How to default the URL to not display the default lang in the permalink?

[lorezyra]

I'm building a multilingual website (mostly Asian languages). However, the default language is English. How can I configure HEXO to not require the default lang (config.permalink_defaults.lang) in the URI, but have it for all the other languages I've built localized files?

My config.permalink is set to :title/. If I set to :lang/:title/, the default lang is always in the URL. How can I get HEXO to remove that?

For example:

• English (default): https://Blog.RichieBartlett.com/Money/how-to-make-money-online/
• Japanese: https://Blog.RichieBartlett.com/ja/Money/how-to-make-money-online/
• Vietnamese: https://Blog.RichieBartlett.com/vi/Money/how-to-make-money-online/
• Arabic: https://Blog.RichieBartlett.com/ar/Money/how-to-make-money-online/

My _config.yml (partial)

## ...


## ISO 639-1 Code
language:
  - en #English
  - ja #Japanese
  - ar #Arabic
  - zh-TW # Traditional Chinese
  - zh-CN # Simplified Chinese

## IANA time zone
timezone: 'Asia/Tokyo'

## URL
## Set your site url here. For example, if you use GitHub Page, set url as 'https://lorezyra.github.io/project'
url: https://blog.RichieBartlett.com
root: /
## https://hexo.io/docs/permalinks
permalink: :lang/:title/
permalink_defaults:
  lang: en

## ...

[yoshinorin]

@lorezyra
Honestly, I'm not familiar with i18 of Hexo. But, I guess https://hexo.io source code may help you.

https://github.com/hexojs/site/tree/f5f445d5391c8ae51c8c773f90f94c39307e1715

[lorezyra]

I've read https://hexo.io/docs/internationalization. But I guess your point is how the HEXO docs website achieves this exact feature that I'm aiming for...

[lorezyra]

As suggested by @yoshinorin, I looked at the site code and it appears that the HEXOJS website uses a custom helper for this:

https://github.com/hexojs/site/blob/f5f445d5391c8ae51c8c773f90f94c39307e1715/scripts/helpers.js#L83-L88

The helper extends the canonical_url function with lang support.

So basically, this is not a native HEXO feature. You have to roll your own out. Also, I noted that custom routing is configured as well: https://github.com/hexojs/site/blob/master/netlify.toml . Additionally, the language dropdown tool is managed via Javascript: https://github.com/hexojs/site/blob/f5f445d5391c8ae51c8c773f90f94c39307e1715/themes/navy/source/js/lang_select.js

[lorezyra]

Worth mentioning that the folder structure is what determines the path on the generated site. So, that's a big part of the equation.

Then the question becomes one of strategy:

1. Do you build a site where all posts are duplicated for every supported language?
2. Build javascript to handle the UI changes browser side?
3. Only generate pages that have a translation and add language menu for those pages where more than one language is available.

In the case of option 1) you potentially need a lot of storage on your webserver. However, the site will be very fast. And works well if user has JS disabled. For option 2) makes the JS a bit heavy and the DOM logic a bit cumbersome. Plus more resource intensive on the front-end (user's browser). However, option 2 doesn't take that much storage.
Option 3 limits the amount of storage required and doesn't require JS to update the DOM. The challenge is that HEXO doesn't support this out-of-the-box (OOTB). So, you have to build your own plugin/helper to manage it. However, similar to option 1, you don't need JS enabled for this to work.