href always prefixed even when localePrefix is never

[y-nk]

Description

I'm creating a website and want to localize urls directly, therefore i dont need locale prefixing. i'm using the localePrefix: 'never' option but i can't get to generate internal links for another locale within the page because there is an added condition which forces prefixing if the locale of the link is not the current locale:

next-intl/packages/next-intl/src/navigation/shared/BaseLink.tsx

Lines 34 to 49 in 241c3ea

	const [localizedHref, setLocalizedHref] = useState<typeof href>(() =>
	isLocalizableHref(href) &&
	(localePrefixMode !== 'never' || isChangingLocale)
	? // For the `localePrefix: 'as-needed' strategy, the href shouldn't
	// be prefixed if the locale is the default locale. To determine this, we
	// need a) the default locale and b) the information if we use prefixed
	// routing. The default locale can vary by domain, therefore during the
	// RSC as well as the SSR render, we can't determine the default locale
	// statically. Therefore we always prefix the href since this will
	// always result in a valid URL, even if it might cause a redirect. This
	// is better than pointing to a non-localized href during the server
	// render, which would potentially be wrong. The final href is
	// determined in the effect below.
	prefixHref(href, prefix)
	: href
	);

with above code, having a localePrefix: 'never' but trying to generate a <Link locale="fr" /> when the current locale is en will result in the link href to be prefixed with /fr/, which defeats the localePrefix: 'never' strategy.

Verifications

• I've verified that the problem I'm experiencing isn't covered in the docs.
• I've searched for similar, existing issues on GitHub and Stack Overflow.
• I've compared my app to a working example to look for differences.

Mandatory reproduction URL

https://example.com

Reproduction description

I'm still working on a reproduction url, but i believe isChangingLocale should be removed from the code above.

Expected behaviour

When using localPrefix: 'never', urls should never be prefixed with locale.

[amannn]

The reason why links to other locales have a locale prefix even though you're using localePrefix: 'never' is because this route is used to update your NEXT_LOCALE cookie. The cookie is the source of truth in this mode and therefore it's important to update it first before the final route you're intending to navigate to can be visited. You should see a redirect from /fr back to / once the link is clicked.

Does this affect your app in any negative way or is this just something you've noticed and it looked like a bug?

[y-nk]

Yes, it has a slightly negative impact because the goal is to have urls matching exactly the urls i set for SEO purpose not the ones with the prefixes, especially that i do not have those prefixes in the pathnames that i generate which i also use for my sitemap (so i have a sitemap with /hello but the links in my page are /en/hello.

I still try to make a reproduction repo but it's a bit entangled with other libraries therefore it takes time to isolate.

whould that behavior be disabled when i use localeDetection: false ?

[amannn]

If SEO is important to you, how do you provide distinct pathnames per locale if you're using localePrefix: 'never'? Do you use domain-based routing? It would be helpful if you could share your routing config.

whould that behavior be disabled when i use localeDetection: false ?

Nope, that doesn't change this behavior.

[y-nk]

i'm managing urls manually - the website is built with next and content-collections so i'm feeding slugs manually (similar to subdomain-based routing with a single domain)

[amannn]

If you're using a routing system that is external to next-intl, maybe you'd have an easier time if you'd set up your app without i18n routing. Using that approach, you don't have to use either the middleware or the navigation APIs from next-intl and also not the [locale] segment. Maybe that puts you in a better place where you can implement your custom routing requirements.

I'm going to move this to a discussion since this seems to be more a usage question than a bug report. As explained above, the prefix that is shown when changing a locale serves a concrete purpose and is working as intended.