Feature request: Add ability to change default language

[amyrlam]

Is this a bug report?

No

Have you read the Contributing Guidelines on issues?

Yes

Steps to Reproduce

1. Clone https://github.com/reasonml/reasonml.github.io.
2. Change website/languages.js to just have Deutsch as the only enabled: true.
3. cd website and yarn start.
4. http://localhost:3000/ still appears in English.
5. Navigate to http://localhost:3000/de and page is broken, see image below:

Consider adding ability to change the default language from English to something else in Docusaurus.

[hellokaton]

I also urgently need this feature.

[endiliey]

@JoelMarcey @amyrlam @yangshun @biezhi. What is the right behavior for this feature?

https://docusaurus.io/docs/en/translation.html
The current state is that

1. Pages with text that you want translated should be placed in website/pages/en folder.
2. Docs is just placed in docs folder as md

Let's say I want my default language to be 'it' (Italia). Can I assume:

1. I write docs markdown in docs folder in italian
2. I write my custom pages in website/pages/it instead of website/pages/en in Italian

Or ...

1. I write docs markdown in docs folder in italian
2. I write my custom pages in website/pages/en in Italian

Or ..

1. I write docs markdown in docs folder in English
2. I write my custom pages in website/pages/en in English`
3. use crowdin to write the Italian version

But http://localhost:3000/ will appears in Italian

[JoelMarcey]

@endiliey Hi!

Personally, I think your 1st option (docs in Italian, website/pages/it) is the most user-friendly and easily understood option, but may be hardest to implement. Your third option may be the easiest to implement.

From my perspective, I think those are the options available to us and I believe, in order or my preference, it would be:

• 1
• 3
• 2

[endiliey]

@JoelMarcey

Yeah, I actually ordered it in the order of how hard it is to implement but makes more sense to the user. It's quite clear that there will be quite a refactoring here, but i guess it's worth a try.

I'm new to contributing but I plan to contribute to Docusaurus on a longer term.

[JoelMarcey]

I think it would be a great feature to have. I don't know if it is one of our most requested features (like Live Reload was), but still, as translations get more prevalent, it will be. So good to get out ahead of it.

I'm new to contributing but I plan to contribute to Docusaurus on a longer term.

❤️

[endiliey]

Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering if we should focus more on fixing bugs, refactor or writing more tests to catch regressions, or maybe adding flow (static typechecker) to docusaurus codebase so that there will be less bugs & we can code confidently in the long run.

[JoelMarcey]

@endiliey Hi! All of what you listed would be wonderful to have 👍 My advice to anyone who wants to contribute to Docusaurus, particularly if there are multiple possible projects/fixes, is to choose ones that you are interested in. That way you are working on something exciting to you and it will probably mean you will want to continue contributing in the future as well.

[endiliey]

Implemented in v2.

Edit: reopened until we ship
Edit 2: i18n will only be shipped when we release v2 major (not alpha/beta)