Effortless Laravel Localization: Auto-Generate JSON Locale Files and Translate with Google or DeepL

When building multilingual websites or web applications in Laravel, managing localization files can quickly become a headache.

If your Blade templates contain large amounts of text or you need translations across multiple languages, manually extracting and translating strings becomes repetitive and error-prone.

This is where a simple CLI package can make your life easier — automatically extracting strings from Blade templates and generating translated locale JSON files in one command.

Example: Blade File with Translatable Text

<p>{{ __('Laravel has an incredibly rich ecosystem. We suggest starting with the following.') }}</p>

The package scans your Blade templates for __() calls and adds them to the appropriate JSON files in resources/lang.

Introducing Locale Generator

Locale Generator is a Laravel CLI package that:

• Scans Blade templates and extracts translatable strings
• Generates JSON locale files for multiple languages
• Translates them automatically using Google Translate API or DeepL API

Installation

1. Install the package

composer require eii/locale-generator

2. Publish the config file

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=config

3. Create the resources/lang directory

If it doesn’t already exist:

mkdir resources/lang

Setting up Google Translate API

To use Google Translate, you’ll need a Google Cloud Service Account with the Translation API enabled.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
   https://console.cloud.google.com/
   Sign in with your Google account.

2. Create a new project

   • Click the project selector at the top
   • Choose New Project
   • Give it a name and create it.

3. Enable the Translation API

   • Go to APIs & Services → Library
   • Search for Cloud Translation API
   • Click Enable.

4. Create a Service Account

   • Navigate to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts
   • Click Create Service Account
   • Fill in the name and description
   • Assign the role: Project > Editor or Cloud Translation API User

5. Generate a key file

   • Select your new service account
   • Go to the Keys tab
   • Click Add Key → Create New Key
   • Select JSON and download the file.

6. Save the file in your Laravel project

   • Move it to: storage/app/google-credentials.json

7. Update your .env file:
   

GOOGLE_TRANSLATE_KEY_FILE=storage/app/google-credentials.json
GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id

Setting up DeepL API

If you prefer DeepL:

1. Create or log in to a DeepL account
   https://www.deepl.com/pro-api

2. Get your API key

   • Go to Account → API Keys & Limits
   • Click Generate Key and copy it.

3. Update your .env file:
   

DEEPL_API_KEY=your-deepl-api-key

Usage

Once your credentials are set, run:

php artisan lang:extract welcome --locales=ja,es,de --translate=deepl

This will:

• Scan welcome.blade.php for translatable text
• Create ja.json, es.json, and de.json in resources/lang
• Automatically translate the content using DeepL

You can specify:

• --locales → Comma-separated list of language codes
• --translate → deepl or google

Common Language Codes

• en → English
• ja → Japanese
• es → Spanish
• de → German
• fr → French

Why This Helps
Without this tool, you would:

• Manually scan each Blade file
• Copy strings into multiple JSON files
• Translate each string into multiple languages

With Locale Generator, you can:

• Automate extraction and file creation
• Translate into multiple languages in seconds
• Keep localization consistent and up-to-date

Tip: Machine translations are great for speed, but always have a native speaker review important content.