Storybook-i18n

A library for best-practice i18n addons in Storybook:

• Easy-to-use locale configuration
• Simple drop-down menu
• URL-linkable state for sharing

Versions

• 2.x is for Storybook >=7.0.0
• 3.x is for Storybook >=8.0.0
• 3.1.x is for Storybook >=8.2.0
• 4.x is for Storybook >=9.0.0
• 10.x is for Storybook >=10.0.0

Why jump from v4 to v10?

To make it easier to align versions with Storybook, I am matching major versions of Storybook from now on.

Addon authors

As an addon author, you can use this library by adding it as a dependency and adding the following to your src/manager.ts and src/preview.ts files:

src/manager.ts

export * from 'storybook-i18n/manager';

src/preview.ts

import type { Renderer, ProjectAnnotations } from '@storybook/types';
import i18n from 'storybook-i18n/preview';
import { withYourI18nDecorator } from './withYourDecorator';

// @ts-ignore
const i18nDecorators = i18n?.decorators || [];

const preview: ProjectAnnotations<Renderer> = {
    ...i18n,
    decorators: [...i18nDecorators, withYourI18nDecorator],
}

export default preview;

Due to an issue with Storybook (pending resolution), you will need that @ts-ignore above the decorators line.

The currently selected locale is available in the locale global, so you can access it in a decorator using the following snippet:

import { MyProvider } from 'your-i18n-library';
import { useGlobals } from '@storybook/manager-api';

const myDecorator = (story, context) => {
  const [{locale}] = useGlobals();
  
  return <MyProvider locale={locale}>;
}

End users

End users configure the locales and locale globals in .storybook/preview.ts.

As of Storybook 8.2, you should use initialGlobals instead of globals.

locales is an object where the keys are the "ids" of the locale/language and the values are the plain text name of that locale you want to use. This is what will appear in the dropdown in the toolbar, and next to the globe icon once a locale is selected.

const preview: Preview = {
    initialGlobals: {
        locale: "en",
        locales: {
            en: "English",
            fr: "Français",
            ja: "日本語",
        },
    },
};

Users can also use full locale strings.

const preview: Preview = {
    initialGlobals: {
        locale: "en_US",
        locales: {
            en_US: "English (US)",
            en_GB: "English (GB)",
            fr_FR: "Français",
            ja_JP: "日本語",
        },
    },
};

The locales object can also have values as an object with keys of title, icon, and/or right.

This is useful if you want to include an emoji flag or some other string to the left and/or right side.

For example:

const preview: Preview = {
    initialGlobals: {
        locale: 'en',
        locales: {
            en: {icon: '🇺🇸', title: 'English', right: 'US'},
            fr: {icon: '🇫🇷', title: 'Français', right: 'FR'},
            ja: {icon: '🇯🇵', title: '日本語', right: 'JP'},
        },
    },
};

Or something like this:

const preview: Preview = {
    initialGlobals: {
        locale: 'en_US',
        locales: {
            en_US: {title: 'English', right: 'US'},
            en_GB: {title: 'English', right: 'GB'},
            fr_FR: {title: 'Français', right: 'FR'},
            ja_JP: {title: '日本語', right: 'JP'},
        },
    },
};

When the locale has been changed, an event is emitted on the addons-channel.

You can subscribe to this event in your preview.ts, to configure global environment settings yourself, related to your i18n-config.

The event is emitted with the selected locale as a parameter.

Your implementation could look like this:

import { addons } from '@storybook/preview-api'

addons.getChannel().on('LOCALE_CHANGED', (newLocale) => {
   changeMyI18nConfig(newLocale)
});

Addons should instruct them to use whichever format your i18n implementation expects.