Translations

The translations module adapts the content of a website or app to different languages, making it easier for users from various regions to access. Strapi already provides built-in solutions for document internationalization. However, this module is useful for standalone translations that do not belong to any document context.

How to create translations?

Step 1: Access the Strapi admin panel.
Step 2: Go to the Littlebox Strapi Suite.
Step 3: Select “Translation”.
Step 4: Click “Create new entry”.

Use simple text as the UID for short content, or use an ID for longer or more complex text. In the example above, the text itself serves as the UID because it is simple. However, if it is necessary to include, for example, HTML, use an alias as the UID.

Translate with AI

The module can write the translations for you, using the OpenAI API. It works in two places: on the module list, where it translates the entries of the module itself, and on the content manager, where it translates a whole document. The prompt is written to produce copy that reads as if a native speaker had written it, not a literal translation. It replaces idioms and figures of speech with the expression a native speaker would actually use in the same situation, keeps the register and the length of the original, never uses hyphens or dashes to join ideas, and leaves placeholders such as {name} or %s, HTML tags, URLs, email addresses, numbers and brand names untouched.

The translations are generated by the OpenAI account that owns the API key, and each one is billed to that account.

Settings

Step 1: Access the Strapi admin panel.
Step 2: Go to the Littlebox Strapi Suite.
Step 3: Select “Translation”.
Step 4: Click “Settings”.

Translate with artificial intelligence
Turns the feature on. While it is off, nothing changes in the admin panel and no request is ever sent to OpenAI. OpenAI API key
The key used to generate the translations. It is stored on the server and is never sent back to the browser: the field shows it masked, as sk-********a1B2, and leaving the field empty keeps the key that is already stored. To replace it, type the new key and save. OpenAI model
The model used to generate the translations. It defaults to gpt-4o. Any model served by the OpenAI chat completions API can be used here.

A key restricted to the Chat completions capability, with the Write permission, is enough. Every other capability can be left as None.

Translate the entries of the module

Once the feature is enabled, a “Translate with AI” button appears next to “Create new entry”.

Step 1: Click “Translate with AI”.
Step 2: Pick the base language, the one the entries are translated from.
Step 3: Tick the languages that receive the translation.
Step 4: Click “Translate”.

Overwrite existing translations
When it is off, only the missing translations are generated and the ones already written are left as they are. When it is on, every entry is translated again in the languages that were ticked. Every entry of the list that has content in the base language is translated, not only the ones that are visible or selected. When it finishes, the modal reports how many translations were written, how many were skipped and how many failed, and the list is refreshed.

Translate a document

The same feature is available on the content manager, for collection types and for single types. Open a document in the language you want to fill in and the “Translate with AI” button appears in the panel on the right.

Step 1: Click “Translate with AI”.
Step 2: Pick the base language, the one the document is translated from.
Step 3: Click “Translate”.

The target language is not chosen here: it is always the language that is open in the editor. The base language is the only decision, and the document has to exist in it. The whole document is translated, not only its first level: plain text fields, rich text, blocks, components, repeatable components, the components inside dynamic zones and the Littlebox Slug field, which is translated as words and turned into a slug again. Fields that are not localized are left as they are, because they are shared by every language and translating them would change the other languages too. Numbers, dates, booleans, enumerations, media, relations, JSON and plain URLs are never touched either.

The translations are written into the form, not into the database. Review them and save the document to keep them. Closing the page without saving discards everything.

Repeatable components and dynamic zones are matched position by position, and only when both languages hold the same component in the same place. When the document that is open has a different structure from the base language, the fields that find no match are reported in the summary instead of being written to the wrong place. Filling the new language in from another one first, with the Strapi locale actions, gives the two documents the same structure.

API

To get the data from the frontend, use your preferred HTTP client:

curl -X GET "/api/littlebox-strapi-suite/modules/translations"

[
    {
        "id": 5,
        "uid": "About us",
        "translations": {
            "en": "About us",
            "pt": "Sobre nós"
        }
    },
    {
        "id": 3,
        "uid": "Book now",
        "translations": {
            "en": "Book now",
            "pt": "Reserve agora"
        }
    }
]

With this data, translations can be used with the front-end technology of your choice.
However, if you prefer, you can use our ready-to-go Next.js frontend as a base, which already implements these solutions.

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Guides

How to create translations?