

Fixes the translation checker to properly detect whitespace-only strings as empty translations.

Fixes #2374

---

Problem

The _check_translation_tags() method in scripts/check_translations.py was not detecting whitespace-only translations (e.g., " ", "\t \n") as empty because the check not " " evaluates to False in Python.

Current Behavior

• Whitespace-only strings pass validation ❌
• Translations with extra spaces not detected as untranslated ❌

Root Cause

elif not trans_tags[tag_id]:  # Bug: "   " is truthy
    empty.append(tag_id)
elif trans_tags[tag_id] == eng_text:
    untranslated.append(tag_id)

---

Solution

Changes Made

1. scripts/check_translations.py

Added .strip() check to properly detect whitespace-only strings:

Before:

elif not trans_tags[tag_id]:
    empty.append(tag_id)
elif trans_tags[tag_id] == eng_text:
    untranslated.append(tag_id)

After:

elif not trans_tags[tag_id] or not trans_tags[tag_id].strip():
    empty.append(tag_id)
elif trans_tags[tag_id].strip() == eng_text.strip():
    untranslated.append(tag_id)

2. scripts/check_translations_utest.py

Added TestWhitespaceHandling class with 4 comprehensive unit tests:

• test_whitespace_only_detected_as_empty - Detects " " as empty
• test_tabs_and_newlines_detected_as_empty - Detects "\t \n" as empty
• test_extra_spaces_detected_as_untranslated - Detects " Login " as untranslated
• test_properly_translated_no_issues - Ensures valid translations still work

---

Testing

New Test Suite

python -m unittest check_translations_utest.TestWhitespaceHandling -v

Results:

test_whitespace_only_detected_as_empty ... ok ✅
test_tabs_and_newlines_detected_as_empty ... ok ✅
test_extra_spaces_detected_as_untranslated ... ok ✅
test_properly_translated_no_issues ... ok ✅

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 4 tests in 0.002s

OK

All Existing Tests Pass

python -m unittest check_translations_utest.py

All existing tests continue to pass without any modifications ✅

Test Coverage

The new tests cover:

• Empty strings ("")
• Whitespace-only strings (" ")
• Tabs and newlines ("\t \n ")
• Extra spaces around text (" Login ")
• Valid translations (no false positives)

---

[khushal-winner]

@sydseter i created a new PR now, because that was getting messy, :)

[sydseter]

@khushal-winner Thank you for your contribution.

[sydseter]

@khushal-winner Add your name to the alphabetical https://github.com/OWASP/cornucopia/blob/master/cornucopia.owasp.org/data/website/pages/about/en/index.md#acknowledgements list.