Laravel 5.8 setLocale globally

Question

I have a route:

    Route::get('/setlocale/{locale}', function($locale) {
            App::setLocale($locale);

            return back();
    })->name('setlocale');

When I go to: example.com/setlocale/ro I return back to page. But language is not changed. Why? I get always language en. I check language with:

    app()->getLocale();

But I need set language globally for application.

Answer 1

It'll only be set for that current request. You're calling the back() method, which will start a new request/response, and will reset the locale.

You should persist the value to the users session, or cookie, then use a service provider, or middleware to set the locale from the session/cookie.

Route::get('/setlocale/{locale}', function (\Illuminate\Http\Request $request, $locale) {
    $request->session()->put('locale', $locale);
    // or
    session(['locale' => $locale]);

    return back();
});


// Middleware:

public function handle($request, $next) {
    App::setLocale($request->session->get('locale', 'some default locale');

    // or

    App::setLocale(session('locale'));

    return $next($request);
}

Hope that helps.

Helpful links:

• https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/session#storing-data
• https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/middleware

Answer 2

Try this way

1. When user choose a language we put our selected locale(language) in session [example en, fr, hi ]

Route::get('setlocale/{locale}',function($lang){
       \Session::put('locale',$lang);
       return redirect()->back();   
});

2. We use a middleware for translating pages according to our session locale (user selected)

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Session;
use App;
use Config;
class LanguageSwitcher
{
    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        if (!Session::has('locale'))
         {
           Session::put('locale', Config::get('app.locale'));
        }
        App::setLocale(Session::get('locale'));
        return $next($request);
    }
}

3. We put this middleware in kernel.php routeMiddleware (app/Http/kernel.php)

protected $routeMiddleware = [
        'auth' => \Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\Authenticate::class,
        'auth.basic' => \Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\AuthenticateWithBasicAuth::class,
        'bindings' => \Illuminate\Routing\Middleware\SubstituteBindings::class,
        'can' => \Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\Authorize::class,
        'guest' => \App\Http\Middleware\RedirectIfAuthenticated::class,
        'throttle' => \Illuminate\Routing\Middleware\ThrottleRequests::class,
        'language' => \App\Http\Middleware\LanguageSwitcher::class,        
    ];

'language' => \App\Http\Middleware\LanguageSwitcher::class,

4. For serving this middleware we need route group. so each request goes through this middleware

Route::group(['middleware'=>'language'],function ()
{
    //your translation routes
});

Logic in middleware

In middleware for every request we check if locale set in current session or not. if Session not having locale then for current request we set locale to config locale means in your app configuration locale

'locale' => 'en',  // config/app.php
 Session::put('locale',Config::get('app.locale')); // in middleware code we use Config method to get app configuration locale
App::setLocale(Session::get('locale')); // finally set this to App locale

else if we have locale in current session then we set that to App locale

App::setLocale(Session::get('locale')); // set this to App locale

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