Painless laravel multi language application

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Hello to all TJD followers,

Today we will learn how to make our laravel application support multi language.

What we need:

Language controller
Language middelware
Language config file
Route
Language switcher

Let's begin:

First of all make LanguageController we will use terminal provided by laragon (read tutorial here)

php artisan make:controller LanguageController

Now copy codes below to your LanguageController



namespace AppHttpControllers;

use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use Config;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesRedirect;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesSession;

class LanguageController extends Controller
{
    public function index($lang)
    {
      if (array_key_exists($lang, Config::get('languages'))) {
            Session::put('applocale', $lang);
        }
        return Redirect::back();
    }
}

Now let's make our middelware

php artisan make:middleware Language

Now copy codes below to your Language middelware and save it



namespace AppHttpMiddleware;

use Closure;
use IlluminateFoundationApplication;
use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use IlluminateRoutingRedirector;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesApp;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesConfig;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesSession;

class Language
{
    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  IlluminateHttpRequest  $request
     * @param  Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
      if (Session::has('applocale') AND array_key_exists(Session::get('applocale'), Config::get('languages'))) {
          App::setLocale(Session::get('applocale'));
      }
      else { // This is optional as Laravel will automatically set the fallback language if there is none specified
          App::setLocale(Config::get('app.fallback_locale'));
      }
      return $next($request);
    }
}

As our third step open your config folder and create new file name it Languages.php , then copy codes below and save it.



return [
  'en' => [
      'name' => 'English',
      'flag' => 'images/flags/en.png'
  ],
  'id' => [
      'name' => 'Indonesian',
      'flag' => 'images/flags/indonesia.png'
  ],
  'fa' => [
      'name' => 'پارسی',
      'flag' => 'images/flags/iran.png'
  ],
];

note: here we provided 3 languages for our app you can change it, add into it, or make it less, all are optional depend on your needs.

Now in step 4 we will making our route for languages, open your web.php file and all line below:

Route::get('lang/{lang}', ['as'=>'lang.switch', 'uses'=>'LanguageController@index']);

Step 5 is to making dropdown in our view so users can select their preferred language:

note: personally I add it in my navbar but you are free to use it wherever it suits you.


  
     {{ Config::get('languages')[App::getLocale()]['name'] }} 
  
    @foreach (Config::get('languages') as $lang => $language)
    @if ($lang != App::getLocale())
          {{ $language['name'] }}
       
    @endif
    @endforeach

Last thing you need to do is to add your language files in resources -> lang -> language name we made in our config file such as (en , fa , id ) and add your words,

Here is an example:

in en folder we have file named admindashboard.php and inside it is look like this:



  return [
    'welcome' => 'Welcome',
  ];

in our id folder we have same file and inside it is look like this:



  return [
    'welcome' => 'Selamat Datang',
  ];

now to show the line of word in our view we will use:

{{ trans('admindashboard.welcome') }}

first value is name of our file admindashboard and second value is line of translation welcome .

PS: in this tutorial I pulled the trigger and showed a trick that normally language packages will not provide and that's showing languages flag image, it took me a while till I understand how to show languages images and now you have it painless and free.

- Last updated 3 years ago