Laravel

AI translation for Laravel with Lingo.dev CLI

What is Laravel?

Laravel is a PHP web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It provides built-in features for routing, authentication, sessions, and caching to build modern web applications.

What is Lingo.dev CLI?

Lingo.dev is an AI-powered translation platform. The Lingo.dev CLI reads source files, sends translatable content to large language models, and writes translated files back to your project.

About this guide

This guide explains how to set up Lingo.dev CLI in a Laravel application. You'll learn how to create a Laravel project with localization support, configure a translation pipeline, and implement language switching.

Step 1. Set up a Laravel project

  1. Install PHP and Composer:

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://php.new/install/mac/8.4)"

  2. Install Laravel globally:

    composer global require laravel/installer

  3. Create a new Laravel project:

    laravel new example-app

    When prompted:

    • Select "None" for project type
    • Select "SQLite" for database

  4. Navigate into the project directory:

    cd example-app

Step 2. Create source content

  1. Publish Laravel's default language files:

    php artisan lang:publish

    This creates a lang/en directory with translation files like lang/en/auth.php.

Step 3. Configure the CLI

In the root of the project, create an i18n.json file:

{
  "$schema": "https://lingo.dev/schema/i18n.json",
  "version": 1.8,
  "locale": {
    "source": "en",
    "targets": ["es"]
  },
  "buckets": {
    "php": {
      "include": ["lang/[locale]/*.php"]
    }
  }
}

This file defines:

  • the files that Lingo.dev CLI should translate
  • the languages to translate between

In this case, the configuration translates PHP language files from English to Spanish.

It's important to note that:

  • [locale] is a placeholder that's replaced at runtime. It ensures that content is read from one location (e.g., lang/en/auth.php) and written to a different location (e.g., lang/es/auth.php).
  • Lingo.dev CLI will translate all PHP files in the language directory that match this pattern.

To learn more, see i18n.json configuration.

Step 4. Translate the content

  1. Sign up for a Lingo.dev account.

  2. Log in to Lingo.dev via the CLI:

    npx lingo.dev@latest login

  3. Run the translation pipeline:

    npx lingo.dev@latest run

    The CLI will create a lang/es/ directory for storing the translated content and an i18n.lock file for keeping track of what has been translated (to prevent unnecessary retranslations).

Step 5. Use the translations

  1. Create middleware to set the locale from the route:

    php artisan make:middleware SetLocaleFromRoute

  2. Update the generated app/Http/Middleware/SetLocaleFromRoute.php file:

    <?php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\App;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

class SetLocaleFromRoute
{
    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Closure(\Illuminate\Http\Request): (\Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response)  $next
     */
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
    {
        // 'locale' comes from the {locale} route parameter
        if ($locale = $request->route('locale')) {
            App::setLocale($locale); // sets the locale for this request
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

  3. Register the middleware in bootstrap/app.php:

    <?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware;
use App\Http\Middleware\SetLocaleFromRoute;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(
        web: __DIR__.'/../routes/web.php',
        commands: __DIR__.'/../routes/console.php',
        health: '/up',
    )
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        $middleware->alias([
            'setLocale' => SetLocaleFromRoute::class,
        ]);
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions): void {
        //
    })->create();

  4. Configure routes with locale prefixes in routes/web.php:

    <?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::redirect('/', '/en'); // default to English

Route::prefix('{locale}')
    ->whereIn('locale', ['en', 'es'])
    ->middleware('setLocale')
    ->group(function () {
        Route::get('/', function () {
            return view('welcome');
        })->name('home');
    });

  5. Use the __ helper function to display localized content in your views:

    <!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="{{ str_replace('_', '-', app()->getLocale()) }}">
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
        <title>{{ config('app.name', 'Laravel') }}</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <nav>
          <a href="{{ route('home', ['locale' => 'en']) }}" class="underline mr-4">English</a>
          <a href="{{ route('home', ['locale' => 'es']) }}" class="underline">Español</a>
        </nav>

        <p class="mb-6">{{ __('auth.throttle') }}</p>
    </body>
</html>

  6. Start the development server:

    npm install
npm run build
composer run dev

  7. Navigate to the following URLs: