Non-obtrusive multi-language redirection (with RoR example)

At Spaces we’ve implemented a non-obtrusive redirection for our multi-language, multi-domain websites. Too many websites have the awful habit of forcing content to visitors that the visitor didn’t request in the first place.

Our rules are simple:

• Redirect automatically visitor if all of these applies:
  • Visitor accesses root of website (e.g. https://gospaces.com/)
  • Visitor has preferred language (in http-accept-language) that we support
  • If visitor hasn’t been redirected in the same session
• In all other cases show a small notice box for localized content if the content exists.

English speaking visitors going to https://gospaces.com.mx/ will be redirected. Going to that URL a second time will not cause a redirection. This works well in case it’s a shared link, and the user actually meant to get to the Spanish frontpage page.

English speaking visitors visiting https://gospaces.com.mx/contacto won’t be forced back to https://gospaces.com and vice-versa. Instead they’ll have a small popup notice guiding them.

Ruby on rails implementation

We’re using route_translator and http_accept_language gems.

First we need two helper methods to detect and generate the language urls:

# e.g. app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  helper_method :preferred_language
  def preferred_language
    http_accept_language.compatible_language_from(I18n.available_locales)
  end

  helper_method :generate_preferred_language_url
  def generate_preferred_language_url(opts = {})
    return if cookies[:hide_localized_content_notification] or !preferred_language or preferred_language == I18n.locale.to_sym

    url = localized_url(locale: preferred_language) do |localized_opts|
      url_for(params.to_h.merge(localized_opts).merge(locale: preferred_language.to_s).merge(opts))
    end

    # Removes /es/ and ?locale=es from any strings generated. Unfortunately, route_translator doesn't work well here. The url_for doesn't see any domain specific routes where /es/ and locale=es is not needed.
    if get_host_from_locale(preferred_language)
      url = url.sub("/#{preferred_language}/", "/").sub("locale=#{preferred_language}", "")

      # Remove ? if empty
      url.sub!(/\?$/, "")
    end

    url
  rescue ActionController::UrlGenerationError => e
    Rails.logger.warn("WARN: Could not generate preferred language url. #{e.message}")
  end

You’ll notice that if hide_localized_content_notification is set, the URL isn’t generated. This cookie is set by Javascript when clicking the close button. Something simple like this will do:

document.cookie = "hide_localized_content_notification=true; max-age=" + 3*24*60*60*1000 + "; path=/"

To force redirection on index page we’ll do this:

# app/controllers/index_controller.rb
class IndexController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :redirect_i18n, only: :index

  protected
    def redirect_i18n
      if url = generate_preferred_language_url(utm_source: "website", utm_medium: "redirect").presence and cookies[:frontpage_i18n_redirected].blank?
        cookies[:frontpage_i18n_redirected] = true
        redirect_to url
      end
    end
end

This shows a small notice:

# app/views/layouts/application.rb
<% if localized_content_url = generate_preferred_language_url(utm_source: "website", utm_medium: "localized-content-notification-box").presence %>
    <%= render partial: 'localized_content_notification', locals: { language: preferred_language, url: localized_content_url } %>
<% end %>

The Author

Dan Schultzer is an active experienced entrepreneur, starting the Being Proactive groups, Dream Conception organization, among other things. You can find him at twitter

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