# Creating Translation Strings

This section will show you how to make your panel's frontend texts translatable.

Whether it's a button label, a page title, or a status message. We will guide you step by step through the process of creating and managing translation strings in your addon.

You will learn how to:

* Add language keys to your lang/ directory
* Replace hardcoded text in components with translatable strings
* Support multiple languages in a clean and scalable way

{% hint style="info" %}
No advanced coding skills are required. We will keep it simple and practical for everyone!
{% endhint %}

### Step 1: Prepare your language directory

Before you can start creating translation strings, you need to prepare the language folder where you addon will store its translations.

Pterodactyl comes with a default language directory that already includes some translations, but not all strings are used in the panel.

To create your own translations directory, you will need to access the `resources/lang` directory inside the panel's main installation folder.

```
cd /var/www/pterodactyl/resources/lang
```

To create a new translation strings folder for your language, copy the existing `en` folder and rename it using the correct language code (for example: `ro` for **Romanian**, `de` for **German**, `es` for **Spanish** and so on)

```
cp -r en ro
```

{% hint style="info" %}
Replace `ro` with your desired language code.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Note:** Not all of the translation strings found inside the language folders are actually used in the user interface. Some of them may be related to internal logic or unused messages.
{% endhint %}

I haven't personally verified all of the default files provided by Pterodactyl, so I cannot guarantee which ones are actively used.

However, one file that is confirmed to be used is **activity.php**

It contains important activity log messages that will appear in the activity page, and I highly recommend translating that file.

### Organizing your translation files (Namespaces)

After you've created your language folder (e.g. `resources/lang/ro`), you will notice that the structure may include subfolders like:

* dashboard
* server
* admin

These subfolders are called **namespaces**. They help organize translation strings based on where they are used in the panel (e.g. dashboard page, account page, server page, etc.)

Each namespace contains one or more `.php` files with grouped translation keys.

### Importing `useTranslation` in your React Component:

In any React component where you want to use translations:

```typescript
import { useTranslation } from 'react-i18next';
```

### Initializing the translation with a namespace

Each group of translations belongs to a namespace (based on your translation file path).

Example:

```typescript
const { t } = useTranslation('dashboard/index');
```

* `dashboard/index` refers to this file

<pre><code>/resources/lang/<a data-footnote-ref href="#user-content-fn-1">XX</a>/dashboard/index.php
</code></pre>

If your translation file is directly in the `lang/`[`XX`](#user-content-fn-1)[^1] folder:

```typescript
const { t } = useTranslation('activity');
```

This refers to:

<pre><code>/resources/lang/<a data-footnote-ref href="#user-content-fn-1">XX</a>/activity.php
</code></pre>

### Writing translations

In your translation file, return a PHP array where:

* keys are the string you will use in `t('key')`
* values are the actual translated strings

Example: `/resources/lang/ro/dashboard/index.php`

```php
<?php

return [
    // other strings
    'show_your_servers' => 'Arată serverele tale',
    'show_other_servers' => 'Arată alte servere',
];

```

### Replacing strings in components

Before:

```typescript
{showOnlyAdmin ? 'Showing others servers' : 'Showing your servers'}
```

After:

```typescript
{showOnlyAdmin ? t('show_other_servers') : t('show_your_servers')}
```

You just replaced two strings with **translation keys**, making your app multilingual.

### Best Practice for Translation Keys

Translation keys shoud be:

* Unique
* Descriptive
* Without spaces or special characters

✅ Good:

```php
'show_other_servers' => 'Arată alte servere',
```

🚫 Avoid:

```php
'show other servers' => 'Arată alte servere',
```

### Recap with full example

Language file: /resources/lang/XX/dashboard/index.php

```php
<?php

return [
    'show_your_servers' => 'Arată serverele tale',
    'show_other_servers' => 'Arată alte servere',
];

```

React component:

```typescript
import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { useTranslation } from 'react-i18next';
import { Server } from '@/api/server/getServer';
import getServers from '@/api/getServers';
import ServerRow from '@/components/dashboard/ServerRow';
import Spinner from '@/components/elements/Spinner';
import PageContentBlock from '@/components/elements/PageContentBlock';
import useFlash from '@/plugins/useFlash';
import { useStoreState } from 'easy-peasy';
import { usePersistedState } from '@/plugins/usePersistedState';
import Switch from '@/components/elements/Switch';
import tw from 'twin.macro';
import useSWR from 'swr';
import { PaginatedResult } from '@/api/http';
import Pagination from '@/components/elements/Pagination';
import { useLocation } from 'react-router-dom';

export default () => {
    const { search } = useLocation();
    const defaultPage = Number(new URLSearchParams(search).get('page') || '1');

    const [page, setPage] = useState(!isNaN(defaultPage) && defaultPage > 0 ? defaultPage : 1);
    const { clearFlashes, clearAndAddHttpError } = useFlash();
    const uuid = useStoreState((state) => state.user.data!.uuid);
    const rootAdmin = useStoreState((state) => state.user.data!.rootAdmin);
    const [showOnlyAdmin, setShowOnlyAdmin] = usePersistedState(`${uuid}:show_all_servers`, false);

    const { data: servers, error } = useSWR<PaginatedResult<Server>>(
        ['/api/client/servers', showOnlyAdmin && rootAdmin, page],
        () => getServers({ page, type: showOnlyAdmin && rootAdmin ? 'admin' : undefined })
    );

    useEffect(() => {
        if (!servers) return;
        if (servers.pagination.currentPage > 1 && !servers.items.length) {
            setPage(1);
        }
    }, [servers?.pagination.currentPage]);

    useEffect(() => {
        // Don't use react-router to handle changing this part of the URL, otherwise it
        // triggers a needless re-render. We just want to track this in the URL incase the
        // user refreshes the page.
        window.history.replaceState(null, document.title, `/${page <= 1 ? '' : `?page=${page}`}`);
    }, [page]);

    useEffect(() => {
        if (error) clearAndAddHttpError({ key: 'dashboard', error });
        if (!error) clearFlashes('dashboard');
    }, [error]);

    const { t } = useTranslation('dashboard/index');

    return (
        <PageContentBlock title={t('dashboard')} showFlashKey={'dashboard'}>
            {rootAdmin && (
                <div css={tw`mb-2 flex justify-end items-center`}>
                    <p css={tw`uppercase text-xs text-neutral-400 mr-2`}>
                        {showOnlyAdmin ? t('show_other_servers') : t('show_your_servers')}
                    </p>
                    <Switch
                        name={'show_all_servers'}
                        defaultChecked={showOnlyAdmin}
                        onChange={() => setShowOnlyAdmin((s) => !s)}
                    />
                </div>
            )}
            {!servers ? (
                <Spinner centered size={'large'} />
            ) : (
                <Pagination data={servers} onPageSelect={setPage}>
                    {({ items }) =>
                        items.length > 0 ? (
                            items.map((server, index) => (
                                <ServerRow key={server.uuid} server={server} css={index > 0 ? tw`mt-2` : undefined} />
                            ))
                        ) : (
                            <p css={tw`text-center text-sm text-neutral-400`}>
                                {showOnlyAdmin
                                    ? 'There are no other servers to display.'
                                    : 'There are no servers associated with your account.'}
                            </p>
                        )
                    }
                </Pagination>
            )}
        </PageContentBlock>
    );
};
```

### If you don't see your translations

Make sure:

* You're using the correct namespace
* That translation file exists
* The key exists in the file
* You have rebuilt your frontend assets after adding new translation files or keys:

[^1]: Language code
