Nov 22, 2014

Level 4

Example on how to use multiple locales in your Laravel 5 website

The following will make domain.com/{locale} available to your website.

What you need to use multiple locales is three things.

Add list of available locales to an array.
Prefix all your routes with current locale.
A language middleware that checks if user is using a valid locale.

Step 1: Add your locales

Open up config/app.php and add the following below 'locale' => 'xx'.

'locales' => ['en' => 'English', 'sv' => 'Swedish'],

Modify this array with your desired locales.

Example at Github

Step 2: Prefix your routes

To prefix our routes, we change the map method in app/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php. Change the map method to the following:

public function map(Router $router, Request $request)
{
    $locale = $request->segment(1);
    $this->app->setLocale($locale);

    $router->group(['namespace' => $this->namespace, 'prefix' => $locale], function($router) {
        require app_path('Http/routes.php');
    });
}

Then add this to the top of the file:

use Illuminate\Routing\Router;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

Example at Github

Step 3: Create a language middleware

Now create a file named Language.php in app/Http/Middleware with this content:

<?php namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Routing\Redirector;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Routing\Middleware;

class Language implements Middleware {

    public function __construct(Application $app, Redirector $redirector, Request $request) {
        $this->app = $app;
        $this->redirector = $redirector;
        $this->request = $request;
    }

    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        // Make sure current locale exists.
        $locale = $request->segment(1);

        if ( ! array_key_exists($locale, $this->app->config->get('app.locales'))) {
            $segments = $request->segments();
            $segments[0] = $this->app->config->get('app.fallback_locale');

            return $this->redirector->to(implode('/', $segments));
        }

        $this->app->setLocale($locale);

        return $next($request);
    }

}

Example at Github

Now make that middleware run on all requests by adding it to the $middleware property in app/Http/Kernel.php. It is recommended to add it to the top of the array.

protected $middleware = [
    'App\Http\Middleware\Language',
    'Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\CheckForMaintenanceMode',
    'Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\EncryptCookies',
    'Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse',
    'Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession',
    'Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession',
    'Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken',
];

Example at Github

You are now set to go.

Example repo

I have an example repository available at https://github.com/Marwelln/laravel-multiple-locales – clone it to test it out or if you are unsure how it works.

rjsworking

11 years ago

Level 2

Thank you very much.

Next step: translate the routes :)

Marwelln

11 years ago

Level 4

@rsdev000, you can translate your routes by using the trans helper in your routes.php.

pmall

11 years ago

Level 56

I prefer when the middleware set the locale then remove it from the route parameters. This way no overhead with route prefix or extra action param.

1 like

davorminchorov

11 years ago

Level 53

Cool stuff! What about Laravel 4.2?

1 like

rjsworking

11 years ago

Level 2

@Ruffles

http://packalyst.com/packages/package/mcamara/laravel-localization

There are other localization packages available.

2 likes

igaster

11 years ago

Level 11

Slight modification when the request has parameters in a query string: eg: http:\domain.com\xxx?yyy=zzz

change:

        return $this->redirector->to(implode('/', $segments));

$newUrl = implode('/', $segments);
if (array_key_exists('QUERY_STRING', $_SERVER))
    $newUrl .= '?'.$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];   
return $this->redirector->to($newUrl);

4 likes

Ncls

11 years ago

Level 3

I get

NotFoundHttpException in compiled.php line 7618:

using the exact code, any ideas?

MarcoMdMj

11 years ago

Level 6

Nice explanation.

I have a doubt about the middleware (Language.php). Why do you call each class (Application, Redirector, Request, etc.) and import them into the middleware instead of using their facades directly in the handdle method?

<?php namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure, Config, App, Redirect; // ... and so on

class Language implements Middleware {

    public function __construct() {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        // Make sure current locale exists.
        $locale = $request->segment(1);

        if ( ! array_key_exists($locale, Config::get('app.locales'))) {
            $segments = $request->segments();
            $segments[0] = Config::get('app.fallback_locale');

            return Redirect::to(implode('/', $segments));
        }

        App::setLocale($locale);

        return $next($request);

    }

}

Also, is it necessary to implement the Middleware object when definning the class? I've generated a middleware using artisan, and it just don't do it.

Thanks.

2 likes

bobbybouwmann

11 years ago

Level 88

Using implement middleware is not necessary!

1 like

MarcoMdMj

11 years ago

Level 6

@Marwelln, you mention sometime ago that we could translate the routes using trans(). In your post, I've notice that you are editing the map method in the RouteServiceProvider to set the Locale of the app before the routes.php file is included.

Is it a good practice to edit those files? Wouldn't it difficult the process of upgrading Laravel? Also, the app locale is already being set in the middleware after some validation, which of course is skipped in the modification I've quoted. Is there another way to do it?

Thanks

joe_schmoe

11 years ago

Level 1

Why is $this->app->config->get('app.locale') empty ?

Ncls

11 years ago

Level 3

Did you set it in your config/app.php? (app.locales) refers to the $locales array in your app config file.

arbrix

11 years ago

Level 1

I was stuck with implementation this solution with Lumen.

I can't find RouteServiceProvider in Lumen, so can't redeclare map method and define locale before routing. I added hardcore initiation in route.php.

@pmall can you provide link to example of such solutions?

I'm not found information about variables in translation. Can you advise anything? I found only vsprintf way as worked solution.

Thanks

dev0urer

11 years ago

Level 1

I can't figure out how to access the public directory using this code. I know I can use the asset() function, but that doesn't work inside of my css.