Localize - next generation localisation (ex_cldr v3.0)

kip

ex_cldr Core Team

Localize is the next generation localisation library for Elixir. Think of it as ex_cldr version 3.0. The first version will be released before the end of March 2026 and is under active development.

The goals and objectives are documented on Github, with the headline objectives being:

No “backend” architecture, CLDR data will be stored in :persistent_term.
No compile-time configuration. Runtime all the way.
Dynamic loading of locales. No more compile-time configuration of supported locales. Downloading and storage/access will be pluggable. This may suit organisations with specific security policies or running Localize on devices with limited connectivity or resources.
Simplified library packaging. Localize will have everything except web-oriented and SQL oriented modules which will go in their own libraries.
A Phoenix-based locale explorer will be available to make it easier and clearer to see what capabilities are possible with Localize (enabled by CLDR). At a later stage the locale explorer will also be hosted on a publicly available web server.

Note this will not be a drop-in replacement. However the public API will be very very similar with the main breaking change being the removal of any backend argument.

Feedback, suggestions all very welcome either here, or on GitHub discussions.

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#library #localization #localize

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2026-07-07 05:32:53 UTC

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wmnnd

That sounds great, thank you for working on this - I’ll be sure to give it a try soon.

Post #1

lawik

Nerves Core Team

You absolute legend.

Post #2

kip

ex_cldr Core Team

Making Localize a good Nerves citizen is definitely in scope too. No compile time configuration will help. But primarily by supporting configurable locale sources and configurable locale storage and access methods. (thanks for the kind words).

Post #3

andreh

Awesome! I just want to thank you for your work. @lawik is right, you’re a legend!

Post #4

jarrodm

Great work as always, @kip! Out of curiosity, did you do you any perf comparisons between the :persistent_term and precompiled backends?

Post #5

kip

ex_cldr Core Team

I did do some very loose and informal performance comparisons some time ago and the performance seemed comparable. I will certainly be doing comapative performance testing when I get further along the development path.

Post #6

jarrodm

So better ergonomics for roughly the same performance! Nice.

Post #7

kip

ex_cldr Core Team

Localize will officially launch next Monday. I’ve got a full week of launch activity planned. And a shiny new blog at elixir-localize.com where I’m committed to spending more time writing about they why and how localisation matters and how localize can make it almost trivial to write localised Elixir applications.

Each day next week there is something launching:

Monday is the core localize library. It compiles faster than ex_cldr, runs faster, uses less memory, has simpler packaging (nearly everything in one package).
Tuesday is localize_web that includes accept-header parsing and locale setting, localised routes and some HTML helpers.
Wednesday is the launch of localize_person_names for formatting names in a localised manner; in formal, informal and other ways. And the launch of Calendrical which is a consolidated set of calendars now including Gregorian, Julian, Islamic (four variants), Hebrew, Persian, Indian, Buddhist, Composite and user definable. And a few more I probably missed.
Thursday its time for some new fun things. localize_phonenumber that wraps libphonenumber for parsing and formatting phone numbers and localize_address for parsing free-form address data and then formatting its using the OpenCageData templates.
Friday is the “one more thing” release. It’s called Intl and its an API wrapper for Localize that maps very closely to the Javascript Intl API. This should make it easier for developers who are more front-end savvy to adopt localisation in Elixir more easily.

I’ll be posting more long form content at elixir-localize.com as the week progresses.

Eight years into developing ex_cldr and friends I think I can say confidently that localize is better in every way. I hope you’ll try it out, give feedback, open issues and help me make that claim a reality.

Post #8