Route Helpers

function createRouteHelpers(
  defaultLocale: string,
  locales: string[],
  slugMaps: Record<string, SlugMap>
): {
  localePath: (locale: string, path: string) => string;
  switchLocalePath: (currentPath: string, targetLocale: string) => string;
  getLocaleFromPath: (pathname: string) => string;
}

Returns three functions for locale-aware URL generation. When using createI18n, these are pre-configured and available from virtual:i18n.

localePath(locale, path)

Translates a canonical (default-locale) path to a locale-specific URL.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
locale	string	Target locale code
path	string	Canonical path (default-locale URLs, e.g. /about/)

Returns: string — the localized path

Examples:

localePath('en', '/about/');              // "/about/"
localePath('es', '/about/');              // "/es/sobre/"
localePath('es', '/saunas/model-165/');   // "/es/saunas/modelo-165/"

Behavior:

• For the default locale, returns the path unchanged
• For other locales, adds the locale prefix and translates each slug segment using the slug maps
• Works with both page slugs and content slugs

switchLocalePath(currentPath, targetLocale)

Converts a path from any locale to a target locale. This is the function to use for language switchers.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
currentPath	string	Path in any locale (e.g. /es/sobre/)
targetLocale	string	Target locale code

Returns: string — the path in the target locale

Examples:

switchLocalePath('/es/sobre/', 'en');                  // "/about/"
switchLocalePath('/about/', 'es');                      // "/es/sobre/"
switchLocalePath('/es/saunas/modelo-165/', 'en');      // "/saunas/model-165/"

Behavior:

1. Detects the source locale from the path
2. Resolves each slug segment back to its canonical form
3. Translates to the target locale using localePath

getLocaleFromPath(pathname)

Extracts the locale from a URL pathname by checking the first path segment.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
pathname	string	URL pathname (e.g. /es/sobre/)

Returns: string — the locale code

Examples:

getLocaleFromPath('/es/sobre/');  // "es"
getLocaleFromPath('/about/');     // "en" (default)
getLocaleFromPath('/fr/contact/'); // "fr"

Behavior:

• Checks if the first path segment matches any configured locale
• If no match is found, returns defaultLocale