Setup multilingual and multi-regional storefronts with URL paths

In this guide you will learn how to setup your Hydrogen project for supporting multi-region and multilingual storefronts by using URL paths.

For example, say you have a storefront that should work in English (EN) and in non-regional French (FR) for different customers.

You will setup the project to handle requests as following:

Anchor to RequirementsRequirements

• You have a working Hydrogen project. For more information, refer to the getting started guide.
• You have setup the regions and languages you chose for your store with Shopify Markets.
• You're familiar with using the Storefront API with Shopify Markets.

Anchor to Step 1: Create a utility that checks the requested URL paths localeStep 1: Create a utility that checks the requested URL paths locale

Create a utility function that reads the requested host and directory path which return the right Locale object using the Storefronts API's supported language and country codes.

The following is an example utility function with the following locales en_CA, fr_CA and en_US.

export function getLocaleFromRequest(request) {
  // Get the user request URL
  const url = new URL(request.url);

  // Match the URL host
  switch (url.host) {
    case 'ca.hydrogen.shop':
      // This regex matches `/fr/` paths in the request
      if (/^\/fr($|\/)/.test(url.pathname)) {
        return {
          language: 'FR',
          country: 'CA',
        };
      } else {
        return {
          language: 'EN',
          country: 'CA',
        };
      }
      break;
    default:
      return {
        language: 'EN',
        country: 'US',
      };
  }
}

export function getLocaleFromRequest(request: Request): Locale {
  // Get the user request URL
  const url = new URL(request.url);

  // Match the URL host
  switch (url.host) {
    case 'ca.hydrogen.shop':
      // This regex matches `/fr/` paths in the request
      if (/^\/fr($|\/)/.test(url.pathname)) {
        return {
          language: 'FR',
          country: 'CA',
        };
      } else {
        return {
          language: 'EN',
          country: 'CA',
        };
      }
      break;
    default:
      return {
        language: 'EN',
        country: 'US',
      };
  }
}

The Locale object returned should resemble the following example, which is using the Storefont API's supported language and country codes.

Anchor to Step 2: Match routes that contain language in the URLStep 2: Match routes that contain language in the URL

Using React Router's optional segments, add ($locale) in front of your routes.

This ensures that routes such as /products/123 and /fr/products/123 matches to the same product route file in Remix, so that the correct page is rendered.

The following is an example of files and folders before file rename with ($locale):

After renaming the routes with ($locale), your new file structure should look like the following example:

At this point, you should see your pages render when you make requests to /fr/ URL paths.

Anchor to Step 3: Add i18n to the storefront clientStep 3: Add i18n to the storefront client

In your server.js, update i18n to the result of the utility function when creating the Hydrogen storefront client.

By doing this, you now have the locale available throughout the app for every storefront query.

const {storefront} = createStorefrontClient({
  ...
  i18n: getLocaleFromRequest(request),
  ...
});

const {storefront} = createStorefrontClient({
  ...
  i18n: getLocaleFromRequest(request),
  ...
});

Anchor to Step 4: Add @inContext directive to your GraphQL queriesStep 4: Add @inContext directive to your GraphQL queries

To support international pricing and languages in Storefront API, you need to pass the $country and $language with an @inContext directive within any requests.

Update your GraphQL queries with inContext directives to include $country and $language. Hydrogen automatically injects these parameters.

For example, this is a Storefront API query that returns featured collections from the homepage. This updates it to include the inContext directive.

You don't need to manually provide query variables for country and language. You can make the query with storefront.query in the data loader and see the right language and currencies for each request.

export async function loader({
  context: {storefront},
}) {
  return json({
    featureCollections: await storefront.query<{
      collections;
    }>(FEATURED_COLLECTIONS_QUERY),
  });
}

export async function loader({
     context: {storefront},
   }: LoaderArgs) {
     return json({
       featureCollections: await storefront.query<{
         collections: CollectionConnection;
       }>(FEATURED_COLLECTIONS_QUERY),
     });
   }

Hydrogen automatically injects the locale parameters to storefront.query based on what was defined in i18n when you created the client.

For example, if a request came from hydrogen.fr, then the country CA and language FR are used as defined in the utilities function.

The Storefront API returns the correct currency and language if the store was set up in the Shopify admin.

If you want to override the locale determined by your utility option, then you can supply the query variables to the storefront.query:

export async function loader({
  context: {storefront},
}) {
  return json({
    featureCollection: await storefront.query(FEATURED_COLLECTIONS_QUERY, {
      variables: {
        country: 'CA',    // Always query back in CA currency
        language: 'FR',   // Always query back in FR language
      }
    }),
  });
}

export async function loader({
  context: {storefront},
}: LoaderArgs) {
  return json({
    featureCollection: await storefront.query<{
      collections: CollectionConnection;
    }>(FEATURED_COLLECTIONS_QUERY, {
      variables: {
        country: 'CA',    // Always query back in CA currency
        language: 'FR',   // Always query back in FR language
      }
    }),
  });
}

Anchor to Step 5: Match non-existent pagesStep 5: Match non-existent pages

A request to /this-route-does-not-exist should return a 404 not found page.

To achieve this, create a $.(tsx|jsx) file in the `/app/routes/`` folder. This Remix splat route will handle all the non-matching routes.

export async function loader() {
  throw new Response('Not found', {status: 404});
}

export default function Component() {
  return null;
}

export async function loader() {
  throw new Response('Not found', {status: 404});
}

export default function Component() {
  return null;
}

Anchor to Step 6: Handle invalid URL lang parametersStep 6: Handle invalid URL lang parameters

In the /app/routes/index.jsx, set up handling of invalid URL parameters localization. For example, any request with lang parameter au when you don't handle this language, should return a 404.

export async function loader({
  request,
  params,
  context,
}) {
  const {language, country} = context.storefront.i18n;

  if (
    params.locale &&
    params.locale.toLowerCase() !== `${'{'}language{'}'}-${'{'}country{'}'}`.toLowerCase()
  ) {
    // If the locale URL param is defined, yet we still are on `EN-US`
    // the the locale param must be invalid, send to the 404 page
    throw new Response(null, {status: 404});
  }
  ...
}

export async function loader({
  request,
  params,
  context,
}: LoaderArgs) {
  const {language, country} = context.storefront.i18n;

  if (
    params.locale &&
    params.locale.toLowerCase() !== `${'{'}language{'}'}-${'{'}country{'}'}`.toLowerCase()
  ) {
    // If the locale URL param is defined, yet we still are on `EN-US`
    // the the locale param must be invalid, send to the 404 page
    throw new Response(null, {status: 404});
  }
  ...
}

Anchor to Step 7: Create a utility function to add a language path prefixStep 7: Create a utility function to add a language path prefix

Create a utility function that adds the locale path prefix to any URL path. For example, if the path is /products and the buyer prefers the locale fr_CA, then the utility function converts it to /fr/products.

Use this utility function anywhere you need to define a localized path. For example, form actions should have the localized path.

export function usePrefixPathWithLocale(path) {
  const [root] = useMatches();
  const selectedLocale = root.data.selectedLocale;

  return selectedLocale
    ? `${selectedLocale.pathPrefix}${
        path.startsWith('/') ? path : '/' + path
      }`
    : path;
}

export function usePrefixPathWithLocale(path: string) {
  const [root] = useMatches();
  const selectedLocale = root.data.selectedLocale;

  return selectedLocale
    ? `${selectedLocale.pathPrefix}${
        path.startsWith('/') ? path : '/' + path
      }`
    : path;
}

Anchor to Step 8: Create Link component with locale path prefixStep 8: Create Link component with locale path prefix

Create a <Link /> wrapper component that adds the locale path prefix. You can create this file in any components folder. In the case of the Hydrogen demo store, components folder was created for base components.

import {
  Link as RemixLink,
  NavLink as RemixNavLink,
  useMatches,
} from '@remix-run/react';
import {usePrefixPathWithLocale} from '~/lib/utils';

export function Link(props) {
  const {to, className, ...resOfProps} = props;
  const [root] = useMatches();
  const selectedLocale = root.data.selectedLocale;

  let toWithLocale = to;

  if (typeof to === 'string') {
    toWithLocale = selectedLocale ? `${selectedLocale.pathPrefix}${'{'}to{'}'}` : to;
  }

  if (typeof className === 'function') {
    return (
      <RemixNavLink
        to={toWithLocale}
        className={className}
        {...resOfProps}
      />
    );
  }

  return (
    <RemixLink to={toWithLocale} className={className} {...resOfProps} />
  );
}

export function usePrefixPathWithLocale(path) {
  const [root] = useMatches();
  const selectedLocale = root.data.selectedLocale;

  return selectedLocale
    ? `${selectedLocale.pathPrefix}${
        path.startsWith('/') ? path : '/' + path
      }`
    : path;
}

import {
  Link as RemixLink,
  NavLink as RemixNavLink,
  useMatches,
} from '@remix-run/react';
import {usePrefixPathWithLocale} from '~/lib/utils';

export function Link(props) {
  const {to, className, ...resOfProps} = props;
  const [root] = useMatches();
  const selectedLocale = root.data.selectedLocale;

  let toWithLocale = to;

  if (typeof to === 'string') {
    toWithLocale = selectedLocale ? `${selectedLocale.pathPrefix}${'{'}to{'}'}` : to;
  }

  if (typeof className === 'function') {
    return (
      <RemixNavLink
        to={toWithLocale}
        className={className}
        {...resOfProps}
      />
    );
  }

  return (
    <RemixLink to={toWithLocale} className={className} {...resOfProps} />
  );
}

export function usePrefixPathWithLocale(path: string) {
  const [root] = useMatches();
  const selectedLocale = root.data.selectedLocale;

  return selectedLocale
    ? `${selectedLocale.pathPrefix}${
        path.startsWith('/') ? path : '/' + path
      }`
    : path;
}

Anchor to Step 9: Make sure redirects are properly url encodedStep 9: Make sure redirects are properly url encoded

If you have multilingual handles for your product or collection, for example, products/スノーボード, make sure to encode url when making redirects.

export async function loader({params, request, context}) {
  const {productHandle} = params; // productHandle = 'スノーボード'

  ...

  if (noSelectedProductVariant) {
    // Use URL to prevent accidental double url encoding
    const newUrl = new URL(
      `/products/${'{'}productHandle{'}'}?${firstVariantSearchParams.toString()}`,
      'http://example.com'  // Any domain to satisfy the URL api
    );

    // Redirect to '/products/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89?Size=154cm&Color=Syntax'
    throw redirect(newUrl.pathname + newUrl.search, 302);
  }

  ...

export async function loader({params, request, context}: LoaderArgs) {
  const {productHandle} = params; // productHandle = 'スノーボード'

  ...

  if (noSelectedProductVariant) {
    // Use URL to prevent accidental double url encoding
    const newUrl = new URL(
      `/products/${'{'}productHandle{'}'}?${firstVariantSearchParams.toString()}`,
      'http://example.com'  // Any domain to satisfy the URL api
    );

    // Redirect to '/products/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89?Size=154cm&Color=Syntax'
    throw redirect(newUrl.pathname + newUrl.search, 302);
  }

  ...

Anchor to Next stepsNext steps

• Create a country selector: Learn how to setup a country selector to allow users to choose their own country.