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Languages ​

Configuring languages ​

php
// config/app.php
'language' => 'en',                                        // default: no URL prefix
'languages' => [
    'en' => ['name' => 'English', 'locale' => 'en_US'],
    'it' => ['name' => 'Italiano', 'locale' => 'it_IT'],   // served under /it/
],
  • language is the default language. It has no URL prefix: /blog.
  • Every other language in languages is prefixed with its code: /it/blog.
  • name is shown in the language switcher; locale is used for og:locale, dates and plurals.

An Italian-only site sets 'language' => 'it' and lists only it. Adding English later puts it under /en/… without changing any existing URL.

URLs ​

RequestResult
/blogthe default language
/it/blogItalian (routed as /blog)
/en/blog (English is the default)301 redirect to /blog
/italynot a language prefix: routed as /italy

Routes are declared once, without a prefix. path() returns paths in the current language, and Datastar requests carry it too, so links never fall out of the visitor's language.

The site object ​

$app->site in PHP and site in Twig hold the languages and the current one:

twig
<html lang="{{ site.language }}">           {# "it" #}
{{ post.date|format_date('long', locale: site.locale) }}   {# "20 settembre 2026" #}
site.languagecurrent language code
site.localecurrent locale, e.g. it_IT
site.defaultLanguagethe default language
site.languagesevery configured language

Translating texts ​

UI texts live in translations/<code>.php, which returns [text => translation]. Write the texts in your templates' language and wrap them:

twig
{{ 'Load more'|t }}
{{ '{shown} of {total} posts'|t({shown: 20, total: 45}) }}
{{ t('Blog') }}
php
// translations/it.php
return [
    'Load more' => 'Carica altri',
    '{shown} of {total} posts' => '{shown} di {total, plural, one {# articolo} other {# articoli}}',
];

In PHP: $this->t('Post not found.') in controllers, $app->t(…) elsewhere.

Messages use ICU MessageFormat through symfony/translation, so placeholders ({name}) and plurals work in every language.

A missing translation shows the text itself, never another language. On an Italian-default site with English templates, a text missing from en.php stays English. So the templates' own language file only needs entries whose wording differs, or plural forms.

In production, translations are compiled into var/cache/translations by deploy.

The language switcher ​

twig
{% for language in language_switcher() %}
    <a href="{{ language.url }}"{% if language.active %} aria-current="true"{% endif %}>{{ language.name }}</a>
{% endfor %}

Each entry has code, name, url, active and available. The site's version is in templates/_partials/language-switcher.twig and shows only when there's more than one language.

On pages that exist in only some languages (a post with one translation, page 3 of a blog that's shorter in Italian), controllers declare the existing versions:

php
$this->app->site->setAlternates(
    ['en' => '/blog/beta'],     // where this page exists
    ['it' => '/it/blog'],       // where to send the other languages instead
);

The switcher then marks the other languages as unavailable and links them to the fallback, and hreflang lists only the existing versions.

The site's name, description and share image ​

In config/app.php, each site value is either the same for every language or a map per language:

php
'site' => [
    'name' => 'TinyTank',
    'description' => [
        'en' => 'A database-free PHP micro framework for static-like dynamic sites.',
        'it' => 'Un micro framework PHP senza database per siti dinamici veloci come quelli statici.',
    ],
    'image' => ['en' => '/images/share.en.png', 'it' => '/images/share.it.png'],
    'author' => null,
],

They follow the page's language everywhere: titles (About · TinyTank), the meta description, Open Graph, JSON-LD, the feed's title and subtitle, and site.name / site.description in templates ($this->app->site->name() in PHP).

A language missing from a map uses the default language's value; null in a map means "none in this language" (for example, no share image). A map must include the default language, and only list configured languages: anything else stops the site at boot.

What's translated ​

UI texts, dates, error pages, blog posts, pages, collections and their URLs, the site's name and description, feeds, <html lang>, og:locale and hreflang.

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