Using custom backend plugin (not locize)

[stratienko]

Hello!

I want to use PocketBase as my primary translations source. I wrote my own I18n Backend plugin to communicate with PocketBase and included it in my next-i18next.config.js use field like this:

const { PocketBaseI18NextBackend } = require("pocketbase-i18n-backend");

/** @type {import('next-i18next').UserConfig} */
module.exports = {
  backend: {
    collectionName: "translations",
    pocketbaseAdminName: "test@test.test",
    pocketbaseAdminPassword: "test123456",
    pocketbaseUrl: "http://127.0.0.1:8090",
    refetchInterval: 1000 * 60 * 15, // 15 minutes
  },
  i18n: {
    defaultLocale: "en",
    locales: ["en", "es"],
  },
  saveMissing: true,
  serializeConfig: false,
  use: [PocketBaseI18NextBackend],
};

Unfortunately, when I call serverSideTranslations function, my plugin's read method is never executed, because, as I assume, serverSideTranslations tries to get translation files from the public/locales folder.

My question is: can we somehow tell serverSideTranslations to use custom backend's read function instead?

[adrai]

it should work like you describe it... is there any error?
Make sure PocketBaseI18NextBackend is not undefined.
Maybe also set debug to true to check the logs.

[stratienko]

Already checked, the problem is serverSideTranslations creates a Node.js client here:

https://github.com/i18next/next-i18next/blob/master/src/serverSideTranslations.ts#L55

It tries to find resources in the public folder, never founds them and returns the empty resources object which is passed to the appWithTranslations HOC. Since resources are empty, the plugin's create function gets executed and pushes fallback translations to the pocketbase but read is never actually executed. So, as I understand, there is no way to change the read mechanism for the serverSideTranslations and the only way to implement it is to just create my own pocketbaseTranslations function that will be executed in the getServerSideProps

[adrai]

sorry, but I don't fully understand... other backends seems to work... also without having local resources

[stratienko]

Yes, but other backends require you to simply delete serverSideTranslations function from your getServerSideProps.

For example, locize:

https://github.com/locize/next-i18next-locize/blob/main/pages/index.js#L52

So those resources are loaded on the client side, or am I wrong?

[adrai]

If you delete the getServerSideProps function, yes it will only load on client side... but if you keep getServerSideProps it will load also on server side, like possibility 2 here: https://github.com/locize/next-i18next-locize#possibility-2-config-for-locize-live-download-usage