PHP Snippet:

<?php
<?php

/* add language to the file*/

$config['LANGUAGE'] = array(‘supported’ => array(‘eng’, ‘spa’),

‘default’   => ‘eng’);
?>

Internationalization and localization are often abbreviated as i18n and l10n respectively,

Why CakePHP use i18n or L10n?

because The terms are frequently abbreviated to the numeronyms i18n (where 18 stands for the number of letters between the first i and last n in internationalization, a usage coined at DEC in the 1970s or 80s) and L10n respectively, due to the length of the words. The capital L in L10n helps to distinguish it from the lowercase i in i18n.

You need to know your own language abbreviation. Here is the list of languages and the abbreviation of them:

cake/libs/l10n.php

Note:The three-character locale codes conform to the ISO 639-2 standard, although if you create regional locales (en_US, en_GB, etc.) cake will use them if appropriate.if you use The three-character locale code it will locale as a fallback if it doesn’t exist add it manually like this

$this->Session->write(‘Config.language’, ‘eng’);

For loading the configuration in your application, you need to append the following code at the end of file config/core.php

PHP Code

PHP Snippet:

<?php
<?php

Configure::load(‘config’);?>
?>

2-Part: The language files in CakePHP have either the extension .po or .mo. In this tutorial I’ll use .po files.

For getting more information you can refer to this article:

Localizing PHP Applications series Abouzekry wrote. https://phpmaster.com/localizing-php-applications-1 Note: Remember that po files are useful for short messages, if you find you want to translate long paragraphs, or even whole pages – you should consider implementing a different solution which we skip in this article

We create this folders:

app/locale/eng app/locale/spa For this tutorial, we will use translation for “messages”, so each language folder we have a sub folder names LC_MESSAGES (in uppercase).

Now we should have this:

app/locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/default.po

app/locale/spa/LC_MESSAGES/default.po

Now that this step is finished, we can move on to the next step.

3-Part: In order to work with CakePHP’s text function (ie : __() ..etc ..) first we need to describe them , in fact The __() function identifies these strings as translatable text that will differ by language locale and uses the text within the __() function as the message ID. If we define the translations for a certain language, those translations will appear in place of these functions. If we do not define the translations for that language, the text within the __() function will display instead by default. Every word or phrase to translate is composed of a pair id-string the id is the “msgid” value and the string is the “msgstr” value.

Your Spanish PO file should look like this:

CODE

msgid “bienvenida”

msgstr ” En varios idiomas-tutorial por Alireza.”

msgid “congrat”

msgstr ” le da las gracias”

We now need to make a fake controller to switch between languages. It’s role consists of calling the AppController::beforeFilter() method when a user wants to switch languages.

Create the controller in app/controllers/switchto_controller.php using the following code:

PHP Snippet:

<?php
<?php

class SwitchtoController extends AppController {

var $uses = array();

var $name = ‘Switchto’;

function beforeFilter()

{

parent::beforeFilter();

}

}



The AppController needs some modifications; edit the controller so it looks like this:

<?php

class AppController extends Controller

{

function beforeFilter()

{

if($this->_checkLanguage())

$this->redirect($this->referer(), null, true);

}

function _checkLanguage()

{

if(!$this->Session->check(‘Config.language’) || $this->name == “Switchto”) {

$default_lang   = Configure::read(‘LANGUAGE.default’);

$supported_lang = Configure::read(‘LANGUAGE.supported’);

$lang = null;

if($this->name == “Switchto”)

$lang = $this->action;

// we need the Cookie

App::Import(‘Component’, ‘Cookie’);

$cookie = & new CookieComponent;

$cookie->time   = ‘+360 days’;

$cookie->name   = ‘MYAPP’;

$cookie->domain = ”;

$cookie->key    = ‘whatever-key-you-wish’;

$cookie->startup();

if(!class_exists(“L10n”))

uses(‘l10n’);

$l10n = & new L10n();

if(!$lang || !in_array($lang, $supported_lang))

{

if($cookie->read(‘tutolanguage.lang’) )

{

$lang = $cookie->read(‘tutolang/lang’);

if(!in_array($lang, $supported_lang))

$lang = null;

}

/* try to find a language spaom browser that we support */

if(!$lang)

{

$browserLang = split (‘[,;]‘, env(‘HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE’));

foreach($browserLang as $langKey )

{

if(isset($l10n->__l10nCatalog[$langKey]) &&

in_array($l10n->__l10nCatalog[$langKey]['locale'], $supported_lang) )

{

$lang = $l10n->__l10nCatalog[$langKey]['locale'];

break;

}

}

}

}

if(!$lang)

$lang = $language_default;

// set the language, and write in cookie

$l10n->__setLanguage($lang);

$cookie->write(array(‘tutolanguage.lang’ => $lang));

$this->Session->write(‘Config.language’,$lang);

if($this->name == “Switchto”)

return true;

}

return false;

}

}

 ?>

In order to remember the language selected by the user, we will use cookies and so I’ve imported the Cookie component. I’ve chosen to integrate the cookie this way instead of declaring it in $components in order to avoid the overhead on the component in every call.

Explanations for _checkLanguage method:

The method work in 2 cases only: “when no session language is set” and “when user wants to switch language”. This is handling by the first condition statement. We get our supported languages and the default one from the configuration. If the controller is “SwitchTo”, it’s because the user clicks on a link to change the language. Then the action will be our language chosen (see below how to set a link to handle language switching. We suppose the desired language is the action name. Next we import the Cookie component. Indeed in order to remember the language we use cookies,I have used this way to integrate the cookie instead of declaring it in the $components in order to avoid the overhead on the component in every call(I test it ). We set the cookie parameters, you may change this to your own setting. Note that the call to $cookie->startup is essential to have the expiration date properly initialized. We will use the class L10n for setting our language. We instantiate an object of this class. We verify that our desired language is supported (either the desired is null, or set by the SwitchTo action. If the language is not supported we look if we have it in the cookie. If so we still verify we support it (that can happen in case or a removal of a language). In case we did not have any language, we verify if one of the browser supported language is matching one of our supported language. If so, we will use the first one matching. Still no language defined, then we will use our application default’s language. We use the L10n _setLanguage method to set our language application wide and we set our session language (missing this will screw up the process). We write the language in the cookie. When a user comes back, he will be automatically set to the last language he was. We return true in case of a deliberated language switch in order the beforeFilter to redirect to the referrer URL. The beforerFilter is self-explanatory, we redirect to the referrer in case the user did choose another language.

4-Part: A sample main page

To test the example, I modified the cake default main page (copy from cake distribution and place it in app/views/pages/display.ctp

PHP Snippet:

<?php
<h2><?php __(” bienvenida”); ?></h2>

<br />

<ul>

<li><?php echo $html->link(‘English’, ‘/switchto/eng’);?></li>

<li><?php echo $html->link(‘Spanish’, ‘/switchto/spa’);?></li>

</ul>

<br />

<h3><?php echo __(“congrat”, true);?><h3>

 ?>

The file demonstrates two ways in which the __() function is used. In either case, the first argument is a value that matches a msgid in the default.po file. if the msgid is not found in the PO file, then the value will be returned as is. By default, the translation message (or the unmatched msgid) will be outputted to the user. But __() also supports a second optional Boolean parameter which you can use if you want to capture the output instead of sending it, perhaps to pass to another function or anything else you may need to do to it.

It’s worth noting the language files are cached into the tmp/cache/persistent/cake_core_default_xxx files (where xxx is the locale). When using cake with debug = 0, be sure to delete the cached language file in order to reflect the changes immediately.

5-Part: Summery When it comes to internationalization and localization your web application, you may have a lot of options but CakePHP will be the best choice . in fact using cookie instead of subdomain and other ways or using translations in gettext style have lots of advantages which we will find in this article and CakePHP make it rapid and more flexible to create your applicatio