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:
| Language | URL path |
| ------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| English | `ca.hydrogen.shop` |
| French | `ca.hydrogen.shop/fr` |
## Requirements
- You have a working Hydrogen project. For more information, refer to the [getting started guide](/docs/storefronts/headless/hydrogen/getting-started).
- You have setup the regions and languages you chose for your store with [Shopify Markets](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets).
- You're familiar with [using the Storefront API with Shopify Markets](/docs/storefronts/headless/building-with-the-storefront-api/markets).
## Step 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](/docs/api/storefront/latest/enums/LanguageCode) and [country](/docs/api/storefront/latest/enums/CountryCode) codes.
> tip
> You can use the `/app/lib/utils.js` in the Hydrogen demo store as a reference.
The following is an example utility function with the following locales `en_CA`, `fr_CA` and `en_US`.
The `Locale` object returned should resemble the following example, which is using the Storefont API's supported [language](/docs/api/storefront/latest/enums/LanguageCode) and [country](/docs/api/storefront/latest/enums/CountryCode) codes.
## Step 2: Match routes that contain language in the URL
Using [Remix's optional segments](https://remix.run/docs/en/main/file-conventions/route-files-v2#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)`:
```markdown
├── app
│ ├── routes
│ │ ├── _index.tsx
│ │ ├── products.$productHandle.tsx
...
```
After renaming the routes with `($locale)`, your new file structure should look like the following example:
```markdown
├── app
│ ├── routes
│ │ ├── ($locale)._index.tsx
│ │ ├── ($locale).products.$productHandle.tsx
...
```
At this point, you should see your pages render when you make requests to `/fr/` URL paths.
## Step 3: Add i18n to the storefront client
In your `server.js`, update `i18n` to the result of the utility function when creating the Hydrogen storefront client.
By doing this, you now have the locale available throughout the app for every storefront query.
## Step 4: Add @inContext directive to your GraphQL queries
To [support international pricing and languages in Storefront API](https://shopify.dev/custom-storefronts/building-with-the-storefront-api/markets/international-pricing), you need to pass the `$country` and `$language` with an `@inContext` directive within any requests.
Update your GraphQL queries with `inContext` directives to include `$country` and `$language`. Hydrogen automatically injects these parameters.
For example, this is a Storefront API query that returns featured collections from the homepage. This updates it to include the `inContext` directive.
You don't need to manually provide query variables for `country` and `language`. You can make the query with `storefront.query` in the data loader and see the right language and currencies for each request.
Hydrogen automatically injects the locale parameters to `storefront.query` based on what was defined in `i18n` when you created the client.
For example, if a request came from `hydrogen.fr`, then the country `CA` and language `FR` are used as defined in the utilities function.
The Storefront API returns the correct currency and language if the store was set up in the Shopify admin.
If you want to override the locale determined by your utility option, then you can supply the query variables to the `storefront.query`:
## Step 5: Match non-existent pages
A request to `/this-route-does-not-exist` should return a `404` not found page.
To achieve this, create a `$.(tsx|jsx)` file in the `/app/routes/`` folder. This [Remix splat route](https://remix.run/docs/en/main/file-conventions/route-files-v2#splat-routes) will handle all the non-matching routes.
## Step 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`.
## Step 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.
## Step 8: Create Link component with locale path prefix
Create a `` 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.
> Caution:
> Make sure your project is using this `Link` component for all inbound navigation. This ensures the prefix locale gets appended for every link. For example navigating from `fr/products` to `fr/collections` without this `Link` component loses the `fr` path.
## Step 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.
## Next steps
- [Create a country selector](/docs/storefronts/headless/hydrogen/markets/country-selector): Learn how to setup a country selector to allow users to choose their own country.