Question

This is the most optimal way of dealing with a multilingual website I can think of, right now (not sure) which doesn’t involve gettext, zend_translate or any php plugin or framework.

I think its pretty straight forward: I have 3 languages and I write their “content” in different files (in form of arrays), and later, I call that content to my index.php like you can appreciate in the following picture:

alt text http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1471/codew.png

I just started with php and I would like to know if I’m breaking php good practices, if the code is vulnerable to XSS attack or if I’m writing more code than necessary.

EDIT: I posted a picture so that you can see the files tree (I’m not being lazy)

EDIT2: I’m using Vim with the theme ir_black and NERDTree.

Answer 1

Looks all right to me, although I personally prefer creating and using a dictionary helper function:

<?php echo dictionary("showcase_li2"); ?>

that would enable you to easily switch methods later, and gives you generally more control over your dictionary. Also with an array, you will have the problem of scope – you will have to import it into every function using global $language; very annoying.

You will probably also reach the point when you have to insert values into an internationalized string:

You have %1 votes left in the next %2 hours.
Sie haben %1 stimmen übrig für die nächsten %2 stunden.
Sinulla on %1 ääntä jäljellä seuraavan %2 tunnin ajassa.

that is something a helper function can be very useful for:

<?php echo dictionary("xyz", $value1, $value2 ); ?> 

$value1 and $value2 would be inserted into %1 and %2 in the dictionary string.

Such a helper function can easily be built with an unlimited number of parameters using func_get_args().