Question

I am developing a site using php and mysql. I want to know… what’s a good way to deal with multi-lingual support? I want a user to be able to select from a drop down and select their language. Then everything (content, buttons, links) except the user-written content is in their language.

What’s a good way to approach this? Use a cookie? Session?

Answer 1

Something like this works fine:

Langs.php

<?

// check if language switch as been set at url var
if ($_GET["lang_change"]) {

    $_SESSION['session_name']["lang"] = $_GET["lang_change"];

}


// set value to lang for verification
$active_lang = $_SESSION['session_name']["lang"];


// verify $lang content and set proper file to be load
switch ($active_lang) {

    case 'prt':
        $lang_file = 'prt.php';
        break;

    case 'gbr':
        $lang_file = 'gbr.php';
        break;

    case 'fra' :
        $lang_file = 'fra.php';
        break;

    case 'esp' :
        $lang_file = 'esp.php';
        break;

    case 'deu' :
        $lang_file = 'deu.php';
        break;

    default:
        $lang_file = 'gbr.php';

}


// load proper language file for site presentation
include_once ('$lang_file);

?>

LANG GBR FILE (gbr.php)

define("LANG_PAGETITLE_HOMEPAGE", 'Homepage');
define("LANG_BTN_KNOW_MORE", 'know more');

METHOD TO CHANGE LANGUAGE (url sample)

<a href="index.php?lang_change=gbr" title"">USE ENG</a>

Basically, you have PHP files with constants, each file with a lang.

On click you set a url var (ex: lang_change = lang).

That will force page reload, and the langs.php file include at top of your index.php will load the selected language…

If you need more explanation about this, leave a comment and I’ll send you a working sample!

Ps: session variables shown in this code is usefully for interaction with login systems, or just to avoid having the url parameters…