Laravel Relodev Translatable

A lightweight Laravel package to handle multilingual Eloquent models, with no heavy dependencies and a fully configurable primary language.

v2.0 — The primary language is no longer hardcoded to fr. You define your own base language and all secondary languages, at any point during development.

Table of Contents

• How it works
• Requirements
• Installation
• Configuration
• Active locale detection
• Usage
• Adding a language during development
• Available model methods
• Artisan commands
• Package structure
• Changelog

How it works

The package is built on two pillars:

• Dynamic data — Suffixed database columns (name_en, name_es, …) and an Eloquent trait that automatically returns the right value based on the active locale. The primary language uses the unsuffixed column (name), ensuring full compatibility with your existing code.
• Views & messages — Standard Laravel translation files under lang/{locale}/, unchanged.

An automatic middleware is included to detect and apply the active locale with no extra setup.

Column naming convention

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Laravel 10, 11, 12 or 13

Installation

composer require relodev/laravel-translatable

The ServiceProvider and middleware are auto-registered by Laravel. No manual setup required.

Configuration

Publish the configuration file:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=translatable-config

This creates config/translatable.php:

return [
    /*
     | Primary language of your project.
     | The unsuffixed column (e.g. `name`) will always hold this language.
     */
    'primary_locale' => env('TRANSLATABLE_PRIMARY', 'fr'),

    /*
     | Secondary languages.
     | Each language listed here will generate a suffixed column (e.g. name_en).
     | You can add more at any point during development.
     */
    'secondary_locales' => ['en'],

    /*
     | Fallback locale used when the active locale has no value.
     | Defaults to primary_locale when set to null.
     */
    'fallback_locale' => null,
];

Configuration examples

English-first project with FR and ES translations:

'primary_locale'    => 'en',
'secondary_locales' => ['fr', 'es'],

Trilingual project FR / EN / AR:

'primary_locale'    => 'fr',
'secondary_locales' => ['en', 'ar'],

Via .env:

TRANSLATABLE_PRIMARY=en
TRANSLATABLE_FALLBACK=en

Active locale detection

The included middleware automatically resolves the locale in this order:

1. Route segment   → /fr/... or /en/...
2. Session         → set via language switch button
3. Primary locale  → value of primary_locale

Language switch button

Add this route to routes/web.php:

Route::get('/language/{locale}', function ($locale) {
    $all = array_merge(
        [config('translatable.primary_locale')],
        config('translatable.secondary_locales', [])
    );
    if (in_array($locale, $all)) {
        session(['locale' => $locale]);
        app()->setLocale($locale);
    }
    return back();
})->name('lang.switch');

In your views:

<a href="{{ route('lang.switch', 'fr') }}">FR</a>
<a href="{{ route('lang.switch', 'en') }}">EN</a>
<a href="{{ route('lang.switch', 'es') }}">ES</a>

Usage

1. Generate the initial migration

php artisan translatable:migration {table} {columns...}

Example — project with primary_locale = 'fr' and secondary_locales = ['en', 'es']:

php artisan translatable:migration categories name description

Generated migration:

// `name` column → already exists, holds French (primary)
$table->text('name_en')->nullable();          // English
$table->text('name_es')->nullable();          // Spanish
$table->text('description_en')->nullable();
$table->text('description_es')->nullable();

Then:

php artisan migrate

Note: Primary language columns (e.g. name, description) are your existing columns. The package does not touch them.

2. Set up the model

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Relodev\Translatable\Traits\HasTranslation;

class Category extends Model
{
    use HasTranslation;

    protected $fillable = [
        'name',        // primary language (fr in this example)
        'name_en',
        'name_es',
        'description',
        'description_en',
        'description_es',
    ];

    // Fields resolved automatically based on the active locale
    protected $translatable = [
        'name',
        'description',
    ];
}

3. Display in views

{{-- Automatically returns the value for the active locale --}}
{{ $category->name }}
{{ $category->description }}

The trait resolves the value in this order:

1. Active locale column    → name_en  (if locale = 'en')
2. Fallback locale column  → name     (if 'en' is empty)
3. Raw primary column      → name     (last resort)

4. Static translations (views, messages)

Works exactly like native Laravel:

lang/
├── fr/
│   └── home/
│       └── faq.php
├── en/
│   └── home/
│       └── faq.php
└── es/
    └── home/
        └── faq.php

{{ __('home/faq.no_faqs') }}

Adding a language during development

You can add a language at any time without touching existing data.

Step 1 — Add the language to the config

// config/translatable.php
'secondary_locales' => ['en', 'es', 'de'], // ← adding 'de'

Step 2 — Generate the migration for the new language

php artisan translatable:add-locale de categories name description

This generates only the columns for de:

$table->text('name_de')->nullable();
$table->text('description_de')->nullable();

Step 3 — Run the migration

php artisan migrate

Step 4 — Update the model

protected $fillable = [
    'name', 'name_en', 'name_es', 'name_de', // ← add name_de
    'description', 'description_en', 'description_es', 'description_de',
];

That's it. Views ($category->name) work without any changes.

Available model methods

hasTranslation(string $field, ?string $locale = null): bool

Checks whether a translation exists for a given locale.

$model->hasTranslation('name', 'en'); // → true/false
$model->hasTranslation('name');       // → checks active locale

Artisan commands

translatable:migration options

# All secondary languages
php artisan translatable:migration products name description

# A single secondary language
php artisan translatable:migration products name description --only=en

translatable:locales

php artisan translatable:locales

Outputs a readable summary:

  Laravel Relodev Translatable — Locale configuration

  Primary locale     : fr
  Secondary locales  : en, es, de
  Fallback           : fr (default → primary)

  Database column convention:
    - Primary locale (fr) → unsuffixed column    e.g. name
    - Locale en           → suffixed column _en   e.g. name_en
    - Locale es           → suffixed column _es   e.g. name_es
    - Locale de           → suffixed column _de   e.g. name_de

⚠️ Business logic (create & update)

The package handles display automatically. Data consistency on writes remains your responsibility.

// Create
Category::create([
    'name'    => 'Bonjour',  // primary language (fr)
    'name_en' => 'Hello',
    'name_es' => 'Hola',
]);

// Update
$category->update([
    'name_en' => 'Hello World',
]);

Package structure

src/
├── Traits/
│   └── HasTranslation.php
├── Commands/
│   ├── MakeTranslatableCommand.php   (translatable:migration)
│   ├── AddLocaleCommand.php          (translatable:add-locale)
│   └── ListLocalesCommand.php        (translatable:locales)
├── Middleware/
│   └── SetLocale.php
└── TranslatableServiceProvider.php
config/
└── translatable.php
lang/
└── (directories created dynamically based on config)

Upgrading from v1

If you were using v1 with fr as the primary language and en as secondary, no database changes are needed. Simply:

1. Update the package: composer update relodev/laravel-translatable
2. Re-publish the config: php artisan vendor:publish --tag=translatable-config --force
3. Confirm primary_locale = 'fr' and secondary_locales = ['en']

Changelog

v2.0.0

• Breaking change (config): fallback_locale no longer defines the primary language — use primary_locale instead
• New: primary_locale — the primary language is now fully configurable (fr, en, es, or any other)
• New: secondary_locales — array of all secondary languages; each generates its own suffixed columns
• New: translatable:add-locale command — adds a language mid-development and generates the targeted migration
• New: translatable:locales command — displays the current locale configuration
• New: --only={locale} option on translatable:migration
• Improved: column convention is now universal — primary language always maps to the unsuffixed column, regardless of which language is primary

v1.0.3

• Added: auto-registered SetLocale middleware with route segment, session and config fallback detection
• Added: automatic creation of lang/{locale}/ directories on install

v1.0.2

• Fix: migration no longer generates the redundant _fr column
• Fix: down() correctly drops the generated columns

v1.0.1

• Fix: extended support to Laravel 9

v1.0.0

• Initial release

License

MIT