Spatie Laravel Translatable – Multilingual model support

Spatie Laravel Translatable is a powerful package that allows you to easily manage multilingual content in your Laravel models. This package facilitates the storage of translated attributes directly in your database, enabling you to create applications that support multiple languages without significant overhead.

Key Features of Spatie Laravel Translatable:

Simple Integration: Easy to integrate into existing Laravel models with minimal setup.
Multiple Languages: Supports storing translations for multiple languages per attribute.
Eloquent Compatibility: Works seamlessly with Eloquent models, allowing you to leverage Laravel’s ORM features.
Localization: Provides an easy way to retrieve the appropriate translation based on the application’s current locale.
Customizable: You can customize the behavior of the package according to your application’s needs.

Installation

To get started with Spatie Laravel Translatable, follow these steps:

Require the Package: You can install the package via Composer:

composer require spatie/laravel-translatable

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composer require spatie/laravel-translatable
Publish the Configuration (Optional): If you want to customize the configuration, publish the configuration file:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Translatable\TranslatableServiceProvider"

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php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Translatable\TranslatableServiceProvider"

Update Your Model: To make your model translatable, you need to use the Spatie\Translatable\HasTranslations trait. Here’s an example with a Post model:

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Translatable\HasTranslations;

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasTranslations;

    protected $translatable = ['title', 'content'];

    // Other model properties and methods...
}

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

use Spatie\Translatable\HasTranslations;

class Post extends Model

{

use HasTranslations;

protected $translatable = ['title', 'content'];

// Other model properties and methods...

}

Database Schema

For the translatable attributes to work, you’ll need to structure your database accordingly. The package typically stores translations in JSON format in a single database column. Here’s how you can set it up:

Create Migration: Create a migration for your model:

php artisan make:migration create_posts_table

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php artisan make:migration create_posts_table

Define the Migration: In the migration file, you can define the schema as follows:

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class CreatePostsTable extends Migration
{
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('slug')->unique();
            $table->json('title'); // Store translations in JSON
            $table->json('content'); // Store translations in JSON
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('posts');
    }
}

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;

use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class CreatePostsTable extends Migration

{

public function up()

{

Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {

$table->id();

$table->string('slug')->unique();

$table->json('title'); // Store translations in JSON

$table->json('content'); // Store translations in JSON

$table->timestamps();

});

}

public function down()

{

Schema::dropIfExists('posts');

}

Run the Migration: Run the migration to create the database table:

php artisan migrate

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php artisan migrate

Storing Translations

You can easily store translations for your translatable attributes. Here’s an example of how to create a new post with translations:

$post = new Post();
$post->slug = 'my-first-post';
$post->setTranslations('title', [
    'en' => 'My First Post',
    'es' => 'Mi Primer Publicación',
]);
$post->setTranslations('content', [
    'en' => 'This is the content of my first post.',
    'es' => 'Este es el contenido de mi primera publicación.',
]);
$post->save();

$post = new Post();

$post->slug = 'my-first-post';

$post->setTranslations('title', [

'en' => 'My First Post',

'es' => 'Mi Primer Publicación',

]);

$post->setTranslations('content', [

'en' => 'This is the content of my first post.',

'es' => 'Este es el contenido de mi primera publicación.',

]);

$post->save();

Retrieving Translations

To retrieve translations based on the current locale, you can use the following syntax:

// Set the application's locale
app()->setLocale('es');

// Retrieve the title and content in the current locale
$post = Post::find(1);
echo $post->title; // Outputs: Mi Primer Publicación
echo $post->content; // Outputs: Este es el contenido de mi primera publicación.

// Set the application's locale

app()->setLocale('es');

// Retrieve the title and content in the current locale

$post = Post::find(1);

echo $post->title; // Outputs: Mi Primer Publicación

echo $post->content; // Outputs: Este es el contenido de mi primera publicación.

Updating Translations

You can update translations using the same setTranslations method:

$post = Post::find(1);
$post->setTranslations('title', [
    'en' => 'Updated Title in English',
    'es' => 'Título Actualizado en Español',
]);
$post->save();

$post = Post::find(1);

$post->setTranslations('title', [

'en' => 'Updated Title in English',

'es' => 'Título Actualizado en Español',

]);

$post->save();

Conclusion

Spatie Laravel Translatable is a valuable tool for developers building multilingual applications with Laravel. Its straightforward implementation and seamless integration with Eloquent make it easy to manage translations effectively.

Additional Considerations

Documentation: For more detailed information on advanced features.
Performance: Be mindful of performance when using large amounts of translations, as JSON columns may impact query performance.