Laravel 4.2 Localization

Introduction

The Laravel Lang class provides a convenient way of retrieving strings in various languages, allowing you to easily support multiple languages within your application.

Language Files

Language strings are stored in files within the app/lang directory. Within this directory there should be a subdirectory for each language supported by the application.

/app
    /lang
        /en
            messages.php
        /es
            messages.php

Example Language File

Language files simply return an array of keyed strings. For example:

<?php

return array(
    'welcome' => 'Welcome to our application'
);

Changing The Default Language At Runtime

The default language for your application is stored in the app/config/app.php configuration file. You may change the active language at any time using the App::setLocale method:

App::setLocale('es');

Setting The Fallback Language

You may also configure a "fallback language", which will be used when the active language does not contain a given language line. Like the default language, the fallback language is also configured in the app/config/app.php configuration file:

'fallback_locale' => 'en',

Basic Usage

Retrieving Lines From A Language File

echo Lang::get('messages.welcome');

The first segment of the string passed to the get method is the name of the language file, and the second is the name of the line that should be retrieved.

Note: If a language line does not exist, the key will be returned by the get method.

You may also use the trans helper function, which is an alias for the Lang::get method.

echo trans('messages.welcome');

Making Replacements In Lines

You may also define place-holders in your language lines:

'welcome' => 'Welcome, :name',

Then, pass a second argument of replacements to the Lang::get method:

echo Lang::get('messages.welcome', array('name' => 'Dayle'));

Determine If A Language File Contains A Line

if (Lang::has('messages.welcome'))
{
    //
}

Pluralization

Pluralization is a complex problem, as different languages have a variety of complex rules for pluralization. You may easily manage this in your language files. By using a "pipe" character, you may separate the singular and plural forms of a string:

'apples' => 'There is one apple|There are many apples',

You may then use the Lang::choice method to retrieve the line:

echo Lang::choice('messages.apples', 10);

You may also supply a locale argument to specify the language. For example, if you want to use the Russian (ru) language:

echo Lang::choice('товар|товара|товаров', $count, array(), 'ru');

Since the Laravel translator is powered by the Symfony Translation component, you may also create more explicit pluralization rules easily:

'apples' => '{0} There are none|[1,19] There are some|[20,Inf] There are many',

Validation

For localization for validation errors and messages, take a look at the documentation on Validation.

Overriding Package Language Files

Many packages ship with their own language lines. Instead of hacking the package's core files to tweak these lines, you may override them by placing files in the app/lang/packages/{locale}/{package} directory. So, for example, if you need to override the English language lines in messages.php for a package named skyrim/hearthfire, you would place a language file at: app/lang/packages/en/hearthfire/messages.php. In this file you would define only the language lines you wish to override. Any language lines you don't override will still be loaded from the package's language files.