Localize UI labels using translation keys

Redocly projects include user interface (UI) elements with text labels. These labels can either be the default generated labels or configured labels added by users when defining elements such as the sidebars or the footer.

To localize UI labels, first you need to add keys to the user-defined UI elements, then copy them to a translations.yaml file and add the translations to each key. A translations.yaml file contains translation keys and localized labels for a specific language. These key-value pairs are used to translate different types of content, including the following:

• User-defined UI elements: Define and translate project labels by updating the sidebars.yaml or redocly.yaml files with the translation keys and including a translations.yaml file in each locale folder with the language specific key-value pairs.
• Base UI component labels: Translate base UI component labels by including a translations.yaml file in each locale folder with the language specific key-value pairs.
• Content on React pages: Define and translate content on React pages by creating the translation keys on the React page and including a translations.yaml file in each locale folder with the language specific key-value pairs.

Base UI component labels include predefined keys; however, you must create keys for all other types of content.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following:

• A Redocly project with a l10n folder containing your translated content organized into locales. See Set up folder structure and Add translated content for more information.

Localize base UI components

Each label from the components that come bundled with the project has a predefined translation key assigned to it. See l10n translation keys for a list of predefined translation keys available.

To localize the base UI components:

1. If you haven't already, add a translations.yaml file to each of your locale folders.
2. Copy and paste the l10n translation keys into each translations.yaml file in the locale folders.
3. Add the translated values for the translation keys.

For example, to translate the login button text to Spanish, use the following key value pair in your translations.yaml file in the es-ES subfolder:

userMenu.login: acceso

Localize user-defined UI elements

Some UI elements in your project support customizable configurations and can contain user-defined text, such as labels and titles. To be able to localize the text components of these elements, you must first create translation keys in their configuration files.

The user-defined UI elements that use translation keys are:

• navbar
• breadcrumbs
• search bar
• footer
• catalog
• user menu
• sidebars

Add translation keys to user-defined UI elements

Translation keys for most user-defined UI elements are included in the redocly.yaml configuration files. Sidebars are an exception and have their configuration in the sidebars.yaml files.

To add translation keys to user-defined elements:

1. Access an element's configuration in the redocly.yaml or sidebars.yaml files.
2. To each option that accepts translation keys, add a translation key option, as in the following example.
   redocly.yaml

   navbar:
     items:
       - label: Home
         page: /
       - group: Products
         groupTranslationKey:
         items:
           - page: /redocly-museum/
             label: Redocly Museum API
   footer:
     items:
       - groupTranslationKey:
         items:
           - label: Terms of Use
             labelTranslationKey: footer.legal.termsOfUse
             href: '/terms-of-use/'
   

   For more information on the types of keys an UI element uses, see Configure Redocly and navigate to the relevant reference documentation.
3. Add unique values to reference as translation keys to the translation key options, as in the following example:
   redocly.yaml

   navbar:
     items:
       - label: Home
         page: /
       - group: Products
         groupTranslationKey: navbar.products.label
         items:
           - page: /redocly-museum/
             label: Redocly Museum API
   footer:
     items:
       - groupTranslationKey: footer.legal.label
         items:
           - label: Terms of Use
             labelTranslationKey: footer.legal.termsOfUse
             href: '/terms-of-use/'
   

The following is an example of redocly.yaml file that includes the groupTranslationKey and labelTranslationKey properties alongside the group and label properties for navbar and footer links:

navbar:
  items:
    - label: Home
      page: /
    - group: Products
      groupTranslationKey: navbar.products.label
      items:
        - page: /redocly-museum/
          label: Redocly Museum API
footer:
  items:
    - groupTranslationKey: footer.legal.label
      items:
        - label: Terms of Use
          labelTranslationKey: footer.legal.termsOfUse
          href: '/terms-of-use/'

The following example is a sidebar with translation keys added to each group, label, and separator:

    - group: Getting Started
      groupTranslationKey: sidebar.gettingStarted
      items:
        - separator: My separators
          separatorTranslationKey: sidebar.gettingStarted.separator
        - group: Introduction
          groupTranslationKey: sidebar.gettingStarted.introduction
          separatorLine: true
          items:
            - page: index.md
              label: First steps
              labelTranslationKey: sidebar.gettingStarted.first-steps
    - page: overview.md
      label: Installation
      labelTranslationKey: sidebar.installation

Localize user-defined UI elements

1. If you haven't already, add a translations.yaml file to each of your locale folders.
2. Find the options that end with TranslationKey in your project's redocly.yaml and sidebars.yaml files, such as the following options: groupTranslationKey, labelTranslationKey titleTranslationKey and descriptionTranslationKey, separatorTranslationKey and missingCategoryNameTranslationKey.
3. Copy the values of these options to each locale folder's translations.yaml file, as in the following example:
   translations.yaml

   navbar.home:
   navbar.products.label:
   navbar.products.redocly-museum:
   footer.legal.label:
   footer.legal.termsOfUse:
   

4. For each copied translation key value, add a translated text, as in the following example:
   /@l10n/es/translations.yaml

   navbar.home: página de inicio
   navbar.products.label: productos
   navbar.products.redocly-museum: Redocly Museo
   footer.legal.label: Legal
   footer.legal.termsOfUse: Condiciones de uso
   

The following example is a translations.yaml file for the Spanish language with the key-value pairs for the navbar, footer, and sidebar elements:

navbar.home: página de inicio
navbar.products.label: productos
navbar.products.redocly-museum: Redocly Museo
footer.legal.label: Legal
footer.legal.termsOfUse: Condiciones de uso
sidebar.gettingStarted: Commencer
sidebar.gettingStarted.separator: Mes séparateurs
sidebar.gettingStarted.introduction: Introduction
sidebar.gettingStarted.first-steps: Premiers pas
sidebar.installation: Installation

Localize React pages

You must create translations keys in the React file before you can assign it a language specific value in the translations.yaml file.

To translate content in React pages, use the useTranslate hook by importing it from @redocly/theme/core/hooks. This hook returns a translate function which accepts the following two arguments:

• a translation key
• a default value which is used when a translation is missing

The following is an example of a React page with a translated heading 1:

import React from 'react';

import { useTranslate } from '@redocly/theme/core/hooks';

export default function () {
  const { translate } = useTranslate();
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{translate('react-page.heading', 'This is default fallback text!')}</h1>
    </div>
  );
}

The heading on the example React page includes the same text for all languages by default, "This is default fallback text!". To translate it to different languages, add the key react-page.heading to the respective translations.yaml files, as in the following example for a Spanish translation:

react-page.heading: ¡Este es un texto traducido!

Change the built-in UI labels

Redocly projects come with a set of built-in UI labels in US English. You can configure a translations.yaml file to override these labels, accomplishing the following goals:

• Adjust the UI text to better suit your project (for example, change "Login" to "Sign in").
• Change the language used in the UI, without adding a language picker.

To change the built-in UI labels:

1. Add a translations.yaml file to the root of your project.
2. Copy and paste the l10n translation keys to the file.
3. Add your customized values for the translation keys.
4. Commit your changes.

The following is an example translations.yaml file that if included in the root of your project, changes the label of the login button to "Sign in":

userMenu.login: Sign in

Alternatively, you can change the labels in the default UI components, by ejecting the components you want to change.

Find translation keys using your browser

Your browser's developer tools can help you identify which translation keys to use. These tools allow you to inspect HTML elements and see which translation keys are applied.

To find translation keys using browser developer tools:

1. Right-click the page element that you want to find the translation key for and click Inspect element. The browser opens developer tools with the element highlighted in the Elements tab.
2. In the code of the highlighted element, locate the data-translation-key property. The translation key is the value of the data-translation-key property. In some cases you might need to drill down the code nested in the selected element.

Now you can add the key to the translations.yaml file and use it to localize or customize your project.

Resources

• Find the next steps to add localization to your project in Configure localization.
• Learn how to localize your content files in Add translated content.