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Handling Localization in Hygraph

This post takes a closer look at how Localization works in the Hygraph UI and how to build modern digital products with native localization.
Emily Nielsen

Written by Emily 

Feb 24, 2021
Localization in Hygraph

At Hygraph we have a broad range of content that can help teams enable localization. This post is intended to be a broad overview of what localization is and how it works within Hygraph. We will give you some tips on best practices and suggestions on where to look if your team does not offer in-house localization. We take a look at the difference between localization and internationalization in this blog post which will be a good place to start if you are new to the idea.

#How does Hygraph approach localization?

Hygraph has a native content localization API which can allow teams to publish content in one, several, or all of a project’s locales. This means if a team anticipates that they want to localize content, they can begin with the internationalization step and create the infrastructure under-the-hood to allow for simple localization. When a team has the capacity to create content using multiple locales, then it is easy to enable existing locales or even add new locales. Teams have the flexibility to plan ahead while also not being tied down to plans far in the future.

We highly recommend that teams that are planning to work with multiple locales in the long run build their project with two locales in Hygraph. This will help you model content with the localized mindset rather than having to fine tune content models later when trying to add locales.

If your team is ready to implement localization from the start of the project, then it is even easier. Developers will be able to build localized content models when building the schema in Hygraph. Our localization is granular, meaning that you can choose exactly what gets localized, down to an individual field level..

For more information for developers on how to implement localizations, take a look at our documentation for localizations.

#Tips and tricks for working with Locales in Hygraph

There are lots of possibilities when working with locales in Hygraph that are easier than they may first appear. Here we take a deep dive into several of them:

Locales can be created via the UI or programmatically

To enable a project to have locales to the project via the UI, developers can add, edit, remove locales under the locales options in settings. Here project admins are able to create the locales available for that project.

Locales creation.png

Developers can then choose which fields will be localized via the Hygraph schema editor. When adding new fields to the schema, at the bottom of the field will be a [localize field] check box.

Localize Field.png

Locales can also be added, edited, and deleted via the Mutations API. (Check out the documentation on Localizations for a guide on how to do that.) If teams are migrating existing content to Hygraph, it can be easier to add content programmatically. Or simply some developers just prefer it!

Enabling Locales can be done via the UI

document information sidebar.png

To enable a new locale for content entry, content editors simply click the :Create item +: then on the Document Information sidebar, click the plus sign for the additional locale you wish to add. You can also disable a locale via this button. If a locale is disabled and a content editor saves the progress, the content for the disabled locale will be lost. Consider adding Versions to your project to prevent losing any data accidentally.

Localized content can be added, edited via the UI or programmatically as well

Just like creating locales, creating localized content can be created via the UI, or programmatically. Via the UI it is simple for content editors to add content to each locale. Each field will list the different locales where content editors to input content.

localized fields.png

Once you have finished adding content to a specific field, you can press the arrow to the left of the field name to collapse the field for a cleaner UI.

To check out how to add localized content programmatically via the Mutations API, take a look at our documentation on Localization. This can be helpful for teams using an external translation service for locales.

Hide Locales you aren’t working on for a clean UI

It is very common for a content editor to only be responsible for a single content locale. To make content entry simpler and keep the UI cleaner, a content editor can hide locales they are not currently working on. The data will be retained; however, it will no longer be displayed in the UI To hide a locale, simply press the :eye: in the Document Information Sidebar.

document information sidebar.png

#Localized Assets

Assets in Hygraph are localized by default.

Localized assets work a little bit differently than the other field types. In order to create localized assets, which is to say that different assets will be published based on the final localized frontend, you must select within the asset picker which locale will be used for the asset. You must first start with the asset for the default locale before any other localized assets can be created.

localized assets.png

If localized assets are not added, then the fallback (default locale) asset will be served where applicable.

Explore more on this on our Assets docs.

#Workflows with Localization

Teams have a couple of options when it comes to content localization. Team members can manually add localized content via the UI. It can also be added programmatically via the Mutations API. This can be helpful for teams using an external translation service and wish to easily access the updated data. Some API-first localization services which can help with translation and the localization process we can recommend are Smartling and Lilt. In the future, we will be able to easily connect these services to Hygraph via UI extensions. These services can help teams that don’t yet have the capacity to localize content within their team to be able to provide a localized experience to their users.

When working with multiple locales, it is pretty common for content creators to first start with one locale and then move on to a second, third locale. In order to make it possible for a content entry to have content published while another locale is in progress, Hygraph makes it possible to publish content based on locale. Locale based publishing allows for content in one locale to be in the published stage while another locale’s content is still in the draft stage. This makes it possible for multiple people to make changes to content, to publish content as soon as one locale is ready, and give the team all around more flexibility than without it. To learn more about locale based publishing, check out our blog post that takes a closer look at the issue.

Localization is essential for any digital product that wants to compete on a global scale. Hygraph gives you the user friendly foundations to easily internationalize their schema and localize their content.

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Emily Nielsen

Emily Nielsen

Emily manages content and SEO at Hygraph. In her free time, she's a restaurant lover and oat milk skeptic.

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