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Localize web apps

Learn how to localize your Retool applications.

This feature is in Beta and available for Cloud and self-hosted Enterprise customers running v3.38 and later. Contact your Retool account team to get early access.

Set up internationalization​

To localize your Retool apps, you must first set up internationalization in your organization settings. Visit the Internationalization guide to learn more.

Enable localization​

You must enable localization from your app editor in App Settings > Localization. By default, localization is not enabled to preserve app performance.

When enabled, your application use translations uploaded at the organization level. To improve performance and make sure your app is only using the translations it needs, you can specify specific files to use in the app. When selected, you can preview the locales these files support—this is why it's important you keep the file names consistent.

App Settings showing translation overrides

Access translations​

Once localization is enabled, translations are available in the {{ retoolContext.translations }} object. Note that only translations in your current browser locale are shown. You can preview different locales in your App Settings, or change your browser locale (e.g., go to chrome://settings/languages on Chrome) to see translations for different languages.

The current user's locale can be referenced through {{ current_user.locale }}.

Localize your app​

Retool provides helpful utility functions through a built-in i18n JavaScript library, which leverages i18next. This means interpolation, plurals, date, and number formatting are automatically available.

Switch locales​

To allow end-users to switch locales in your app, or test your localization, use the built-in utility function utils.changeLocale to simulate the app in different locales.

You can add a Select component to allow users to switch locales. This can be implemented adding an event handler which calls utils.changeLocale when a locale is selected.

Adding a language selector

Formatting​

You can use built-in functions provided by i18next for formatting.

Static text​

Translate static text by calling {{ i18n.t('your_translation_key') }}. See the i18next documentation for additional options, like fallback text.

Dynamic data​

If you're translating dynamic data returned from a query, Retool recommends using interpolation in your translations.

For example, let's take a translation JSON uploaded for en-US:

{
  "viewingExpenses": "{{viewing}} out of {{total}} expenses"
}

In your Retool application, use:

{{ i18n.t('viewingExpenses', { viewing: filteredData.value.length, total: allData.value.length}) }}

Currency​

You can format numbers and currencies with built-in currency translations.

 { 
  "formatCurrency": "{{val, currency(USD)}}"
 }

In your Retool application, use:

// Item is a value returned from a query 
{{ i18n.t('formatCurrency', { val: item }) }}

See i18next documentation on formatting currencies for more.

Dates​

Specify the interpolation below to format dates.

 { 
    "formatDate": "{{val, datetime}}"
 }

In your Retool application, you can use either i18n or the built in moment library for datetime translations.

// Using i18n
{{ i18n.t('formatDate', { val: item.created_at })}}

// Using moment
{{ moment(item.created_at).locale(current_user.locale).format("LL") }}