Choose the Language of Your Choice in Rails Mobile App!

Within a couple of years, the industry of mobile app development in UAE has affected different industries in a major way. However, if I talk about building your own app for the first time, then it is crucial to perform a proper research. One of the primary things you need to focus is your target user base. In the present arena, organizations are wishing to attain a global existence for their web or mobile based applications rather covering their regional market.

Today, in this write-up, I am going to share the feature of multi-language support that is an essential functionality, in order to reach an international audience via your digital service or product. Also, I will guide you for adding the multi-language support in your rails application.

Overview of App Internationalization

App internationalization can be categorized as a renowned traditional method among app developers. This allows you to access a mobile app in multiple languages. This process is quite useful in increasing your business reach across the globe and to reach users regardless of the language barriers. The method is quite crucial and helps you to get the proper outcomes. 

Method to Localize Your Static Content

To localize the static content, it is suggested to utilize the built-in Ruby I18n framework. This standard framework can be utilized to translate the text of mobile applications. Follow these below-mentioned steps, in order to do so:

Step 1:  Go for Default Configuration

Set a default locale and translate the load paths and define the existing locales in config/initializers/locales.rb. In this step, the default locale refers to the locale, which is set in an automatic manner unless a dissimilar locale is noticed by the app developer or system. Moreover, English is the default locale on rails l18n gem.

·         Step 2: Check the locales

Now, check a locale to support numerous locales, such as :de, :en, :pt etc. With the help of these locales, it is possible to reach multiple regions. You should put the locale of your app at the starting of each direct request, which is being forwarded to your website or web app, in order to make sure that all the strings are translated utilizing their individual locale throughout the lifecycle of an individual request. You can pick any of these approaches, in order to do so:

a)     Set a locale through the domain name and set the locale through the name of a top domain or a sub domain. The locale acts as a key component of the URL of web application and beneficial for Search Engine Optimization. Along with this, the programmer even has the choice for translating the hostname to end-user’s native language in a direct manner. In order to execute this step, store the app hosts in config/application.rb file. After this, the web app developer gets URLs like https://pt.application.com, https://de.application.com and https://en.application.com.

b)     Set a particular locale by using URL parameters. Make sure that the path to the service seems same. Set a particular locale by using of URL parameters.

c)      In this step, store an individual locale in the path. Nevertheless, while saving the process of a locale, the URL of your mobile app will appear alike to this:

ü  For German locale:  https://www.application.com/de/cats

ü  For French locale: https://www.application.com/fr/cats

In order to make this work, add a pair of lines of code to config/routes.rb:

scope "(:locale)", locale: /#{I18n.available_locales.join("|")}/ do

resources :cats

end

Step 3: For Enabling Automatic Locale Detection

You can set it with the help of Set a locale on the Basis of App User’s Location. Use geolocation, powered by geocoder.gem to do user’s locale recognition. As soon as you do this, the app will put the language, which is defined for this definite location. The Geocoder is useful to add the location, as well as safe location approaches to the Rack::Request object, in order to make the HTTP location request via IP address at a quicker pace.

# returns Geocoder::Result object

result = request.location

Step 4: For Organizing the Translation Files

In the procedure of rails app development, it is possible to store every static string in plain Ruby (.rb) or in YAML (.yml) files. However, generally the Ruby on Rails app developers utilizes YAML for the similar purpose. This tactic has a main drawback, which is *.yml files are extremely responsive to whitespace, as well as special characters that may even generate key problems in the code.

All-in-All