I18n Patterns for Rails 8

Overview

Rails I18n provides internationalization support:

Translation lookups
Locale management
Date/time/currency formatting
Pluralization rules
Lazy lookups in views

Quick Start

# config/application.rb
config.i18n.default_locale = :en
config.i18n.available_locales = [:en, :fr, :de]
config.i18n.fallbacks = true

Project Structure

config/locales/
├── en.yml                    # English defaults
├── fr.yml                    # French defaults
├── models/
│   ├── en.yml               # Model translations (EN)
│   └── fr.yml               # Model translations (FR)
├── views/
│   ├── en.yml               # View translations (EN)
│   └── fr.yml               # View translations (FR)
├── mailers/
│   ├── en.yml               # Mailer translations (EN)
│   └── fr.yml               # Mailer translations (FR)
└── components/
    ├── en.yml               # Component translations (EN)
    └── fr.yml               # Component translations (FR)

Locale File Organization

Organize locale files by domain: models/, views/, mailers/, components/.

Models: activerecord.models, activerecord.attributes, activerecord.errors
Views: nested under controller name and action (e.g. events.index.title)
Shared: common.actions, common.messages, common.date.formats
Components: components.<component_name>.<key>

See locale-files.md for complete YAML examples for models, views, shared keys, and components.

Usage Patterns

Key Principles

Use lazy lookup in views: t(".title") resolves to "events.index.title"
Use _html suffix for strings containing HTML markup
Use I18n.l (localize) for dates, times, and numbers — not I18n.t
Use I18n.t with full key path in models, services, and presenters
Pass dynamic values via interpolation: t(".greeting", name: user.name)

In Views

<h1><%= t(".title") %></h1>
<%= link_to t(".new_event"), new_event_path %>
<p><%= t(".welcome", name: current_user.name) %></p>
<p><%= t(".intro_html", link: link_to("here", help_path)) %></p>

In Controllers

redirect_to @event, notice: t(".success")

In Models/Presenters

I18n.t("activerecord.attributes.event/statuses.#{status}")
I18n.l(event_date, format: :long)

See usage-patterns.md for full examples including presenters, components, date/currency formatting, and pluralization.

Locale Switching

URL-Based Locale

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  scope "(:locale)", locale: /en|fr|de/ do
    resources :events
  end
end

# app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  around_action :switch_locale

  private

  def switch_locale(&action)
    locale = params[:locale] || I18n.default_locale
    I18n.with_locale(locale, &action)
  end

  def default_url_options
    { locale: I18n.locale }
  end
end

User Preference Locale

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  around_action :switch_locale

  private

  def switch_locale(&action)
    locale = current_user&.locale || extract_locale_from_header || I18n.default_locale
    I18n.with_locale(locale, &action)
  end

  def extract_locale_from_header
    request.env['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']&.scan(/^[a-z]{2}/)&.first
  end
end

Testing I18n

Raise on missing translations in spec/rails_helper.rb
Use i18n-tasks gem to detect missing and unused keys
Write view translation specs to assert rendered content

See testing.md for complete spec examples and i18n-tasks configuration.

Best Practices

DO

# Use nested structure matching view paths
en:
  events:
    index:
      title: Events
    show:
      title: Event Details

# Use interpolation for dynamic content
en:
  greeting: "Hello, %{name}!"

# Use _html suffix for HTML content
en:
  intro_html: "Welcome to <strong>our app</strong>"

DON'T

# Don't use flat keys
en:
  events_index_title: Events  # BAD

# Don't hardcode in views
<h1>Events</h1>  # BAD - use t(".title")

# Don't concatenate translations
t("hello") + " " + t("world")  # BAD

Checklist

Locale files organized by domain (models, views, etc.)
All user-facing text uses I18n
Lazy lookups in views (t(".key"))
Pluralization for countable items
Date/currency formatting localized
Locale switching implemented
i18n-tasks configured
Missing translation detection in tests
Fallbacks configured

References

locale-files.md — YAML locale file examples for models, views, shared keys, and components
usage-patterns.md — Usage examples in views, controllers, models, presenters, components, and formatting
testing.md — RSpec specs and i18n-tasks for translation coverage

i18n-patterns