---
title: "Fallback modes — Translatable for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Choose how far reads fall back — exact locale only, the fallback locale, or any available value — globally or per model."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/translatable-for-laravel/fallback
language: en
---

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# Fallback modes

The FallbackMode enum drives every read that uses fallback — property access, getTranslation() with fallback on, and serialization:

| Mode | Config value | Resolution |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `FallbackMode::None` | `none` | Exact requested locale only — null when it’s missing. |
| `FallbackMode::Fallback` | `fallback` | Exact locale, then the configured fallback locale. |
| `FallbackMode::Any` | `any` | Exact locale, then the fallback locale, then the first available value — supported locales in order, then any other stored locale alphabetically. The default — content never renders blank. |

```php
// Stored: name = {"sk": "Investovanie"}, fallback_locale = en, app locale = de

// FallbackMode::Any (default)
$topic->name;                                // 'Investovanie' — first available value

// FallbackMode::Fallback or FallbackMode::None
$topic->name;                                // null

// Regardless of the mode
$topic->getTranslation('name', 'de', false); // null — fallback switched off
$topic->translatedOrNull('name');            // null — exact app locale only
```

Any’s last step walks the supported locales in order, then any other stored locale alphabetically. The pick never depends on how the database orders JSON keys, so a row renders the same language on every engine and before and after a reload.

## Cross-locale disclosure with Any

Any is the shipped default so content never renders blank. The tradeoff: when both the requested and the fallback locale are empty, Any renders the first available locale’s value — so content you deliberately left untranslated for a locale can still appear in another language. If some content is legally or compliance-gated per locale, switch to Fallback (or None) globally via TRANSLATABLE\_FALLBACK or the config, or per model:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Translatable\Enums\FallbackMode;

protected ?FallbackMode $translatableFallbackMode = FallbackMode::Fallback;
protected ?string $translatableFallbackLocale = 'en';
```

A blank translatable.fallback resolves to Any; an unrecognised value — in the config or in a per-model $translatableFallbackMode, which also accepts the string values none, fallback and any — throws InvalidConfigurationException rather than widening to Any. FallbackMode uses the Helpers trait from enums-for-laravel, so that package’s enum helpers are available on it.

## Resolving a raw map

Translatable::resolve() runs the same resolution a model read uses, for a raw map you hold outside a model — a cached payload, an API response, a config array. The locale defaults to the current one, the mode and fallback locale to the configured ones. Blank values never win — null, '', booleans, arrays and objects are skipped, ints and floats are cast to strings — so a messy map resolves and never throws:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Translatable\Enums\FallbackMode;
use RoundlyConsulting\Translatable\Facades\Translatable;

$map = ['en' => 'Investing', 'sk' => 'Investovanie']; // a cached payload, an API response, a config array

app()->setLocale('sk');
Translatable::resolve($map);                          // 'Investovanie' — current locale, configured chain
Translatable::resolve($map, 'de');                    // 'Investing' — falls back to fallback_locale (en)
Translatable::resolve($map, 'de', FallbackMode::None); // null — exact locale only
Translatable::resolve($map, 'de', FallbackMode::Fallback, fallbackLocale: 'sk'); // 'Investovanie'

// A messy map resolves, it never throws:
Translatable::resolve(['en' => null, 'sk' => 'Ahoj'], 'de'); // 'Ahoj'
Translatable::resolve(['sk' => 5], 'de');                   // '5'
```

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