Question

I want to set the default application language as my visitor countries language. I have an API to get the IP prefix idiom and based in this information, I want to set the language.

What is the best way to do this? I want to make a cookie to store the language identifier, but where do I have to set this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Have you seen CodeIgniter’s Language library?

The Language Class provides functions to retrieve language files and lines of text for purposes of internationalization.

In your CodeIgniter system folder you’ll find one called language containing sets of language files. You can create your own language files as needed in order to display error and other messages in other languages.

Language files are typically stored in your system/language directory. Alternately you can create a folder called language inside your application folder and store them there. CodeIgniter will look first in your application/language directory. If the directory does not exist or the specified language is not located there CI will instead look in your global system/language folder.

In your case…

• you need to create a polish_lang.php and english_lang.php inside application/language/polish
• then create your keys inside that file (e.g. $lang['hello'] = "Witaj";
• then load it in your controller like $this->lang->load('polish_lang', 'polish');
• then fetch the line like $this->lang->line('hello'); Just store the return value of this function in a variable so you can use it in your view.

Repeat the steps for the english language and all other languages you need.