Introduction

Welcome to this comprehensive tutorial where we will delve into the key steps required to internationalize your Flutter app. We'll focus on the essentials and provide you with a clear understanding of the process. For more detailed explanations and advanced use cases, you can refer to our recommended resource on Internationalizing Flutter apps.

Configuration settings

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Create your Flutter project and execute the following code to download the required packages:

    flutter pub add flutter_localizations --sdk=flutter
    flutter pub add intl:any
   

2. In your pubspec.yaml file, add the following code under the Flutter section:

    # The following section 
    is specific to Flutter.
    flutter:
      generate: true # Add this line
   

3. Create a l10n.yaml file in the root folder of your project:

    touch l10n.yaml
   

4. Open the l10n.yaml file and add the following content:

    arb-dir: lib/l10n
    template-arb-file: app_en.arb
    output-localization-file: app_localizations.dart
   

   • Specify the arb-dir parameter with the folder path where your .arb file will be stored.

   • Set the template-arb-file parameter with the name of your .arb file. The naming convention is app_<language_code>.arb , where <language_code> represents the language code (e.g., "en" for English, "es" for Spanish). You can create multiple .arb files for different languages you intend to support.

5. Create the arb folder and the app_en.arb file:

    mkdir lib/l10n
    touch lib/l10n/app_en.arb
   

6. Open lib/l10n/app_en.arb and add the following content:

    {
    "materialAppTitle": "localizations Sample App'
    }
   

7. Run the following command to generate the necessary configuration file:

    flutter gen-l10n
   

Adding localization to your app

To integrate localization into you app, follow these steps:

1. In main.dart , import app_localizations.dart :

    import 'package:flutter_gen/gen_l10n/app_localizations.dart';
   

2. Within the MaterialApp widget, add AppLocalizations.localization as the localizationsDelegates parameter and AppLocalizations.supportedLocales as the supportedLocales parameter:

    MaterialApp(
          localizationsDelegates: AppLocalizations.localizationsDelegates,
          supportedLocales: AppLocalizations.supportedLocales,
          home: Builder(builder: (context) {
            return Scaffold(
              body: Center(child:    Text(AppLocalizations.of(context)!.materialAppTitle)),
            );
          }),
        );
   

3. Whenever you update the app_en.arb file, run flutter gen-l10n to update it. Alternatively, if you're using Visual Studio Code, right-click on the app_en.arb file and select "Generate Localizations".
4. Run your Flutter app and it should now support localization.

Conclusion

Congratulations!, You have successfully added localization to your Flutter app. Make sure to bookmark this tutorial for future reference in your upcoming Flutter projects. By implementing localization, you can reach a wider audience and provide a more personalized experience for your users.