Make variable translatable by default

Variable variable_realm_list_language stores the list of variables which can be translated... you could try set that variable at install-time (hook_install of custom module, or somewhere in your install profile?).

Wouldn't it be better if this was based on a property of the variable? Sich as the 'localize' key which seems to be unused at present. That would mean that would be easy for other modules to alter the list of variables that is translatable by implementing hook_variable_info_alter().

For anyone who needs a solution with hook_variable_info_alter() - it's not good to just check 'localize' flag because in effect you will get all vars translated (realm list contains > 30 vars in my case). So I've introduced another parameter - 'localize_by_default'.

Code sample below.

function MYMODULE_variable_info_alter(&$vars) {
  $realm = variable_get('variable_realm_list_language', array());

  foreach ($vars as $name => $value) {
    if (isset($value['localize_by_default']) && $value['localize_by_default']) {
      if (!in_array($name, $realm))
        $realm []= $name;
    }
  }

  variable_set('variable_realm_list_language', $realm);
}

@lklimek Thank you! Very clever.

Rather that setting the variable via code in each pass through PHP, I might recommend setting them in a hook_install() or hook_update() so they can be cached.

function my_module_install() {
  $vars = variable_list_module('my_module');
  $realm = variable_get('variable_realm_list_language', array());
  foreach ($vars as $name => $value) {
    if (isset($value['localize']) && $value['localize']) {
      if (!in_array($name, $realm)) {
        $realm []= $name;
      }
    }
  }
  variable_set('variable_realm_list_language', $realm);
}

This really needs to be a variable property not done in an alter. Seems like a reasonable feature request.