How to use directions?

Implementing Directional Features in Materialize Template

The Materialize template supports multilingual capabilities, including handling different directions like left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left (RTL) for languages such as English and Arabic, respectively. This document outlines how to implement directional features in both server-side and client-side environments, as well as specific usage for directional icons.

Server Side Implementation

If you want to use the direction in the server-side components, you can use the direction prop in the Layout component. When handling the direction on the server side, the direction is typically determined based on the user's selected locale. Here's how it works:

Suppose you want to add a class text-error to the div element when the direction is rtl. You can use the following code snippet:

page.tsx

// Third-party Imports
import classnames from 'classnames'

// Type Imports
import type { Locale } from '@configs/i18n'

// Config Imports
import { i18n } from '@configs/i18n'

const Component = ({ params }: { params: { lang: Locale } }) => {
  const direction = i18n.langDirection[params.lang]

  return (
    <div className={classnames({ 'text-error': direction === 'rtl' })}>
      Component
    </div>
  )
}

export default Component

• The direction is obtained from the i18n.langDirection configuration based on the current language (params.lang).

• You can manipulate the direction value according to your needs like adding a class or style to the component and so on.

Client Side Implementation

On the client side, direction handling can be more dynamic. We are handing this with MUI's useTheme hook. Here's how it works:

The below code snippet shows how to add a class text-error to the div element when the direction is rtl:

component.tsx

// MUI Imports
import { useTheme } from '@mui/material/styles'

const Component = () => {
  // Hooks
  const theme = useTheme()

  return (
    <div className={theme.direction === 'rtl' ? 'text-error' : ''}>
      Component
    </div>
  )
}

export default Component

• Here, the useTheme hook from MUI is used to access the current theme's direction property (theme.direction) and apply styles or functionality bases on it.

Directional Icons

For components where icons that change based on the direction, we use the DirectionalIcon component. It ensures that the correct icon is displayed based on the direction. Here's how it works:

note

The DirectionalIcon component works in both server-side and client-side environments.

component.tsx

// components Imports
import DirectionalIcon from '@components/DirectionalIcon'

const component = () => {
  return (
    ...
    <DirectionalIcon ltrIconClass='ri-arrow-left-s-line' rtlIconClass='ri-arrow-right-s-line' />
    ...
  )
}

export default component

• DirectionalIcon takes ltrIconClass and rtlIconClass props, specifying the icon classes for LTR and RTL directions, respectively.
• It automatically switches between these classes based on the current direction.