Jan Cizmar

for Tolgee

Posted on Sep 23

I easily translated my React.js applications into multiple languages. Here is how... 🤯

#react #javascript #webdev #programming

Translating an App to multiple languages (localization) is tricky part of many applications.

Tolgee is simplifying the localization process and saves developer's time by removing repetitive tasks 🔁 ❌

Saving time? That's what I want. Show me how to localize my React app!

What is Tolgee

Tolgee is an open-source i18n tool combining localization platform and SDKs to provide simple way to translate the web applications for both developers and translators.

Tolgee is not just another software localization platform offering integrations that only syncs local data with the backend. Instead, Tolgee is truly integrated into your app via SDKs.

In context translating 📖

As a developer of localized application, you probably have to modify localization data every time you need to change a text.

So you have to open the file, add or find the key to modify, save it and check whether everything was changed correctly in the app.

With Tolgee you can just ALT + click the actual translated text in your app and 💥boom💥 translation dialog appears and you are able to translate it right away.

Automatic Screenshot Generation 📸

Another tricky part of localization is providing context to translators. Only exporting the keys and translations in source language is not always enough.

Tolgee enables you to take and upload screenshot directly in the in-context translation dialog. So no more manual taking and uploading screenshots.

Localization platform included ✅

Tolgee is also localization platform, where you can manage all your localization strings. You can provide access to translators and they can translate the texts there.

If you have uploaded screenshots before, they know the context of the translations perfectly and can produce perfect results.

Isn't that hard to integrate? No it's not!

To get started, you can simply follow the integration guides provided in the platform.

Login to Tolgee Cloud or use your self hosted Tolgee instance.
Create a new project by clicking Add button in the top right. Fill the project name.

Optionally, you can add multiple languages to translate your app into.
Select Integrate from side menu, choose React (Vite) and generate an API key with all scopes checked.

Success! 🎉 Now you just have to follow the integration guide.

Let's integrate it into React App

Generate brand new React App and open it your favorite editor

npm create vite@latest tolgee-hello-world -- --template react-ts
# follow the vite guide

Install Tolgee packages ⬇️
```
npm install @tolgee/react
```
Add Tolgee properties to you development .env file env.development.local by copying it from the integration guide
```
VITE_APP_TOLGEE_API_URL=https://app.tolgee.io
VITE_APP_TOLGEE_API_KEY=<your API key>
```
Wrap your App component in main.tsx with TolgeeProvider component. Again, you can copy it from the integration guide.

Go to App.tsx and replace all the crap with simple "Hello world!" message.

import './App.css';

function App() {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>Hello world!</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Wrap the "Hello world!" with <T> component and add keyName prop.

import './App.css';
import { T } from '@tolgee/react';

function App() {
  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>
        <T keyName="hello_world">Hello world!</T>
      </h1>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Let's run the App in the browser and see the magic! 🪄

Hold your ALT key and move your mouse over the text. It should be highlighted.
When you click it, dialog opens and you're able to edit the text or generate screenshots.

After you hit the update button, your Hello World! text will be immediately changed to the new value!

Congratulations! You're done! 🎉🎉🎉

Now you are able to translate your React applications. To learn more about Tolgee or to find out how to translate more complicated cases, visit our docs.

Tolgee - Developer friendly localization tool

Tolgee helps teams localize apps effortlessly. We make translation simple with real-time updates and easy integration into your workflow.

Say goodbye to complex file management and focus on building great products. Fast, smooth, and built for devs.

If you like this tutorial, please help us with a star. It would help us to create more articles like this 💖

Star the Tolgee repository ⭐

Top comments (10)

Nevo David • Sep 23

Super cool, I am going to translate my app:
github.com/gitroomhq/postiz-app
with it :)

Jan Cizmar • Sep 23

Great! Just ask if you have any any questions! :)

willjohn22 • Sep 23

Great! I was looking for self-hosted alternative to Lokalise. This looks amazing, finished the tutorial in few minutes.

Jan Cizmar • Sep 23

Thanks! 🚀

Christian Engel • Sep 23

So, wait: this basically integrates a ton of javascript into your app just to translate it? What happens when you deploy it? How is all of this being removed upon build time or do you just ship it to the users and hide it away from them? Are localizations always loaded from the tolgee servers?

There are so many red flags here :(

Jan Cizmar • Sep 23

Hey! Great questions!

All the dev tools are removed when the app is built, and only the basic functionality, similar to any other i18n solution, is kept in the resulting build. Tolgee JS is modular, so you don't have to include what you don't like and write your own plugins if you wish.

We recommend against using localization data from Tolgee REST API for production builds, since it can be slow and you don't want to rely on the Tolgee servers. There are multiple ways how to serve the data to the clients. You can export the data (using the CLI or via REST API) and bundle them with production build, you can use Content Delivery, which deploys the data to Global CDN or you can host the data somewhere else and handle that yourself.

Christian Engel • Sep 23 • Edited

Thanks for the clarification! It was not exactly clear that the in-place editor would not be bundled along with the application (its still not clear to me if its actually not bundled or just hidden away from the user).

Also there seems to be no documentation about how you would actually download the language files upon build, store them in your project and bake it into your app.

This gets even more complicated when you have multiple languages for your app. You should NOT write all your language strings into the JS bundle.

I suggest getting the docs crystal clere on this matter - but you are on a very good way and I wish you best of luck with your project!