Getting Started Internationalising (i18n) with Intlayer and Vite and Solid

VideoCodeDemo

www.youtube.com

Open embedded page in fullscreen

ide.intlayer.org

Open embedded page in fullscreen

intlayer-vite-solid.vercel.app

Open embedded page in fullscreen

Table of Contents

Why Intlayer over alternatives?

Compared to main solutions like @solid-primitives/i18n or i18next, Intlayer is a solution that comes with integrated optimizations such as:

Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Intlayer in a Vite and Solid Application

Table of Contents

1. 1

   Install Dependencies

   Install the necessary packages using npm:

   bash

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   npx intlayer init --interactive
   

   the --interactive flag is optional. Use intlayer-cli init if you're an AI agent.

   This command will detect your environment and install the required packages. For example:

   bash

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   npm install intlayer solid-intlayer
   npm install vite-intlayer --save-dev
   

   • intlayer

     The core package that provides internationalisation tools for configuration management, translation, content declaration, transpilation, and CLI commands.

   • solid-intlayer The package that integrates Intlayer with Solid applications. It provides context providers and hooks for Solid internationalisation.

   • vite-intlayer Includes the Vite plugin for integrating Intlayer with the Vite bundler, as well as middleware for detecting the user's preferred locale, managing cookies, and handling URL redirection.

2. 2

   Configuration of your project

   Create a config file to configure the languages of your application:

   intlayer.config.ts

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { Locales, type IntlayerConfig } from "intlayer";
   
   const config: IntlayerConfig = {
     internationalization: {
       locales: [
         Locales.ENGLISH,
         Locales.FRENCH,
         Locales.SPANISH,
         // Your other locales
       ],
       defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,
     },
   };
   
   export default config;
   

   Through this configuration file, you can set up localised URLs, middleware redirection, cookie names, the location and extension of your content declarations, disable Intlayer logs in the console, and more. For a complete list of available parameters, refer to the configuration documentation.

3. 3

   Integrate Intlayer into Your Vite Configuration

   Add the intlayer plugin to your configuration.

   vite.config.ts

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { defineConfig } from "vite";
   import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react-swc";
   import { intlayer } from "vite-intlayer";
   
   // https://vitejs.dev/config/
   export default defineConfig({
     plugins: [react(), intlayer()],
   });
   

   The intlayer() Vite plugin is used to integrate Intlayer with Vite. It ensures the building of content declaration files and monitors them in development mode. It defines Intlayer environment variables within the Vite application. Additionally, it provides aliases to optimise performance.

4. 4

   Declare Your Content

   Create and manage your content declarations to store translations:

   src/app.content.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { t, type Dictionary } from "intlayer";
   
   const appContent = {
     key: "app",
     content: {},
   } satisfies Dictionary;
   
   export default appContent;
   

   Your content declarations can be defined anywhere in your application as soon as they are included in the contentDir directory (by default, ./src). And match the content declaration file extension (by default, .content.{json,ts,tsx,js,jsx,mjs,cjs,md,mdx,yaml,yml}).

5. 5

   Utilise Intlayer in Your Code

   Access your content dictionaries throughout your application:

   src/App.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { createSignal, type Component } from "solid-js";
   import solidLogo from "./assets/solid.svg";
   import viteLogo from "/vite.svg";
   import "./App.css";
   import { IntlayerProvider, useIntlayer } from "solid-intlayer";
   
   const AppContent: Component = () => {
     const [count, setCount] = createSignal(0);
     const content = useIntlayer("app");
   
     return (
       <>
         <div>
           <a href="https://vitejs.dev" target="_blank">
             <img src={viteLogo} class="logo" alt={content.viteLogo.value} />
           </a>
           <a href="https://www.solidjs.com/" target="_blank">
             <img
               src={solidLogo}
               class="logo solid"
               alt={content.solidLogo.value}
             />
           </a>
         </div>
         <h1>{content.title}</h1>
         <div class="card">
           <button onClick={() => setCount((count) => count + 1)}>
             {content.count({ count: count() })}
           </button>
           <p>{content.edit}</p>
         </div>
         <p class="read-the-docs">{content.readTheDocs}</p>
       </>
     );
   };
   
   const App: Component = () => (
     <IntlayerProvider>
       <AppContent />
     </IntlayerProvider>
   );
   
   export default App;
   

   In Solid, useIntlayer returns an accessor function (e.g., `content.). You must call this function to access the reactive content.

   If you want to use your content in a string attribute, such as alt, title, href, aria-label, etc., you can use the value of the function, like:

   html

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   <img src="{content.image.src.value}" alt="{content.image.value}" />
   <img src="{content.image.src.toString()}" alt="{content.image.toString()}" />
   <img src="{String(content.image.src)}" alt="{String(content.image)}" />
   

6. 6

   Change the language of your content

   Optional

   To change the language of your content, you can use the setLocale function provided by the useLocale hook. This function allows you to set the locale of the application and update the content accordingly.

   src/components/LocaleSwitcher.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { type Component, For } from "solid-js";
   import { Locales } from "intlayer";
   import { useLocale } from "solid-intlayer";
   
   const LocaleSwitcher: Component = () => {
     const { locale, setLocale, availableLocales } = useLocale();
   
     return (
       <select
         value={locale()}
         onChange={(e) => setLocale(e.currentTarget.value as Locales)}
       >
         <For each={availableLocales}>
           {(loc) => (
             <option value={loc} selected={loc === locale()}>
               {loc}
             </option>
           )}
         </For>
       </select>
     );
   };
   

7. 7

   Add localised Routing to your application

   Optional

   The purpose of this step is to make unique routes for each language. This is useful for SEO and SEO-friendly URLs. Example:

   plaintext

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   - https://example.com/about
   - https://example.com/es/about
   - https://example.com/fr/about
   

   To add localised routing to your application, you can use @solidjs/router.

   First, install the necessary dependencies:

   bash

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   npm install @solidjs/router
   

   Then, wrap your application with the Router and define your routes using localeMap:

   src/index.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { render } from "solid-js/web";
   import { Router } from "@solidjs/router";
   import App from "./App";
   
   const root = document.getElementById("root");
   
   render(
     () => (
       <Router>
         <App />
       </Router>
     ),
     root!
   );
   

   src/App.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { type Component } from "solid-js";
   import { Route } from "@solidjs/router";
   import { localeMap } from "intlayer";
   import { IntlayerProvider } from "solid-intlayer";
   import Home from "./pages/Home";
   import About from "./pages/About";
   
   const App: Component = () => (
     <IntlayerProvider>
       {localeMap(({ locale, urlPrefix }) => (
         <Route
           path={urlPrefix || "/"}
           component={(props: any) => (
             <IntlayerProvider locale={locale}>{props.children}</IntlayerProvider>
           )}
         >
           <Route path="/" component={Home} />
           <Route path="/about" component={About} />
         </Route>
       ))}
     </IntlayerProvider>
   );
   
   export default App;
   

8. 8

   Change the URL when the locale changes

   Optional

   To change the URL when the locale changes, you can use the onLocaleChange prop provided by the useLocale hook. You can use the useNavigate and useLocation hooks from @solidjs/router to update the URL path.

   src/components/LocaleSwitcher.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { type Component, For } from "solid-js";
   import { useLocation, useNavigate } from "@solidjs/router";
   import { getLocalizedUrl } from "intlayer";
   import { useLocale } from "solid-intlayer";
   
   const LocaleSwitcher: Component = () => {
     const location = useLocation();
     const navigate = useNavigate();
     const { locale, setLocale, availableLocales } = useLocale({
       onLocaleChange: (loc) => {
         const pathWithLocale = getLocalizedUrl(location.pathname, loc);
         navigate(pathWithLocale);
       },
     });
   
     return (
       <select
         value={locale()}
         onChange={(e) => setLocale(e.currentTarget.value as any)}
       >
         <For each={availableLocales}>
           {(loc) => (
             <option value={loc} selected={loc === locale()}>
               {loc}
             </option>
           )}
         </For>
       </select>
     );
   };
   

9. 9

   Switch the HTML Language and Direction Attributes

   Optional

   Update the <html> tag's lang and dir attributes to match the current locale for accessibility and SEO.

   src/App.tsx

   Copy content

   Copy code

   Copy the code to the clipboard

   import { createEffect, type Component } from "solid-js";
   import { useLocale } from "solid-intlayer";
   import { getHTMLTextDir } from "intlayer";
   
   const AppContent: Component = () => {
     const { locale } = useLocale();
   
     createEffect(() => {
       document.documentElement.lang = locale();
       document.documentElement.dir = getHTMLTextDir(locale());
     });
   
     return (
       // ... Your application content
     );
   };
   

10. 10

    Creating a Localised Link Component

    Optional

    Create a custom Link component that automatically prefixes internal URLs with the current language.

    src/components/Link.tsx

    Copy content

    Copy code

    Copy the code to the clipboard

    import { type ParentComponent } from "solid-js";
    import { A, type AnchorProps } from "@solidjs/router";
    import { getLocalizedUrl } from "intlayer";
    import { useLocale } from "solid-intlayer";
    
    export const Link: ParentComponent<AnchorProps> = (props) => {
      const { locale } = useLocale();
    
      const isExternal = () => props.href.startsWith("http");
      const localizedHref = () =>
        isExternal() ? props.href : getLocalizedUrl(props.href, locale());
    
      return <A {...props} href={localizedHref()} />;
    };
    

    In parallel, you can also use the intlayerProxy to add server-side routing to your application. This plugin will automatically detect the current locale based on the URL and set the appropriate locale cookie. If no locale is specified, the plugin will determine the most appropriate locale based on the user's browser language preferences. If no locale is detected, it will redirect to the default locale.

    Note that to use the intlayerProxy in production, you need to switch the vite-intlayer package from devDependencies to dependencies.

    Since Intlayer v9, intlayerProxy() is bundled directly into the intlayer() plugin and enabled by default through the routing.enableProxy option (true by default). Registering it separately as shown below is now optional — it is kept for backward compatibility and for setups that need to control plugin order. Set routing.enableProxy: false to opt out. See the v9 release notes.

    vite.config.ts

    Copy content

    Copy code

    Copy the code to the clipboard

    import { defineConfig } from "vite";
    import solid from "vite-plugin-solid";
    import { intlayer } from "vite-intlayer";
    
    // https://vitejs.dev/config/
    export default defineConfig({
      plugins: [
        solid(),
        intlayer({
          proxy: {
            ignore: (req) => req.url?.startsWith("/api"),
          },
        }),
      ],
    });
    

11. 11

    Render Markdown

    Optional

    If you have an existing codebase, transforming thousands of files can be time-consuming.

    To ease this process, Intlayer propose a compiler / extractor to transform your components and extract the content.

    Intlayer supports rendering Markdown content directly in your Solid application using its own internal parser. By default, Markdown is treated as plain text. To render it as rich HTML, wrap your application with the MarkdownProvider.

    src/index.tsx

    Copy content

    Copy code

    Copy the code to the clipboard

    import { render } from "solid-js/web";
    import { MarkdownProvider } from "solid-intlayer/markdown";
    import App from "./App";
    
    const root = document.getElementById("root");
    
    render(
      () => (
        <MarkdownProvider>
          <App />
        </MarkdownProvider>
      ),
      root!
    );
    

    Extract commandBabel compiler

    Run the extractor to transform your components and extract the content

    bash

    Copy content

    Copy code

    Copy the code to the clipboard

    npx intlayer extract
    

    Then you can use it in your components:

    Since v9, the intlayerCompiler is included in the intlayer plugin. So you don't need to add it manually.

    Update your vite.config.ts to include the intlayerCompiler plugin:

    tsx

    Copy content

    Copy code

    Copy the code to the clipboard

    import { useIntlayer } from "solid-intlayer";
    
    const MyComponent = () => {
      const content = useIntlayer("my-content");
    
      return (
        <div>
          {/* Renders as HTML via MarkdownProvider */}
          {content.markdownContent}
        </div>
      );
    };
    

    bash

    Copy content

    Copy code

    Copy the code to the clipboard

    npm run build # Or npm run dev
    

(Optional) Sitemap and robots.txt (build-time)

Intlayer includes formatters such as generateSitemap and getMultilingualUrls that produce crawler-ready multilingual sitemap.xml and robots.txt output you can write into your project’s public/ folder. In practice you run a small Node script before Vite (for example predev / prebuild npm hooks) so those files exist when you build or serve the app.

Sitemap

Intlayer’s sitemap generator respects your locale setup and includes the usual metadata for crawlers.

The generated sitemap supports the xhtml:link namespace (hreflang XML extensions). Unlike basic generators that only emit flat URLs, Intlayer wires bidirectional links between every localized variant of each page (for example /about, /fr/about, or /about?lang=fr, depending on your routing mode), which helps search engines relate localized URLs.

Robots.txt

Use getMultilingualUrls so Disallow entries cover every localized spelling of sensitive paths.

1. Add generate-seo.mjs at the project root

import fs from "fs";
import path from "path";
import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
import { generateSitemap, getMultilingualUrls } from "intlayer";

const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));

const SITE_URL = (process.env.SITE_URL || "http://localhost:5173").replace(
  /\/$/,
  ""
);

const pathList = [
  { path: "/", changefreq: "daily", priority: 1.0 },
  { path: "/about", changefreq: "monthly", priority: 0.7 },
];

const sitemapXml = generateSitemap(pathList, { siteUrl: SITE_URL });
fs.writeFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "public", "sitemap.xml"), sitemapXml);

const getAllMultilingualUrls = (urls) =>
  urls.flatMap((url) => Object.values(getMultilingualUrls(url)));

const disallowedPaths = getAllMultilingualUrls(["/admin", "/private"]);

const robotsTxt = [
  "User-agent: *",
  "Allow: /",
  ...disallowedPaths.map((path) => `Disallow: ${path}`),
  "",
  `Sitemap: ${SITE_URL}/sitemap.xml`,
].join("\n");

fs.writeFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "public", "robots.txt"), robotsTxt);

console.log("SEO files generated successfully.");

intlayer must be installed so the script can import it. Set SITE_URL in the environment for production (for example in CI).

Prefer generate-seo.mjs for Node ESM. If you use generate-seo.js instead, ensure "type": "module" is set in package.json, or run Node with ESM enabled.

2. Run the script before Vite

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "vite",
    "prebuild": "node generate-seo.mjs",
    "build": "vite build",
    "preview": "vite preview"
  }
}

Adjust if you use pnpm or yarn. You can also invoke the same script from CI or another step if that fits your workflow.

Configure TypeScript

Ensure your TypeScript configuration includes the autogenerated types.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ...
  },
  "include": ["src", ".intlayer/**/*.ts"],
}

Git Configuration

It is recommended to ignore the files generated by Intlayer. This allows you to avoid committing them to your Git repository.

To do this, you can add the following instructions to your .gitignore file:

# Ignore the files generated by Intlayer
.intlayer

VS Code Extension

To improve your development experience with Intlayer, you can install the official Intlayer VS Code Extension.

Install from the VS Code Marketplace

Go Further

To go further, you can implement the visual editor or externalise your content using the CMS.

Frequently Asked Questions