Laravel - Localization

Localization feature of Laravel supports different language to be used in application. You need to store all the strings of different language in a file and these files are stored at resources/views directory. You should create a separate directory for each supported language. All the language files should return an array of keyed strings as shown below.

< ?php
return [
   'welcome' => 'Welcome to the application'
];

Example

Step 1 − Create 3 files for languages − English, French, and German. Save English file at resources/lang/en/lang.php

< ?php
   return [
      'msg' => 'Laravel Internationalization example.'
   ];
?>

Step 2 − Save French file at resources/lang/fr/lang.php.

< ?php
   return [
      'msg' => 'Exemple Laravel internationalisation.'
   ];
?>

Step 3 − Save German file at resources/lang/de/lang.php.

< ?php
   return [
      'msg' => 'Laravel Internationalisierung Beispiel.' 
   ];
?>

Step 4 − Create a controller called LocalizationController by executing the following command.

php artisan make:controller LocalizationController --plain

Step 5 − After successful execution, you will receive the following output −

Step 6 − Copy the following code to file

< ?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class LocalizationController extends Controller {
   public function index(Request $request,$locale) {
      //set’s application’s locale
      app()->setLocale($locale);
      
      //Gets the translated message and displays it
      echo trans('lang.msg');
   }
}

Step 7 − Add a route for LocalizationController in app/Http/routes.php file. Notice that we are passing {locale} argument after localization/ which we will use to see output in different language.

Route::get('localization/{locale}','LocalizationController@index');

Step 8 − Now, let us visit the different URLs to see all different languages. Execute the below URL to see output in English language.

http://localhost:8000/localization/en

Step 9 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Step 10 − Execute the below URL to see output in French language.

http://localhost:8000/localization/fr

Step 11 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.

Step 12 − Execute the below URL to see output in German language

http://localhost:8000/localization/de

Step 13 − The output will appear as shown in the following image.