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CodeIgniter 2.1 internationalization i18n

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World Wide Web Server edited this page Jul 4, 2012 · 30 revisions

Category:Internationalization Category:Core::Language Category:Libraries::Internationalization Category:Libraries::Language

[b]Internationalization (i18n) for CodeIgniter 2.x[/b] is small modification to: [url]http://maestric.com/doc/php/codeigniter_i18n[/url] to work with CodeIgniter 2.1. [h2]Credits:[/h2] Original Author: [b]Jérôme Jaglale[/b]. Original Post (and instructions): [url]http://maestric.com/doc/php/codeigniter_i18n[/url]. Modifications by [b]Yeb Reitsma[/b] [i]Placeholders substitution in language strings[/i]: [b][url=http://codeigniter.com/member/40637]alvil[/url][/b] (original wiki page: [url]http://codeigniter.com/wiki/Placeholders_substitution_in_language_strings/[/url]) [h2]What it does:[/h2] Use [url=http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/language.html]CodeIgniter's Language Class[/url] through the language in the URI: [pre]http://example.com/en/welcome http://example.com/es/welcome[/pre] with the possibility to add placeholders ("%s") inside your language strings, to make it more dinamic. [h2]Installation and configuration:[/h2] [h3]1. Use pretty URLs (without index.php)[/h3] a) With Apache it's usually achieved with [b]mod_rewrite[/b] through an .htaccess. (See [url=http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/urls.html]CodeIgniter User Guide for URLs[/url] for more information about this)

b) In [b].application/config/config.php[/b] set to blank [pre]$config['index_page'] = ””[/pre]

[h3]2. Create [b]application/core/MY_Lang.php[/b]:[/h3] [code] <?php (defined('BASEPATH')) OR exit('No direct script access allowed');

// Originaly CodeIgniter i18n library by Jérôme Jaglale // http://maestric.com/en/doc/php/codeigniter_i18n // modification by Yeb Reitsma

/* in case you use it with the HMVC modular extension uncomment this and remove the other lines load the MX_Loader class */

//require APPPATH."third_party/MX/Lang.php";

//class MY_Lang extends MX_Lang {

class MY_Lang extends CI_Lang {

/**************************************************
 configuration
***************************************************/

// languages
private $languages = array(
    'en' => 'english',
    'de' => 'german',
    'fr' => 'french',
    'nl' => 'dutch'
);

// special URIs (not localized)
private $special = array (
    "admin"
);

// where to redirect if no language in URI
private $uri;
private $default_uri;
private $lang_code;

/**************************************************/


function MY_Lang()
{
    parent::__construct();
    
    global $CFG;
    global $URI;
    global $RTR;
    
    $this->uri = $URI->uri_string();
    $this->default_uri = $RTR->default_controller;
    
    $uri_segment = $this->get_uri_lang($this->uri);
    $this->lang_code = $uri_segment['lang'] ;
    
    $url_ok = false;
    if ((!empty($this->lang_code)) && (array_key_exists($this->lang_code, $this->languages)))
    {
        $language = $this->languages[$this->lang_code];
        $CFG->set_item('language', $language);
        $url_ok = true;
    }
    
 if ((!$url_ok) && (!$this->is_special($uri_segment['parts'][0]))) // special URI -> no redirect
 {
  // set default language
  $CFG->set_item('language', $this->languages[$this->default_lang()]);
  
  $uri = (!empty($this->uri)) ? $this->uri: $this->default_uri;
      $uri = ($uri[0] != '/') ? '/'.$uri : $uri;
  $new_url = $CFG->config['base_url'].$this->default_lang().$uri;
  
  header("Location: " . $new_url, TRUE, 302);
  exit;
 }
}



// get current language
// ex: return 'en' if language in CI config is 'english' 
function lang()
{
    global $CFG;        
    $language = $CFG->item('language');
    
    $lang = array_search($language, $this->languages);
    if ($lang)
    {
        return $lang;
    }
    
    return NULL;    // this should not happen
}


function is_special($lang_code)
{
    if ((!empty($lang_code)) && (in_array($lang_code, $this->special)))
        return TRUE;
    else
        return FALSE;
}


function switch_uri($lang)
 {
     if ((!empty($this->uri)) && (array_key_exists($lang, $this->languages)))
     {

      if ($uri_segment = $this->get_uri_lang($this->uri))
      {
       $uri_segment['parts'][0] = $lang;
       $uri = implode('/',$uri_segment['parts']);
      }
      else
      {
       $uri = $lang.'/'.$this->uri;
      }
     }

     return $uri;
 }

//check if the language exists //when true returns an array with lang abbreviation + rest function get_uri_lang($uri = '') { if (!empty($uri)) { $uri = ($uri[0] == '/') ? substr($uri, 1): $uri;

  $uri_expl = explode('/', $uri, 2);
  $uri_segment['lang'] = NULL;
  $uri_segment['parts'] = $uri_expl;  
  
  if (array_key_exists($uri_expl[0], $this->languages))
  {
   $uri_segment['lang'] = $uri_expl[0];
  }
  return $uri_segment;
 }
 else
  return FALSE;
}


// default language: first element of $this->languages
 function default_lang()

{ $browser_lang = !empty($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']) ? strtok(strip_tags($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']), ',') : ''; $browser_lang = substr($browser_lang, 0,2); return (array_key_exists($browser_lang, $this->languages)) ? $browser_lang: 'en'; }

// add language segment to $uri (if appropriate)
function localized($uri)
{
 if (!empty($uri))
 {
  $uri_segment = $this->get_uri_lang($uri);
  if (!$uri_segment['lang'])
  {

   if ((!$this->is_special($uri_segment['parts'][0])) && (!preg_match('/(.+)\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{2,4}$/', $uri)))
   {
             $uri = $this->lang() . '/' . $uri;
            }
        }
 }
    return $uri;
}

}

// END MY_Lang Class

/* End of file MY_Lang.php / / Location: ./application/core/MY_Lang.php */ [/code]

Add your languages to the "$language" array. [b]The first language will be the default language[/b].

[h4]Special URIs:[/h4] A special URI is not prefixed by a language. The root URI (/) is by default a special URI.

You might need other special URIs, like for an "admin" section, which would be in just one language.

Add "admin" to the "$special" array.

Now, links to "admin" won't be prefixed by the current language.

[h3]3. Create [b]application/core/MY_Config.php[/b]:[/h3] [code] <?php if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

// Originaly CodeIgniter i18n library by Jérôme Jaglale // http://maestric.com/en/doc/php/codeigniter_i18n //modification by Yeb Reitsma

/* in case you use it with the HMVC modular extention uncomment this and remove the other lines load the MX_Loader class */ //require APPPATH."third_party/MX/Config.php";

//class MY_Config extends MX_Config {

class MY_Config extends CI_Config {

function site_url($uri = '')
{    
    if (is_array($uri))
    {
        $uri = implode('/', $uri);
    }
    
    if (function_exists('get_instance'))        
    {
        $CI =& get_instance();
        $uri = $CI->lang->localized($uri);            
    }

    return parent::site_url($uri);
}

}

// END MY_Config Class

/* End of file MY_Config.php / / Location: ./application/core/MY_Config.php */ [/code]

[h3]4. Add routes[/h3] Add these lines to [b]./application/config/routes.php[/b]: [code]// URI like '/en/about' -> use controller 'about' $route['^(en|de|fr|nl)/(.+)$'] = "$2";

// '/en', '/de', '/fr' and '/nl' URIs -> use default controller $route['^(en|de|fr|nl)$'] = $route['default_controller'];[/code] where [b]en|de|fr|nl[/b] are the same languages as in your "MY_Lang"'s "$languages" array.

[h3]5. Creating languages files[/h3] As explained in [url=http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/language.html]CodeIgniter's Language Class user guide[/url]. Read this carefully to learn how to load, store and write language files.

You can add [b]placeholders[/b] inside your strings. For instance, if you like to add the "username" to a string, you can by writing this lang string: [code]$lang['welcome'] = "Welcome, %s.";[/code]

See [b]7. Create View[/b] for further reference.

[h3]6. Create Controller[/h3] [code]<?php class About extends Controller {

function index() { // you might want to just autoload these two helpers $this->load->helper('language'); $this->load->helper('url');

// load language file $this->lang->load('about');

$this->load->view('about'); } }

/* End of file about.php / / Location: ./application/controllers/about.php */[/code]

[h3]7. Create View[/h3] To fetch a lang line or add an anchor: [code]

<?=lang('about.gender')?>

<?=anchor('music','Shania Twain')?>

[/code]

Read [url=http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/language_helper.html]CodeIgniter's Language Helper user guide[/url] to learn more on how to fetch language lines.

In case you use placeholders inside your language strings, you can use them like this: [code]

<?php $username = "John Doe"; echo lang('welcome', $username)?>

[/code]

This should appear like: [code]Welcome, John Doe.[/code] (Using the language string of step 5)

That's all. Try it, it should work!

[h2]Notes[/h2]

  • You might need to [b]translate some of CodeIgniter's language files[/b] in system/language. Example: if you're using the “Form Validation” library for French pages, translate system/language/form_validation_lang.php to system/application/language/french/form_validation_lang.php.

  • Links to internal pages are prefixed by the current language, but links to files are not: [code]site_url('about/my_work'); // http://mywebsite.com/en/about/my_work

site_url('css/styles.css'); // http://mywebsite.com/css/styles.css[/code]

  • Get the current language: [code]$this->lang->lang(); // en[/code]

  • Switch to another language: [code]anchor($this->lang->switch_uri('fr'),'Display current page in French');[/code]

[h2]Further information and useful modifications[/h2]

  • [url=http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/197965/#930928]Avoid Spider Bots problems with "$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']"[/url]

[h2]Disclaimer[/h2] It works on a scratch installation of CodeIgniter 2.0.3, on MAPM 2.0.3 (localhost) in Mac OS X 10.7.2 (2011-10-23)

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