Locales and translations

A locale is a language and region code, such as en_US or fr_FR, used to keep separate values for the same attribute. Translation in minipim works per attribute: an attribute marked Localizable stores one value per locale, and every other attribute stores one value for all locales.

In the admin

Add a locale:

1. Go to System → Locales and click New locale.
2. Enter a Code (for example fr_FR) and a Label (for example “Français (France)”), then click Create.
3. To change the default, click Set default on another locale. To remove a locale, use the trash icon. The default locale can’t be deleted.

Make an attribute translatable: open it under Catalog → Attributes and turn on Localizable (“Different value per locale”).

Enter translations: when your organization has more than one locale, the product editor shows a Locale selector above the attributes. Choose a locale, fill in the localizable fields and save. Attributes that aren’t localizable keep one shared value whichever locale is selected.

With the API

Method	Path	What it does
GET, POST	/v1/locales	List or create locales
PATCH, DELETE	/v1/locales/{id}	Change label/isDefault, or delete

Attribute values are stored as records with a locale and a channel:

"description": [
  { "locale": "en_US", "channel": null, "value": "Waxed canvas tote" },
  { "locale": "fr_FR", "channel": null, "value": "Cabas en toile cirée" }
]

To get one value per attribute for a market, add ?locale= (and optionally ?channel=) to a single-product read. The response then includes a flat resolvedAttributes map:

const { data } = await pim.GET('/v1/products/{id}', {
  params: { path: { id }, query: { locale: 'fr_FR', channel: 'web' } },
});
data.resolvedAttributes?.description; // "Cabas en toile cirée"

Full reference: api.minipim.com/docs.

How resolution works

For each attribute, resolvedAttributes takes the first record that matches, in this order:

1. this locale and this channel
2. this locale, no channel
3. no locale, this channel
4. no locale, no channel

It does not fall back to another locale. If a localizable attribute has only an en_US value, a fr_FR read leaves it out of the map. Fill in every locale you publish, or handle the gap in your storefront.

Rules and limits

• Each organization has exactly one default locale. Setting isDefault: true on one clears it everywhere else.
• A locale’s code can’t be changed after it’s created. Codes are unique within an organization and at least 2 characters. The language_REGION form is a convention, not something minipim enforces.
• A localizable attribute’s records must have a locale string. A non-localizable attribute’s records must have locale: null. minipim doesn’t check the code against your locales list.
• Deleting a locale doesn’t delete values stored under it. They stay on the product and are no longer shown, and recreating the code brings them back.
• The list endpoint GET /v1/products accepts locale and channel but ignores them. Use the single-product read for resolved values.
• A localizable attribute can’t have a default value.
• For channel readiness, a required localizable attribute only counts as filled when every locale on the channel has a value. Setting a product active only needs the attribute to have a value in some locale.
• In the admin, Set attribute in bulk editing and CSV import write localizable attributes to en_US, whatever your default locale is. Use the API to bulk-write other locales. Media alt text in the admin is written for the default locale only.