Override package localization in Laravel

Question

It should be "trivial", but after some chating on #laravel irc channel, I found it may be impossible for now. But I'll ask it here before doing it the ugly-go-horse way just to have the project done. If it's indeed impossible by current means, I'll fill a request on github (after handing over the project to my client).

I'm using Zizaco\\Confide to handle authentication in my service. It uses Laravel Lang everywhere to get strings in one of the 8 bundled languages of the package. But I need to override some of those strings, and I don't want to modify the package files (which would defeat the whole purpose of Composer). How can I do this?

For example, I needed to modify confide::confide.alerts.wrong_credentials for pt_BR language. What I tried so far:

• /app/lang/pt_BR/confide.php file, with contents return array('alerts' => array('wrong_credentials' => '...')) . It works for Lang::get('confide.alerts.wrong_credentials') but not for the namespaced Lang::get('confide::confide.alerts.wrong_credentials')
• /app/lang/pt_BR/packages/zizaco/confide/confide.php with return array('alerts' => ......)
• /app/lang/pt_BR/packages/zizaco/confide/confide/alerts.php with return array('wrong_credentials' => ...)
• /app/lang/packages/zizaco/confide/pt_BR/confide.php with array('alerts' => array('wrong_credentials' => '...')) - /app/lang/packages/zizaco/confide/pt_BR/confide/alerts.php with return array('wrong_credentials' => ...)

Any clue on what am I missing? Or does Laravel4 really lacks this feature?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

actually it fixed in Laravel 4.1 core

you can now overwrite it by doing

app/lang/packages/(locale)/confide/confide.php

check this

laravel 4 language issue

correct path for overriding package languages

Answer 2

So, as for today, Laravel really does lack this feature. I've asked for it creating a issue on github .

Meanwhile, this functionality could be achieved seamlessly using crynobone's Orchestra Platform 2 Translation Component, which can be found here

All you need to do is require it in composer.json

{
    "require": {
        "orchestra/translation": "2.0.*"
    }
}

and replace the original translation package ( 'Illuminate\\Translation\\TranslationServiceProvider' ) in /config/app.php

'providers' => array(
    //'Illuminate\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider',
    // ...
    'Orchestra\Translation\TranslationServiceProvider',
),

That's it! Now, having app/lang/en/packages/confide/confide.php will do it! (please note that the path should be /packages/ packagename /, not /packages/vendor/packagename/

It really saved me from a big headache, hope others find this useful too.