---
id: introduction
slug: /i18n/introduction
---

# i18n - Introduction

It is **easy to translate a Docusaurus website** with its internationalization ([i18n](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization)) support.

## Goals {#goals}

It is important to understand the **design decisions** behind the Docusaurus i18n support.

For more context, you can read the initial [RFC](https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/issues/3317) and [PR](https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/pull/3325).

### i18n goals {#i18n-goals}

The goals of the Docusaurus i18n system are:

- **Simple**: just put the translated files in the correct filesystem location
- **Flexible translation workflows**: use Git (monorepo, forks, or submodules), SaaS software, FTP
- **Flexible deployment options**: single, multiple domains, or hybrid
- **Modular**: allow plugin authors to provide i18n support
- **Low-overhead runtime**: documentation is mostly static and does not require heavy JS libraries or polyfills
- **Scalable build-times**: allow building and deploying localized sites independently
- **Localize assets**: an image of your site might contain text that should be translated
- **No coupling**: not forced to use any SaaS, yet integrations are possible
- **Easy to use with [Crowdin](https://crowdin.com/)**: a lot of Docusaurus v1 sites use Crowdin and should be able to migrate to v2
- **Good SEO defaults**: we set useful SEO headers like [`hreflang`](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/localized-versions) for you
- **RTL support**: locales reading right-to-left (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.) are supported and easy to implement
- **Default translations**: classic theme labels are translated for you in [many languages](https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/tree/main/packages/docusaurus-theme-translations/locales)

### i18n non-goals {#i18n-non-goals}

We don't provide support for:

- **Automatic locale detection**: opinionated, and best done on the [server (your hosting provider)](../deployment.mdx)
- **Translation SaaS software**: you are responsible to understand the external tools of your choice
- **Translation of slugs**: technically complicated, little SEO value

## Translation workflow {#translation-workflow}

### Overview {#overview}

Overview of the workflow to create a translated Docusaurus website:

1. **Configure**: declare the default locale and alternative locales in `docusaurus.config.js`
2. **Translate**: put the translation files at the correct filesystem location
3. **Deploy**: build and deploy your site using a single or multi-domain strategy

### Translation files {#translation-files}

You will work with three kinds of translation files.

#### Markdown files {#markdown-files}

This is the main content of your Docusaurus website.

Markdown and MDX documents are translated as a whole, to fully preserve the translation context, instead of splitting each sentence as a separate string.

#### JSON files {#json-files}

JSON is used to translate:

- Your React code: standalone React pages in `src/pages`, or other components
- Layout labels provided through `themeConfig`: navbar, footer
- Layout labels provided through plugin options: docs sidebar category labels, blog sidebar title...

The JSON format used is called **Chrome i18n**:

```json
{
  "myTranslationKey1": {
    "message": "Translated message 1",
    "description": "myTranslationKey1 is used on the homepage"
  },
  "myTranslationKey2": {
    "message": "Translated message 2",
    "description": "myTranslationKey2 is used on the FAQ page"
  }
}
```

The choice was made for 2 reasons:

- **Description attribute**: to help translators with additional context
- **Widely supported**: [Chrome extensions](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv2/i18n-messages/), [Crowdin](https://support.crowdin.com/file-formats/chrome-json/), [Transifex](https://docs.transifex.com/formats/chrome-json), [Phrase](https://help.phrase.com/help/chrome-json-messages), [Applanga](https://www.applanga.com/docs/formats/chrome_i18n_json), etc.

#### Data files {#data-files}

Some plugins may read from external data files that are localized as a whole. For example, the blog plugin uses an [`authors.yml`](../blog.mdx#global-authors) file that can be translated by creating a copy under `i18n/[locale]/docusaurus-plugin-content-blog/authors.yml`.

### Translation files location {#translation-files-location}

The translation files should be created at the correct filesystem location.

Each locale and plugin has its own `i18n` subfolder:

```
website/i18n/[locale]/[pluginName]/...
```

:::note

For multi-instance plugins, the path is `website/i18n/[locale]/[pluginName]-[pluginId]/...`.

:::

Translating a very simple Docusaurus site in French would lead to the following tree:

```bash
website/i18n
└── fr
    ├── code.json  # Any text label present in the React code
    │              # Includes text labels from the themes' code
    ├── docusaurus-plugin-content-blog # translation data the blog plugin needs
    │   └── 2020-01-01-hello.md
    │
    ├── docusaurus-plugin-content-docs # translation data the docs plugin needs
    │   ├── current
    │   │   ├── doc1.md
    │   │   └── doc2.mdx
    │   └── current.json
    │
    └── docusaurus-theme-classic # translation data the classic theme needs
        ├── footer.json   # Text labels in your footer theme config
        └── navbar.json   # Text labels in your navbar theme config
```

The JSON files are initialized with the [`docusaurus write-translations`](../cli.md#docusaurus-write-translations-sitedir) CLI command. Each plugin sources its own translated content under the corresponding folder, while the `code.json` file defines all text labels used in the React code.

Each content plugin or theme is different, and **defines its own translation files location**:

- [Docs i18n](../api/plugins/plugin-content-docs.md#i18n)
- [Blog i18n](../api/plugins/plugin-content-blog.md#i18n)
- [Pages i18n](../api/plugins/plugin-content-pages.md#i18n)
- [Themes i18n](../api/themes/theme-configuration.md#i18n)
