How to fetch current locale in view in Laravel 5.3
Stefan Izdrail
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
Title: Easily Fetch Current Locale in Views for Multilingual Apps Using Laravel 5.3
Introduction: In today's globalized world, multilingual applications hold immense value. They not only cater to a wider audience but also offer better user experience by providing content specific to the user's preferences. Laravel provides an excellent framework to develop such apps with ease. To accomplish this task, you need to be able to fetch the current locale from inside your views and pass it accordingly.
In this comprehensive guide, we will demonstrate how to utilize Laravel's built-in functionality for working with multiple languages in a view. We will also explore code examples that will help you achieve this goal without any hassle. To make it easier to read and understand, we will structure the content with headings, sections, and relevant best practices.
1. Understanding locale handling:
Locale handling is a crucial aspect of multilingual applications. Laravel's default internationalization (i18n) implementation allows you to manage localized text in your application by providing locale-specific views for each language. It relies on the "App\Providers\AppServiceProvider" and its "boot()" method, which loads the locale configuration using the "Config::set("app.locale", \Illuminate\Support\Facades\App::getLocale());" command.
2. Fetching current locale:
Once you have a strong understanding of Laravel's i18n implementation, you can easily fetch the current locale from your view. You can achieve this in two ways:
a) Using the app() helper function:
Call the "app('request')->getLocale();" function within your views to get the current locale value. This will ensure that you always use the appropriate locale according to the request made by your users.
b) Using dedicated methods provided in the view:
Laravel's built-in functionality can be leveraged by using the following code snippets. You can use any one of these options:
1. For a specific URL, you can add "?locale=" to your routes and then fetch the parameter in your view using {{ \Illuminate\Support\Facades\Request::input('locale', 'en') }}. This will automatically set the locale value for that particular request.
2. If you are using AJAX, you can retrieve the current language code from the session storage: "{{ \Illuminate\Support\Facades\Session::get('locale', 'en') }}"
3. Lastly, if your application has a login/authentication system, you can use the active user's locale preference by accessing the authenticated user's session data: "{{ Auth::user()->preferred_locale ?: \Illuminate\Support\Facades\Config::get('app.fallback_locale', 'en') }}"
3. Passing the current locale to routes:
In your application, when you wish to redirect to a route and want to pass the current locale along with it, use the following code:
{{ route('test.route', \Illuminate\Support\Facades\Request::input('locale', 'en')) }}
Note that this is just an example. You need to replace "test.route" with your actual route name and ensure it accepts a locale parameter.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Laravel makes it simple to build multilingual applications. By understanding its built-in functionality for i18n management, you can easily fetch the current locale from your views and pass it accordingly as needed. Remember to incorporate relevant code examples into your application and follow best practices to ensure a smooth user experience across multiple languages. For more information on Laravel's internationalization features, visit our website - https://laravelcompany.com/blog.