i18next VS Next.js

For this article, we'll leverage the 'Simple CRM' project from our previous list of projects. We'll integrate and utilize the i18n library to internationalize our application.

When starting a new project with Next.js these days, next-intl and zod are my go to libraries for internationalization and schema validation, respectively. Of course, when using zod for client-facing validations I would like to translate potential error messages. The package zod-i18n can be used to achieve this for i18next, a popular alternative internationalization library. This means that by using this library as starting point one can quickly achieve zod translation with next-intl.

The best way to implement internationalization is to use an internationalization framework library, such as i18next. With this kind of library, you can easily handle translations and automatically display your frontend labels in the user's language. The frontend application also needs to be flexible and easily configurable so that its layout can change accordingly, reading from left to right or right to left. CSS allows this with the rtl and ltr CSS direction property.

For reference, I am using i18next for providing translations, which is configured to use the english message string as a key for the translations and fallback to it if no translation is found in the chosen language. I also use the official svelte-i18next integration. It wraps the i18next object in a Svelte store and, among other things, provides reactivity when the language is changed.

// app/components/BuiltInFormatsDemo.tsx 'use client'; import React from 'react'; import {useTranslation} from '../i18n/client'; import type {LocaleTypes} from '../i18n/settings'; import {useParams} from 'next/navigation'; const BuiltInFormatsDemo = () => { let locale = useParams()?.locale as LocaleTypes; const {t} = useTranslation(locale, 'built-in-demo'); return (

{/* "number": "Number: {{val, number}}", */} {t('number', { val: 123456789.0123, })} p>

{/* "currency": "Currency: {{val, currency}}", */} {t('currency', { val: 123456789.0123, style: 'currency', currency: 'USD', })} p>

{/* "dateTime": "Date/Time: {{val, datetime}}", */} {t('dateTime', { val: new Date(1234567890123), formatParams: { val: { weekday: 'long', year: 'numeric', month: 'long', day: 'numeric', }, }, })} p>

{/* "relativeTime": "Relative Time: {{val, relativetime}}", */} {t('relativeTime', { val: 12, style: 'long', })} p>

{/* "list": "List: {{val, list}}", */} {t('list', { // https://www.i18next.com/translation-function/objects-and-arrays#objects // Check the link for more details on `returnObjects` val: t('weekdays', {returnObjects: true}), })} p> div> ); }; export default BuiltInFormatsDemo;

As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, the development of web applications that cater to a global audience takes precedence among developers. If you're a TypeScript developer, you're likely acquainted with the advantages of static typing and the assurance it provides in your codebase. When it comes to internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n), maintaining the same level of type safety becomes crucial. This is precisely where i18next, an influential i18n framework, enters the picture.

check i18next

In this article, we will go over how to perform internationalisation in our react app using the i18next framework. I18next is an internationalisation framework written in JavaScript. It comes with everything you need to localise your web, desktop or mobile product such as user language detection, loading and caching translations, and file conversion etc More features can be found in their documentation. (https://www.i18next.com/)

Luckily this is a well-solved problem: https://www.i18next.com/

I am so sorry for all the people using https://www.i18next.com/ and manually defining string ids. Fuck that. I will never write another message id in my life.

https://github.com/vercel/next.js/discussions/27666 One of them said 'renaming folder to uppercase' might cause trouble. git might not recognize case-sensetive changes by default.

Next.js has long cemented itself as one of the front runners in the web framework world for JavaScript/TypeScript projects so we’re going to be using that. More specifically we’re going to be using V14 of Next.js which allows us to use some exciting new features like Server Actions and the App Router.

Web frameworks like Next.js will usually include this feature, but do check that they set the caching headers correctly!

Vite and Next.js are both top 5 modern development framework right now. They are both great depending on your use case so we’ll discuss 4 areas: Architecture, main features, developer experience and production readiness. After learning about these we’ll have a better idea of which one is best for your project.

> It’s important to be aware of what you are getting if you go with React, and what you are getting is a far cry from what a framework would offer, with all the corresponding pros and cons.

Would you like to elaborate on that?

In my experience, with something as great, size/ecosystem-wise as React, there will almost always be at least one "mainstream" package for whatever you might want to do with it, that integrates pretty well. Where a lot of things might come out of the box with a framework, with a library I often find myself just needing to install the "right" package, and from there it's pretty much the same.

For example, using https://angular.io/guide/i18n-overview or installing and using https://react.i18next.com/

Or something like https://angular.io/guide/form-validation out of the box, vs installing and using https://formik.org/

Or perhaps https://angular.io/guide/router vs https://reactrouter.com/en/main

Even adding something that's not there out of the box is pretty much the same, like https://primeng.org/ or https://primereact.org/

React will typically have more fragmentation and therefore also choice, but I don't see those two experiences as that different. Updates and version management/supply chain will inevitably be more of a mess with the library, admittedly.

Now, projects like Next https://nextjs.org/ exist and add what some might regard as the missing pieces and work well if you want something opinionated and with lots of features out of the box, but a lot of those features (like SSR) are actually pretty advanced and not always even necessary.

Next.js: For the website and the admin dashboard

Until the time of writing, there is no official example of how to enable runtime environmental variables in a Dockerized Next.js app, as utilizing unstable_noStore would only dynamically evaluate variables on the server (node.js runtime). There is also an interesting discussion regarding this topic on GitHub.

next.js is a very popular React framework. remix-adonisjs includes more functionality through the AdonisJS backend ecosystem, and should be easier to self-host and self-manage.

Cheryl Murphy is not only a dedicated full-stack web developer skilled in technologies like React, Next.js, and NestJs but also a community-driven professional who recently took on the role of volunteer project team lead at Web Dev Path. With a dual Bachelor's degree in Computing and Chemical Engineering from Monash University, Cheryl’s journey in tech is marked by a passion for building accessible solutions and a commitment to fostering community within tech.

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