A package to make your application localized

Installation

You can install the package via composer

composer require jersyfi/laravel-localization

You need to publish the config file to customize the package

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Jersyfi\Localization\LocalizationServiceProvider" --tag="config"

You have the option to publish a migration file for adding a customizable column to a users table for storing the current locale for a logged in user. This is usefull if your application wants to send emails to every user.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Jersyfi\Localization\LocalizationServiceProvider" --tag="migrations"

The published config localization looks like so

return [

    /**
     * Applications default locale need to be set because the config('app.locale')
     * gives back the current locale and not the value from config
     */
    'default_locale' => 'de',

    /**
     * Application locales determines all locals that exists in the application
     * You can ignore or delete the locales from app.locales if you set some
     */
    'locales' => [
        'en',
        'de'
    ],
    
    /**
     * Redirect to default locale when not found
     */
    'redirect_default' => false,

    /**
     * Detect user locale via http header
     * When no locale is stored in session user gets redirected
     */
    'detect_locale' => false,
    
    /**
     * Application can store the prefered_locale in the users database table
     */
    'store_users_database' => true,
    
    /**
     * Setup for the users database table
     * Only if 'store_users_database' is set to true
     */
    'database' => [
        'users_table_name' => 'users',
        'prefered_locale_column_name' => 'prefered_locale',
    ],

];

How to use

More information can be found in the original Laravel documentation with version 8.x. There you need to know everything about Routing and Localization. When you also want to have translatable models i prefere to use laravel-translatable from Spatie.

Routing

The middleware is using redirect_default to redirect any request when the requested locale was not in locales. To detect the browser language when entering the page for the first time the LocaleController is using detect_locale.

You can redirect to the default_locale by accessing the LocaleController function called localize with the example:

use Jersyfi\Localization\Http\Controllers\LocaleController;

Route::get('/', [LocaleController::class, 'localize'])
    ->name('locale');

To group a route it is the easiest way to set a prefix named {locale} together with the middleware locale. Inside this group you can set your own localized routes. An example to get this localized route group:

Route::prefix('{locale}')
    ->middleware('locale')
    ->group(function () {

        // your localized routes here
    });

Helpers

The helpers can be accesed directly by aliases or by facades. When using aliases in your controller you need to include use Localization. In below examples the used values are from the above config file so that you can compare it.

Return the given locale or the current app locale with replaced separator.

$slug = Localization::getLocaleSlug('en_GB'); // en-gb
$slug = Localization::getLocaleSlug(); // de

Return all available locales set in the localization config.

$locales = Localization::getLocales(); // ['en', 'de']

Return application default locale set in the localization config.

$locale = Localization::getDefaultLocale(); // de

Return all available locales from localization config without the default locale.

$locales = Localization::getLocalesWithoutDefault(); // ['en']

Return all available locales from localization config without the current locale.

$locales = Localization::getLocalesWithoutCurrent(); // ['de']

Return the current Route URL

$url = Localization::currentRouteURL(); // https://test.de/de/home?query=true

Return the current Route URL with any different locale set in the localization config. The function replaces the {locale} set in routes with the given locale.

$url = Localization::currentRouteLocaleURL('en'); // https://test.de/en/home?query=true

Return the current Route URL with default locale set in the localization config.

$url = Localization::currentRouteDefaultLocaleURL(); // https://test.de/de/home?query=true

Check if the locales are valid

$valid = Localization::localeIsValid('de'); // true
$valid = Localization::localeIsValid('de', 'en'); // true
$valid = Localization::localeIsValid('de', 'sp'); // false

Examples

Route to named routes

We create a simple index Route named home calling whatever you want. In this example we call a Controller. Then you can call your route from whereever you want with route('home').

Route::get('/', [LocaleController::class, 'localize'])
    ->name('locale');

Route::prefix('{locale}')
    ->middleware('locale')
    ->group(function () {

        // your localized routes here
        Route::get('/', [HomeController::class, 'index'])
            ->name('home');
    });

<a href="{{ route('home') }}">Home</a>

Create a canonical link

You need to call the helper function Localization::currentRouteDefaultLocaleURL()

<link rel="canonical" href="{{ Localization::currentRouteDefaultLocaleURL() }}">

Create alternate links

To get all alternate links without the default locale you can call the helper function Localization::getLocalesWithoutDefault() inside a foreach loop. Inside the href of the html you can call the helper function Localization::currentRouteLocaleURL() and pass the $locale to it.

@foreach(Localization::getLocalesWithoutDefault() as $locale)
    <link rel="alternate" hreflang="{{ Localization::getLocaleSlug($locale) }}" href="{{ Localization::currentRouteLocaleURL($locale) }}">
@endforeach

Create a language selector

When you want to create a language selector first you need the current locale slug. For this you can call the helper function Localization::getLocaleSlug(). To loop the other locales you can decide if you want to display all available locales with Localization::getLocales() or if you want to display the available locales without the current locale with Localization::getLocalesWithoutCurrent(). Inside the foreach loop you can call the helper function Localization::currentRouteLocaleURL($locale) to get the link and Localization::getLocalSlug($locale) for the locale slug.

<div>{{ Localization::getLocaleSlug() }}</div>
<ul>
    @foreach(Localization::getLocalesWithoutCurrent() as $locale)
        <li>
            <a href="{{ Localization::currentRouteLocaleURL($locale) }}">{{ Localization::getLocalSlug($locale) }}</a>
        </li>
    @endforeach
</ul>

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information what has changed recently.

Credits

• Jérôme Bastian Winkel
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.