HowTo - Set up stores with multiple locales

This article describes the steps you need to consider when you have to set up stores with multiple locales.

Configure locales for store

The stores configuration can be found in the config/Shared/stores.php file.

You can define a set of locales for each store. The first locale is the default one.

<?php
'locales' => 				
[
// first entry is default
	'en' => 'en_US',
	'de' => 'de_DE',
]

In the example above, the en key is associated with the en_US locale.

Route URLs for stores with multiple locales

In Yves, the key for the selected locale is contained in the URL; if no key is contained in the URL, the default locale is considered as the current one.

In Demoshop, for listing the current content of the cart, the following URLs are routed to the same controller and action:

Products with localized attributes

The details of the abstract products are stored localized in the spy_product_abstract_localized_attributes table. For each abstract product, there is an entry in this table that corresponds to each locale, containing the associated attributes for the defined locale.

Similar, the details of the concrete products are kept localized in the spy_product_localized_attributes table.

The localized attributes are loaded in the key-value data storage by the Collectors, so that the details can be rendered in Yves according to the selected locale.

The following details are stored localized in the Demoshop, for both abstract and concrete products:

• name
• short description
• long description

Import products with localized attributes

When importing product data in your application, you need to consider the list of locales that are defined for the store.

The CSV file containing the product data that needs to be imported must contain the name of the product for each locale:

name.en_US, name.de_DE

The CSV file that contains the attributes for the products to be imported must contain the short and long description for each locale:

• short_description.en_US, short_description.de_DE
• long_description.en_US, long_description.de_DE

Categories with localized attributes

The details of the categories are kept in the spy_category_attribute. For each category defined in the spy_category table, there is an entry for each defined locale containing the details of the category localized.

The attributes are loaded in the key-value data storage by the Collectors, so that the details can be rendered in Yves according to the selected locale.

The following category details are stored localized:

• meta_title
• meta_description
• category_image_name

Import categories with localized attributes

The product categories are imported through the Importer.

Similar to importing product data, you need to consider each locale defined in the application when importing the attributes for the categories.

The CSV file containing the product data that needs to be imported must contain the name of the product for each locale:

• category_name.en_US, category_name.de_DE
• low_pic.en_US, low_pic.de_DE
• category_description.en_US, category_description.de_DE

Import CMS blocks and pages

The CMS blocks and pages are able to render localized content through the use of placeholders. The placeholders have a glossary key associated; at runtime, the placeholder is replaced with the glossary value that corresponds to the current locale. Also, a static page will have a distinct URL for each locale defined in the application.

The CMS blocks and pages are imported through XML files. The structure of the XML file is very simple: it contains a list of blocks, each block has a template associated, a name and a list of placeholders for each locale.

Example

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<blocks>
	<block>
		<template>data_privacy</template>
		<blockName>data_privacy_block</blockName>
		<locales>
			<de_DE>
		<placeholders>
		<placeholder>
		<name>privacy_policy</name>
		<translation>Datenschutzerklärung</translation>
		</placeholder>
		</placeholders>
			</de_DE>
			<en_US>
		<placeholders>
		<placeholder>
		<name>privacy_policy</name>
		<translation>Data Privacy Policy</translation>
		</placeholder>
		</placeholders>
			</en_US>
		</locales>
	</block>
</blocks>

The XML file structure for loading static pages is similar to the one for importing blocks; the only differences are that a page has also a URL associated for each locale and it doesn’t have a name linked to it.

Code sample

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pages>
	<page>
		<template>data_privacy</template>
		<locales>
			<de_DE>
			<url>/de/datenschutz</url>
		<placeholders>
			<placeholder>
				<name>privacy_policy</name>
				<translation>Datenschutzerklärung</translation>
			</placeholder>
		</placeholders>
			</de_DE>
			<en_US>
				<url>/en/privacy</url>
		<placeholders>
			<placeholder>
				<name>privacy_policy</name>
				<translation>Data Privacy Policy</translation>
			</placeholder>
		</placeholders>
				</en_US>
				</locales>
	</page>
</pages>

Localized URLs

The spy_url table stores the URLs that correspond to:

• category pages
• product details pages
• static pages defined in CMS

For each category there is a distinct URL for each configured locale. Similar for product details pages. These URLs are automatically created and stored in the database when importing products and categories through the Importer.

The URLs assigned for each imported CMS static page are distinct for each defined locale.