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Setup

After installing the Tolgee SDK, you need to initialize it in your application. This one-time setup process:

  • Configures the SDK to connect to your translation content delivery network (CDN)
  • Sets up local caching for offline access and performance
  • Establishes the global Tolgee instance that your entire app can access
  • Enables over-the-air translation updates without releasing a new app version

Once properly initialized, Tolgee will automatically handle translation fetching, caching, and updates throughout your application's lifecycle.

Initialization Configuration​

Universal Setup

This initialization applies to all Tolgee Android SDK variants - Android Views (Core), Jetpack Compose, and Kotlin Multiplatform.

Android​

Initialize Tolgee in your Application class:

class MyApplication : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        Tolgee.init {
            contentDelivery {
                url = "https://cdn.tolg.ee/your-cdn-url-prefix" // from Tolgee Platform → Content Delivery
                storage = TolgeeStorageProviderAndroid(this@MyApplication, BuildConfig.VERSION_CODE) // cache invalidates on app update
            }
        }
    }
}

Make sure that your app knows where to download translations

For your app to download translation files, you need to provide a CDN URL prefix specific to your project. This prefix points to the catalog that contains your app's translations.

To get your CDN URL prefix:

  1. Open Tolgee Platform → your Project → Developer settings → Content Delivery
  2. Copy the full CDN URL prefix
  3. You can use different prefixes per environment (dev/staging/prod)
info

If you have a different integration setup (for example, using tolgee-cli and bundling JSON translation files in assets), the initialization may look different.

Kotlin Multiplatform (Non-Android Targets)​

For non-Android targets in Kotlin Multiplatform projects, initialization is similar but requires a custom storage provider:

fun initTolgee() {
    Tolgee.init {
        contentDelivery {
            url = "https://cdn.tolg.ee/your-cdn-url-prefix"
            // Create a custom storage provider for caching the latest translations from CDN if needed
        }
    }
}
note

You'll need to implement your own storage provider for non-Android platforms to enable caching of translations.

Alternative Setup: Using Static Data​

If you prefer to bundle translations with your app or need offline-first capabilities, you can use Tolgee CLI to manage translations as static files.

tip

Using Tolgee CLI with static files is ideal for:

  • Offline-first applications
  • Apps with strict security requirements
  • Development environments without internet access
  • CI/CD pipelines that need deterministic builds