How to prepare my Laravel project for i18n and localization?

Here are the basic steps to get started:

1. Set the Laravel application locale: In Laravel, you can set the application’s locale by modifying the config/app.php file. You’ll need to set the locale value to the language you want to use as the default for your application.
2. Create translation files: Laravel provides a simple way to manage translation strings by using language files. You can create language files for each language your application supports in the resources/lang directory. The files can be named according to the language code, such as en.php for English or fr.php for French. Or you can use folder structure such as resources/lang/en/welcome.php
3. Define translation strings: You can define translation strings inside each language file by creating an associative array. For applications with a large number of translatable strings, defining every string with a “short key” can become confusing when referencing the keys in your views, and it is cumbersome to continually invent keys for every translation string supported by your application. For this reason, Laravel also provides support for defining translation strings using the “default” translation of the string as the key.
4. Use translation strings in views and controllers: In your Laravel views and controllers, you can use the __() function to translate strings. The __() function takes the original string as its argument and returns the translated string based on the current application locale.
5. Switch locales dynamically: Laravel makes it easy to switch the application locale dynamically. You can use the App::setLocale() method to set the application locale based on user preferences or other factors.

That’s the basic process for localizing a Laravel project. You can use many other advanced features and techniques, but these steps should help you get started.

For more information, visit the official documentation at https://laravel.com/