Localizing Hard-Coded UI Strings: A Visual Guide for Global React Rollouts

Hard-coded strings are the "silent killer" of global enterprise expansion. You open a legacy codebase—perhaps a 10-year-old insurance portal or a complex financial dashboard—and you find thousands of lines where "Submit," "Account Balance," and "Date of Birth" are baked directly into the JSX. This isn't just a minor inconvenience; it is a structural barrier to entry for new markets. When your goal is a global React rollout, manual extraction is a recipe for failure.

According to Replay’s analysis, the average enterprise screen takes 40 hours to manually document, extract, and refactor for localization. With the global technical debt load sitting at $3.6 trillion, most organizations simply cannot afford to spend 18-24 months on a rewrite. If you are tasked with localizing hardcoded strings visual workflows across thousands of components, you need a strategy that bypasses the "grep and replace" nightmare.

TL;DR: Manual localization of legacy React apps is slow and error-prone. By using Replay, teams can record user workflows to visually identify and extract hard-coded strings, converting them into i18n-ready components automatically. This reduces the refactoring time from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours, achieving a 70% time saving on average.

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The Hidden Cost of Technical Debt in Localization#

The primary reason localizing hardcoded strings visual assets is so difficult is the lack of context. A string like "Order" could be a noun (Your Order) or a verb (Order Now). In a legacy system, where 67% of systems lack documentation, a developer looking at raw code often lacks the business context to choose the correct translation key.

In my experience as a Senior Architect, I’ve seen global rollouts stall for years because the localization team and the engineering team are disconnected. The engineers are hunting for strings in the code, while the localization team is looking at screenshots.

The Manual vs. Automated Localization Gap#

Visual Reverse Engineering is the methodology of using recorded user interactions to reconstruct the underlying architecture, components, and data structures of an application.

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Why "Grep" is Not a Localization Strategy#

Most developers start by searching the codebase for string literals. However, this approach fails to account for dynamic strings, template literals, and components that are shared across different contexts.

Consider this typical legacy React component:

typescript
// The "Before" - Legacy Hardcoded Component
import React from 'react';

const UserProfile = ({ user }) => {
  return (
    <div className="profile-container">
      <h2>User Profile</h2> {/* Hardcoded */}
      <p>Welcome back, {user.name}!</p> {/* Hardcoded with variable */}
      <button onClick={() => save()}>Save Changes</button> {/* Hardcoded */}
      <span>Last login: {user.lastLogin}</span> {/* Hardcoded */}
    </div>
  );
};

export default UserProfile;

In a global rollout, this component is a liability. You cannot simply swap "Save Changes" for "Guardar cambios" without a robust internationalization (i18n) framework. Industry experts recommend using a library like

or , but the migration path is the bottleneck.

When localizing hardcoded strings visual data, you need to map these UI elements to a centralized translation file. Doing this manually for 500+ screens is why 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timeline.

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Localizing Hardcoded Strings Visual Workflows with Replay#

Replay changes the paradigm of localization by starting with the UI, not the code. Instead of digging through thousands of lines of JSX, you record a video of the user workflow.

1. •Record: A user records a "Flow" (e.g., an onboarding sequence).
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI Automation Suite identifies every hard-coded string visible on the screen.
3. •Map: The platform generates a Design System and maps the strings to i18n keys.
4. •Export: You receive documented React components with
   text

   t()
   function calls already implemented.

By localizing hardcoded strings visual components through Replay, you ensure that the context of the string is preserved. You aren't just extracting text; you are extracting the intent of the component.

Modernized Code Example#

After using Replay to capture the flow and export the component, your modernized, localized React code looks like this:

typescript
// The "After" - Modernized with i18next and Replay
import React from 'react';
import { useTranslation } from 'react-i18next';

interface UserProfileProps {
  user: {
    name: string;
    lastLogin: string;
  };
}

const UserProfile: React.FC<UserProfileProps> = ({ user }) => {
  const { t } = useTranslation();

  return (
    <div className="profile-container">
      {/* Replay identified these strings and generated the keys */}
      <h2>{t('profile.title', 'User Profile')}</h2> 
      <p>{t('profile.welcome', 'Welcome back, {{name}}!', { name: user.name })}</p>
      <button className="btn-primary">
        {t('common.actions.save', 'Save Changes')}
      </button>
      <span>
        {t('profile.last_login', 'Last login: {{date}}', { date: user.lastLogin })}
      </span>
    </div>
  );
};

export default UserProfile;

Video-to-code is the process of converting a screen recording of a functional application into clean, modular, and documented source code.

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Strategic Advantages for Regulated Industries#

For organizations in Financial Services, Healthcare, or Government, localization isn't just about language—it's about compliance. In these sectors, localizing hardcoded strings visual elements requires strict adherence to SOC2 and HIPAA standards.

According to Replay’s analysis, manual localization often introduces "UI drift," where the translated text is longer than the original (e.g., German vs. English), leading to broken layouts and non-compliant interfaces. Replay’s Flows and Blueprints allow architects to visualize how localized strings will impact the layout before a single line of code is pushed to production.

Automated Documentation is a critical byproduct of this process. Since Replay generates documentation based on real user interactions, your global teams have a "source of truth" for how the application should behave in every language.

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The 4-Step Visual Localization Framework#

To successfully master localizing hardcoded strings visual rollouts, follow this enterprise-grade framework:

1. Visual Audit and Recording#

Start by identifying the high-priority flows. Record these using the Replay browser extension. This captures the "as-is" state of your legacy UI, including all hard-coded labels, tooltips, and error messages.

2. Component Library Generation#

Replay takes the recording and identifies repeating UI patterns. It creates a Component Library (the Library feature), which acts as the foundation for your new design system. This ensures that a "Submit" button is localized once and reused everywhere.

3. AI-Assisted Key Mapping#

The AI Automation Suite suggests logical i18n keys based on the component's location and function. For example, a button in the "Settings" flow might be tagged as

. This eliminates the naming fatigue that slows down manual developers.

4. Continuous Modernization#

Instead of a "Big Bang" rewrite, which takes an average of 18 months, you can roll out localized screens incrementally. This reduces risk and allows for immediate feedback from regional stakeholders.

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Overcoming the "Documentation Gap"#

One of the biggest hurdles in localizing hardcoded strings visual projects is that 67% of legacy systems lack documentation. When you don't know why a specific string exists or what edge cases it handles, you risk breaking the application during refactoring.

Replay solves this by creating a visual map of the application architecture. By recording the workflow, you are effectively creating the documentation that was never written. This is particularly valuable for complex industries like Manufacturing or Telecom, where UI strings often trigger specific backend logic.

Modernizing without rewriting allows you to reclaim your developer's time. Instead of spending 40 hours per screen on tedious string extraction, they can focus on building new features for the global market.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

How does Replay handle dynamic strings that aren't visible during the recording?#

While Replay excels at capturing what is on screen, its AI Automation Suite can also analyze the underlying code structures to identify potential dynamic strings. For complex logic, developers can use Replay's Blueprints to manually tag data-driven strings that require localization.

Can Replay work with on-premise legacy systems in regulated environments?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments including Financial Services and Healthcare. It is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, and an on-premise deployment option is available for organizations that cannot use cloud-based AI tools for their proprietary source code.

Does the visual extraction support right-to-left (RTL) languages like Arabic or Hebrew?#

Absolutely. By localizing hardcoded strings visual components within the Replay platform, you can preview how the UI responds to RTL layouts. This visual feedback loop is essential for catching layout breaks that standard code-based localization tools would miss.

What is the average time savings when using Replay for localization?#

On average, enterprise teams see a 70% time savings. What typically takes 40 hours per screen manually can be completed in approximately 4 hours using Replay’s visual reverse engineering and AI automation.

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Conclusion: Stop Searching, Start Visualizing#

The traditional approach to localizing hardcoded strings visual assets is a relic of the past. In a world where technical debt is mounting and global competition is fierce, you cannot afford to wait 18 months for a manual rewrite.

By leveraging visual reverse engineering, you transform your legacy UI into a clean, documented, and localized React application in a fraction of the time. You move from "grepping" through code to orchestrating a global rollout with confidence.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay