Managing Multilingual Content in Laravel: Exploring Strategies for Dynamic Content Translations

Introduction

As businesses expand globally, the need to support multiple languages becomes increasingly important. One of the key challenges in implementing?multilingual support?is managing?dynamic content translations, such as product names, descriptions, and other user-generated content. There are several strategies for handling dynamic content translations, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this article, we'll explore the most common approaches to dynamic content translations, including storing translations in the same table, using?JSON format, and storing translatable information in a separate table.?

?By understanding the pros and cons of each approach, you can make an informed decision about the best way to handle dynamic content translations for your application.

Assumptions

• This article assumes that you have a basic understanding of?the Laravel framework, including how to connect to a database and perform basic?CRUD?(Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.
• While this article will provide an overview of the most common approaches to dynamic content translations, it is not meant to be an exhaustive guide. The best approach for your specific needs will depend on factors such as the size of your application, the number of languages you need to support, and your?performance requirements.
• We will assume a very simple scenario of storing blogs in multiple languages, where a blog has the following attributes: id - title - summary - content - poster_image.

Strategies

As we stated earlier, this article will discuss three different strategies for handling our problem:

• Storing translations in the same table using different columns for each attribute and each language
• Storing translations in the same table using one column for each attribute using JSON
• Storing translatable attributes in a separate table, and keeping the non-translatable attributes in the original table

Let's discuss them, one by one.

Storing translations in the same table using different columns for each attribute and each language

In this approach, each translatable attribute of a record?is stored in a separate column, and each language is represented by a separate column for each attribute.

For example, you might have columns for "title_en" and "title_ar" to store the product name in English and Arabic, respectively.

Advantages

The advantage of this approach is that it allows for efficient querying and indexing of data in a single table because you will only retrieve an atomic value from the database, no joins or parsing operations are further needed.

Disadvantages

This approach can also lead to a large number of columns and a more complex schema. It may also be more difficult to maintain data consistency across languages, as updates to one language may need to be manually replicated across all other language columns.

Say that you have (N) translatable attribute and (M) language you want to support, this means that for each attribute you will need (M) different columns to represent all its translations, and it can be safely said that you will have (M * N) columns to represent translations, so if you have 4 translatable attributes and 10 languages to support, you will need 40 columns to represent all translations of all attributes.

Scalability here can also become a headache because each time you have to support a new language you will end up looping over all the tables and manually adding new columns to each one.

Storing translations in the same table using one column for each attribute using JSON

This approach involves serializing the translations of a particular column as a?JSON object?and storing it within the same column. To access a particular translation, the entire JSON object is retrieved and then deserialized to obtain the translation in the required language.

For example, the translations of the title attribute can be represented using the following JSON object:

{
    "ar" : "?????? ??????? !",
    "en" : "Hello World !",
    "ru" : "Привет, мир !" 
}        

This object then is serialized, then it gets stored within the title attribute.

Advantages

• Flexible schema: Since JSON is a?schemaless data format, storing translations as a JSON string can provide greater flexibility to your application's data model. You don't have to define a specific schema for the?translation data, which can make it easier to add new languages or?translation keys?without modifying the?database schema.
• Easy to store and retrieve: Storing translations as a JSON string allows you to easily store and retrieve them from the database. You can simply use a TEXT or VARCHAR column to store the JSON string, and then use?SQL queries?to retrieve the necessary translation data.
• High-performance for retrieval: Since all translations live in the same table, there's no need to join any other table for the same purpose.

Disadvantages

• Limited search and?filtering capabilities:?Storing translations?as JSON?strings can limit the search and filtering capabilities of your application. Since the?translation data?is stored as a single string, it can be difficult to search and filter the data based on specific criteria. This can make it challenging to find and update specific translations, particularly in larger applications with many?translation keys.
• Limited validation: Storing translations as JSON strings can also limit the validation capabilities of your application. Since JSON is a schema-less format, it can be difficult to ensure that the translation data is properly formatted and validated before it is stored in the database. This can increase the risk of errors or inconsistencies in the translation data.
• Limited scalability: As your application grows and the number of translation keys and languages increases, storing translations as JSON strings in database tables can become less scalable. The amount of data that needs to be stored and retrieved can become unwieldy, which can affect the performance of your application.
• Limited support?for complex data types: JSON supports a wide range of data types, but it may not be suitable for storing?complex data structures?or binary data. If your translation data includes complex structures or binary data, you may need to consider an alternative data storage format.

There are also other disadvantages that are related to MySQL and PHP, for example:

• Partial retrieval of translation for a single language isn't possible: you can't retrieve only a single translation from the serialized JSON object in one hit, you must retrieve the whole JSON object (even with translations you don't need), then you should deserialize it and access the translation you want. This can bring a very bad impact on performance and memory usage, and you're often retrieving data you will not use in the current instance.

Package

In Laravel, the laravel-translatable package by spatie offers translation functionality for eloquent models through this strategy, you can take a look at the package here: https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-translatable/v6/introduction

Storing translatable attributes in a separate table, and keeping the non-translatable attributes in the original table

In this approach, the?translatable attributes?are stored in a separate table (often called a "translation table"), which typically has a structure that includes a?language code, a unique identifier for the original record in the primary table, and the translated value of the attribute.

This allows the application to easily retrieve and display the appropriate translation based on the user's language preference, without having to store redundant copies of the entire record for each language.

Meanwhile, the non-translatable attributes are stored in the original table, which typically contains other data that is not subject to translation.

The translations table maintains a locale attribute to determine the language to which the translation entry belongs, and a foreign key to link with the parent table.

Advantages

• Easy maintenance: Separating the translatable attributes into a separate table can make it easier to maintain the application. When new translations are added or existing translations are updated, only the translation table needs to be modified, rather than updating multiple copies of the same record in the original table.
• Better performance: Because the translated attributes are stored in a separate table, the original table can be queried more efficiently, which can improve performance. This is particularly true when only the non-translatable attributes are needed for a particular query.
• Easier to scale: As the application grows and more languages are added, this approach can make it easier to scale the application. Adding a new language involves only adding another record to the translation table, rather than duplicating the entire record in the original table for each language.
• Simplifies database design: Separating translatable attributes into a separate table can simplify the overall database design by reducing the number of columns in the original table. This can make it easier to manage the data and reduce the risk of errors.
• Enables dynamic loading of translations: Separating translations into a separate table can enable the dynamic loading of translations in the application. This means that translations can be loaded on the fly, rather than having to pre-load all translations at application startup.
• Only needed translations are retrieved: Storing translatable attributes in a separate table can bring a significant?performance benefit, as the final result typically involves a?JOIN operation?between the original table and the corresponding row in the translations table for the requested language(s), rather than autoloading all translations. This approach can help to reduce?memory usage?and improve?overall application performance, especially in scenarios where the data volume is large. By retrieving only the necessary translations for a given language, the application can more efficiently manage the data and provide a faster response to?user requests.

Disadvantages

• Difficulty in managing multiple versions of translations: Separating translations into a separate table can make it more difficult to manage multiple versions of translations, such as when different translations are required for different regions. This can be challenging to manage, especially when there are many different versions of the same translation.
• Increased storage requirements: Separating translations into a separate table can also increase the storage requirements of the database, as additional tables and indexes may be needed to manage the translations. This can be a concern in applications with limited storage capacity or those that are expected to scale rapidly.
• Difficulty in maintaining referential integrity: Separating translations into a separate table can make it more difficult to maintain referential integrity between the original table and the translation table. For example, if a record is deleted from the original table, it may be necessary to also delete the corresponding translation records to avoid data inconsistencies. This can be challenging to manage, especially in large databases with many foreign key relationships.

Package

In Laravel, the laravel-translatable package by astrotomic offers translation functionality for eloquent models through this strategy, you can take a look at the package here: https://docs.astrotomic.info/laravel-translatable/

Conclusion

In conclusion, managing multilingual content in Laravel is an essential aspect of creating applications that cater to a global audience. Dynamic content translations, such as product names and descriptions, pose significant challenges to developers. However, there are various strategies available to handle these translations, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the best approach for your application requires an understanding of the specific needs and requirements of your project. By carefully considering the pros and cons of each approach, you can make an?informed decision?that will ensure effective management of?dynamic content translations?in your Laravel application. Ultimately, incorporating effective?multilingual support?into your application can enhance?user experience?and help your business thrive in a global market.