How do you handle nested translations in Spatie

How to Handle Nested Translations in Spatie Laravel Translatable

1. Set Up the Model:**
- Use the `HasTranslations` trait in your Eloquent model.
- Declare a public `$translatable` array with the attributes you want to translate, including nested keys using the `->` notation.

php
   use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
   use Spatie\Translatable\HasTranslations;

   class NewsItem extends Model
   {
       use HasTranslations;

       public array $translatable = ['name', 'meta->description'];
   }
   

2. Setting Nested Translations:**
- Use `setTranslation()` with the nested key path using `->` to specify the nested attribute.
- Example for setting translations for `meta->description` in different locales:

php
   $newsItem = new NewsItem;

   $newsItem->setTranslation('meta->description', 'en', 'Description in English')
            ->setTranslation('meta->description', 'nl', 'Beschrijving in het Nederlands')
            ->save();
   

3. Getting Nested Translations:**
- Access nested translations using the same key path.
- When you access the attribute directly, it returns the translation for the current app locale.

php
   $description = $newsItem->meta->description; // Returns 'Description in English' if app locale is 'en'
   
   $descriptionInDutch = $newsItem->getTranslation('meta->description', 'nl'); // Returns 'Beschrijving in het Nederlands'
   

4. Working with Nested Keys:**
- The package stores translations as JSON in the database, allowing nested structures.
- You can define multiple levels of nesting by using the `->` notation in the key, e.g., `'admin.cruds.users.fields.firstName'` can be represented as `'admin->cruds->users->fields->firstName'` when setting or getting translations.

5. Fallbacks and Missing Translations:**
- Spatie Translatable supports fallback locales if a translation is missing.
- You can configure fallback behavior globally or per model and even provide a callback to handle missing keys.

Summary

Spatie Laravel Translatable handles nested translations by allowing you to specify nested keys using the `->` notation in the translatable attributes. This lets you store and retrieve deeply nested translation strings within a JSON column on your model, without needing separate tables. The trait `HasTranslations` manages this seamlessly, enabling you to set and get translations for nested keys just like flat attributes[2][5][6][1].

This approach is particularly useful for complex translation structures like form fields or metadata descriptions, keeping everything within a single JSON column while maintaining easy access to nested translation values.

Citations:
[1] https://github.com/spatie/laravel-translation-loader/discussions/167
[2] https://github.com/spatie/laravel-translatable
[3] https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/nesting
[4] https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-permission/v6/advanced-usage/extending
[5] https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-translatable/v6/installation-setup
[6] https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-translatable/v6/basic-usage/handling-missing-translations
[7] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54480013/laravel-and-package-spatie-laravel-translatable-make-search-query-for-special
[8] https://www.reddit.com/r/laravel/comments/1j3613p/pros_and_cons_by_using_spatietranslatable/
[9] https://laraveldaily.com/lesson/multi-language-laravel/php-json-trans-underscores
[10] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74401880/how-to-nest-same-data-type-with-spatie-laravel-data