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

amit-eiitech — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 04:30:40 +0000

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:

Go to Google Cloud Console
https://console.cloud.google.com/
Sign in with your Google account.
Create a new project
- Click the project selector at the top
- Choose New Project
- Give it a name and create it.
Enable the Translation API
- Go to APIs & Services → Library
- Search for Cloud Translation API
- Click Enable.
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
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.
Save the file in your Laravel project
- Move it to: storage/app/google-credentials.json
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:

Create or log in to a DeepL account
https://www.deepl.com/pro-api
Get your API key
- Go to Account → API Keys & Limits
- Click Generate Key and copy it.
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.

DEV Community: amit-eiitech