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Version: 0.3.36

Localized Paths

A node's canonical path is built from its names: /products/chair. A multilingual site usually wants each language to have its own URL, /fr/produits/chaise or /de/produkte/stuhl, without copying the tree once per language. RaisinDB resolves these localized paths natively, from SQL, HTTP, WebSocket and the JavaScript client, with one index lookup per path segment regardless of how large the workspace is.

Localized paths build on translations: a node's name in a locale is one more translated field.

Giving a node a translated name​

A node's segment in a locale is its translated node name, the reserved translation field __node_name. Because it is an ordinary translation field, it has history and is carried along by forks, copies, publishes and deletes like every other translation. A node without a translated name keeps its canonical name in that locale.

With SQL, set it through the translation layer:

UPDATE pages FOR LOCALE 'fr' SET __node_name = 'chaise' WHERE path = '/products/chair';
UPDATE pages FOR LOCALE 'fr' SET __node_name = 'produits' WHERE path = '/products';

Over HTTP, send the pointer /__node_name to the translate command:

curl -s -X POST "http://localhost:8080/api/repository/myrepo/main/head/pages/products/chair/raisin:cmd/translate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"locale":"fr","translations":{"/__node_name":"chaise"}}'

In a package, put a top-level __node_name in the node's translation overlay:

# content/pages/products/chair/.node.fr.yaml
__node_name: chaise
title: Chaise en chêne

Rules for the value:

  • A value with inner slashes, such as /fr/produits/chaise, contributes its last segment. Each node stores only its own segment; the ancestors' segments come from the ancestors.
  • Empty values are ignored.
  • The repository's default language never has translated names: its paths are the canonical ones.
  • A node hidden in a locale, or sitting under a hidden ancestor, has no path in that locale.

Looking a node up​

SQL​

RESOLVE_PATH(workspace, locale, path) returns the id of the node at a localized path, or NULL:

SELECT RESOLVE_PATH('pages', 'fr', '/produits/chaise') AS id FROM 'pages' LIMIT 1;

Two columns expose a node's localized name and path in the query's locale. They are filled only when you name them; SELECT * leaves them out.

ColumnValue
__node_nameThe node's own translated name in the locale, or NULL when it has none
__localized_pathThe node's canonical localized path: each segment is the translated name in the locale, else the canonical name
SELECT id, __node_name, __localized_path
  FROM 'pages'
 WHERE locale = 'fr' AND CHILD_OF('/products');

Filtering on __localized_path together with a locale is answered by a direct lookup, not a scan. EXPLAIN shows it as LocalizedPathLookup:

SELECT * FROM 'pages' WHERE locale = $1 AND __localized_path = $2;

__localized_path = … matches only a node's canonical localized path. For a node that has a French name, /products/chair is not its French path, so the query above does not find it with that value. Use RESOLVE_PATH or the HTTP lookup below when you need fallbacks and redirects.

HTTP​

GET /api/repository/{repo}/{branch}/head/{workspace}/by-localized-path/{locale}/{path}
curl -s "http://localhost:8080/api/repository/myrepo/main/head/pages/by-localized-path/fr/produits/chaise" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
{
  "node": { "id": "…", "path": "/products/chair", "properties": { "title": "Chaise en chêne" } },
  "canonical_path": "/products/chair",
  "canonical_localized_path": "/produits/chaise",
  "redirect": false,
  "alternates": { "en": "/products/chair", "fr": "/produits/chaise", "de": "/produkte/stuhl" },
  "served_by": "index"
}
FieldMeaning
nodeThe node, translated into the requested locale
canonical_pathThe node's canonical path
canonical_localized_pathThe node's own path in the requested locale
redirecttrue when the request used a different spelling than canonical_localized_path, for example the canonical name of a node that has a translated name, or a fallback locale's name. Answer with a 301 to canonical_localized_path.
alternatesOne entry per supported language in which the node is visible and readable by the caller, for hreflang links. Hidden and forbidden locales are omitted, so alternates never reveal a path.
served_bydefault_language (the locale is the default language), index, or fallback (see Index build and fallback)

A missing node, a node the caller cannot read, and a node hidden in the locale all return the same 404.

WebSocket and JavaScript client​

Over WebSocket, send a node_get_by_localized_path request with { locale, path }. The JavaScript client wraps it:

const hit = await ws.nodes().getByLocalizedPath('fr', '/produits/chaise');
if (hit === null) {
  // not found, hidden in the locale, or not readable
} else if (hit.redirect) {
  redirect301(`/fr${hit.canonical_localized_path}`);
} else {
  render(hit.node, hit.alternates);
}

The result has the same fields as the HTTP response, or is null.

Fallback chains​

Each segment is tried along the locale's fallback chain: fr-CA tries the fr-CA name, then fr, then the canonical name. A match through a fallback resolves, and redirect is set when the node has its own name in the requested locale.

Unique names among siblings​

Two siblings with the same effective name in one locale collide: two equal translated names, or a translated name equal to the canonical name of a sibling that has none in that locale.

By default collisions are allowed. The newest claim wins, on every node of a cluster, and the index build reports the collisions it found. To refuse them, set localized_names.enforce_unique in the repository configuration (administrators only):

curl -s -X PUT http://localhost:8080/api/repositories/myrepo \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"localized_names": {"enforce_unique": true}}'

Enforcement starts once the setting is on and a build of the branch has found zero collisions. From then on, a local write that would collide is refused with a conflict: a translation, a create, an update, a move, or a copy into the parent. That holds whichever way the write arrives: the HTTP and WebSocket translation APIs, UPDATE … FOR LOCALE … SET __node_name, or a package overlay with __node_name (that one overlay is rejected and reported; the rest of the package installs).

Inside a transaction every write is checked against the others as the transaction will commit them: two siblings given the same name in one transaction collide, and a name another sibling gives up in the same transaction is free. Swapping two siblings' names needs a temporary name, as with any unique value.

Replication and merges never refuse a name that another node or branch already accepted. If that produces a collision, the next build counts it, and enforcement is suspended until it is resolved.

Index build and fallback​

The localized name index is on by default for every repository. Each branch is built in the background, one branch at a time: after startup, after a fork or publish, after a change to the repository's languages or fallback chains, after a merge from a branch that was not yet built, and after a replica catches up from a checkpoint.

Until a branch is built under the repository's current language settings, lookups take a row-level fallback that walks a parent's children by the same rules. The fallback always returns the same answer, just more slowly on wide folders. Reads at a revision older than the build also use it. The HTTP response's served_by tells you which path answered.

To force a build, start the localized_names repair:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/management/myrepo/repairs/localized_names \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}'

See the Index Repairs API.

Setting RAISIN_LOCALIZED_NAME_INDEX=0 on the server switches the index off: it stops being written, builds are refused, and every lookup uses the fallback. Switching it back on rebuilds every branch.

Next Steps​