[PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
I'm a noob so keep the comments to a noob's level please. I am doing a website and my client wants the bulk of the text to be bilingual (French and English). The last site I did used php and mysql so I am getting comfortable with that technology. Typically I am using a single php file and my menu constantly points to the same file with different id options example index.php?id=30 and I want to use the same idea to choose a language example index.php?lang=frid=30. Pretty straight forward for many of you folks but before I start reinventing the wheel I wondered if anyone could offer any suggestions. I have a couple of approaches in mind. 1: Session vars, I have never used this but it seems straight forward. Drawbacks? 2: Cookies again not too big a deal, never used cookies either but it doesn't seem to be mystifying however the fact that the user can turn cookies off makes me not want to go this route. 3: Use the mysql database and log each ip address and record the preference and maybe the last time on the site. I am leaning in this direction because I think it is the most robust but will it be slow? First I have to get the ip then I have to check to see if it is in my data base and then get the language preference. It would be great to have a standardized function that I could use on all of my sites. I live in a bilingual country (Canada) so this could be a real selling point for my services. Any any and all comments are welcome, it will be a learning curve no matter which route I take so a little advice on the best direction pros cons would be great. And of course knowing that I will have many many thousands of people on my site (hee hee) which option will perform best once I start accumulating vistors. That's one problem I see with the mysql solution, I think it may start to be slow unless I start purging vistors who have not shown up in a while or limit the number of entries. Thanks, Jeff -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:37 AM, Jeff Benetti wrote: I'm a noob so keep the comments to a noob's level please. I am doing a website and my client wants the bulk of the text to be bilingual (French and English). The last site I did used php and mysql so I am getting comfortable with that technology. Typically I am using a single php file and my menu constantly points to the same file with different id options example index.php?id=30 and I want to use the same idea to choose a language example index.php?lang=frid=30. Pretty straight forward for many of you folks but before I start reinventing the wheel I wondered if anyone could offer any suggestions. I have a couple of approaches in mind. I'm actually in the process of planning this as well... English and Spanish... 1: Session vars, I have never used this but it seems straight forward. Drawbacks? Sessions are easy enough to use, just make sure that you are setting the variable in the right place... On a site I did the stored variable was always 1 behind what I wanted it to be... I moved the setting of the variable, and it worked :) 2: Cookies again not too big a deal, never used cookies either but it doesn't seem to be mystifying however the fact that the user can turn cookies off makes me not want to go this route. 3: Use the mysql database and log each ip address and record the preference and maybe the last time on the site. I am leaning in this direction because I think it is the most robust but will it be slow? First I have to get the ip then I have to check to see if it is in my data base and then get the language preference. It would be great to have a standardized function that I could use on all of my sites. I live in a bilingual country (Canada) so this could be a real selling point for my services. I don't know much about using mysql for storing IP's in canada... But in the US, all IP's except for businesses are dynamic, they could change every time a user would go to a site.. I could see that causing issues... Any any and all comments are welcome, it will be a learning curve no matter which route I take so a little advice on the best direction pros cons would be great. And of course knowing that I will have many many thousands of people on my site (hee hee) which option will perform best once I start accumulating vistors. That's one problem I see with the mysql solution, I think it may start to be slow unless I start purging vistors who have not shown up in a while or limit the number of entries. I'm currently planning to store the text of the pages on my site in a database, so that I can very easily just change the language preference, and get the english, or spanish out of the database. I also think it will help speed up the site for when I have my thousands of users a second :) When you start doing it, let me know your experiences... I plan to actually start coding (If me and the site owner can see eye to eye on some stuff...) in january. -- Jason Pruim Raoset Inc. Technology Manager MQC Specialist 3251 132nd ave Holland, MI, 49424 www.raoset.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
RE: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
We use something similar to the following
define('DEFAULT_LANG_ID', 'en');
function getLanguageId() {
// Allow for language id override in $_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE
$req_lang_id = $_REQUEST['lang_id'];
// Retrieve the one stored in the session if any
$sess_lang_id = $_SESSION['lang_id'];
// $lang_id will contain the lang id retrieved from request (overrides
session),
// or from session or a default one
$lang_id = isset($req_lang_id) ? $req_lang_id : (isset($sess_lang_id) ?
$sess_lang_id : DEFAULT_LANG_ID);
// Save it for next time
$_SESSION['lang_id'] = $lang_id;
return $lang_id;
}
Rob
Andrés Robinet | Lead Developer | BESTPLACE CORPORATION
5100 Bayview Drive 206, Royal Lauderdale Landings, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
| TEL 954-607-4207 | FAX 954-337-2695
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | MSN Chat: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | SKYPE:
bestplace | Web: http://www.bestplace.biz | Web: http://www.seo-diy.com
-Original Message-
From: Jason Pruim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:15 AM
To: Jeff Benetti
Cc: php-general@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:37 AM, Jeff Benetti wrote:
I'm a noob so keep the comments to a noob's level please.
I am doing a website and my client wants the bulk of the text to be
bilingual (French and English). The last site I did used php and
mysql so I
am getting comfortable with that technology. Typically I am using a
single
php file and my menu constantly points to the same file with
different id
options example index.php?id=30 and I want to use the same idea to
choose
a language example index.php?lang=frid=30. Pretty straight
forward for
many of you folks but before I start reinventing the wheel I
wondered if
anyone could offer any suggestions. I have a couple of approaches
in mind.
I'm actually in the process of planning this as well... English and
Spanish...
1: Session vars, I have never used this but it seems straight
forward.
Drawbacks?
Sessions are easy enough to use, just make sure that you are setting
the variable in the right place... On a site I did the stored variable
was always 1 behind what I wanted it to be... I moved the setting of
the variable, and it worked :)
2: Cookies again not too big a deal, never used cookies either but it
doesn't seem to be mystifying however the fact that the user can turn
cookies off makes me not want to go this route.
3: Use the mysql database and log each ip address and record the
preference
and maybe the last time on the site. I am leaning in this direction
because
I think it is the most robust but will it be slow? First I have to
get the
ip then I have to check to see if it is in my data base and then get
the
language preference. It would be great to have a standardized
function that
I could use on all of my sites. I live in a bilingual country
(Canada) so
this could be a real selling point for my services.
I don't know much about using mysql for storing IP's in canada... But
in the US, all IP's except for businesses are dynamic, they could
change every time a user would go to a site.. I could see that causing
issues...
Any any and all comments are welcome, it will be a learning curve no
matter
which route I take so a little advice on the best direction pros
cons would
be great.
And of course knowing that I will have many many thousands of people
on my
site (hee hee) which option will perform best once I start
accumulating
vistors. That's one problem I see with the mysql solution, I think
it may
start to be slow unless I start purging vistors who have not shown
up in a
while or limit the number of entries.
I'm currently planning to store the text of the pages on my site in a
database, so that I can very easily just change the language
preference, and get the english, or spanish out of the database. I
also think it will help speed up the site for when I have my thousands
of users a second :)
When you start doing it, let me know your experiences... I plan to
actually start coding (If me and the site owner can see eye to eye on
some stuff...) in january.
--
Jason Pruim
Raoset Inc.
Technology Manager
MQC Specialist
3251 132nd ave
Holland, MI, 49424
www.raoset.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
--
PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
your all missing something, namely that the browser can tell you what
it's preferred language is (which you can use to select a language in the event
no language has yet been determined for the current session).
you do this by parsing the value of the HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE request header.
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE is in the form: en-us,en,fr,nl,nl-be;q=0.5
?php
// following if statement exists for testing this code on the command line
if (!isset($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']))
$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'] = 'en-us,en,fr,nl,nl-be;q=0.5';
$lLangs = explode(',', preg_replace('#;.*$#', '',
$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']));
$sLangs = array_unique(array_map('substr', $lLangs, array_fill(0,
count($lLangs), 0), array_fill(0, count($lLangs), 2)));
var_dump($lLangs, $sLangs);
Andrés Robinet wrote:
We use something similar to the following
define('DEFAULT_LANG_ID', 'en');
function getLanguageId() {
// Allow for language id override in $_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE
$req_lang_id = $_REQUEST['lang_id'];
// Retrieve the one stored in the session if any
$sess_lang_id = $_SESSION['lang_id'];
// $lang_id will contain the lang id retrieved from request (overrides
session),
// or from session or a default one
$lang_id = isset($req_lang_id) ? $req_lang_id : (isset($sess_lang_id) ?
$sess_lang_id : DEFAULT_LANG_ID);
// Save it for next time
$_SESSION['lang_id'] = $lang_id;
return $lang_id;
}
Rob
Andrés Robinet | Lead Developer | BESTPLACE CORPORATION
5100 Bayview Drive 206, Royal Lauderdale Landings, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
| TEL 954-607-4207 | FAX 954-337-2695
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | MSN Chat: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | SKYPE:
bestplace | Web: http://www.bestplace.biz | Web: http://www.seo-diy.com
-Original Message-
From: Jason Pruim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:15 AM
To: Jeff Benetti
Cc: php-general@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:37 AM, Jeff Benetti wrote:
I'm a noob so keep the comments to a noob's level please.
I am doing a website and my client wants the bulk of the text to be
bilingual (French and English). The last site I did used php and
mysql so I
am getting comfortable with that technology. Typically I am using a
single
php file and my menu constantly points to the same file with
different id
options example index.php?id=30 and I want to use the same idea to
choose
a language example index.php?lang=frid=30. Pretty straight
forward for
many of you folks but before I start reinventing the wheel I
wondered if
anyone could offer any suggestions. I have a couple of approaches
in mind.
I'm actually in the process of planning this as well... English and
Spanish...
1: Session vars, I have never used this but it seems straight
forward.
Drawbacks?
Sessions are easy enough to use, just make sure that you are setting
the variable in the right place... On a site I did the stored variable
was always 1 behind what I wanted it to be... I moved the setting of
the variable, and it worked :)
2: Cookies again not too big a deal, never used cookies either but it
doesn't seem to be mystifying however the fact that the user can turn
cookies off makes me not want to go this route.
3: Use the mysql database and log each ip address and record the
preference
and maybe the last time on the site. I am leaning in this direction
because
I think it is the most robust but will it be slow? First I have to
get the
ip then I have to check to see if it is in my data base and then get
the
language preference. It would be great to have a standardized
function that
I could use on all of my sites. I live in a bilingual country
(Canada) so
this could be a real selling point for my services.
I don't know much about using mysql for storing IP's in canada... But
in the US, all IP's except for businesses are dynamic, they could
change every time a user would go to a site.. I could see that causing
issues...
Any any and all comments are welcome, it will be a learning curve no
matter
which route I take so a little advice on the best direction pros
cons would
be great.
And of course knowing that I will have many many thousands of people
on my
site (hee hee) which option will perform best once I start
accumulating
vistors. That's one problem I see with the mysql solution, I think
it may
start to be slow unless I start purging vistors who have not shown
up in a
while or limit the number of entries.
I'm currently planning to store the text of the pages on my site in a
database, so that I can very easily just change the language
preference, and get the english, or spanish out of the database. I
also think it will help speed up the site for when I have my thousands
of users a second :)
When you start doing it, let me know your experiences... I plan to
actually start coding (If me and the site
Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
At 9:37 AM -0400 11/27/07, Jeff Benetti wrote: Any any and all comments are welcome, it will be a learning curve no matter which route I take so a little advice on the best direction pros cons would be great. Thanks, Jeff Jeff: If it were me, I wouldn't use any problematic browser detects schemes (they don't work) or any of that high-thought stuff -- it's beyond me. I would simply use a click here for English/French/Whatever link and then pull all the language specific stuff from the dB. Then throw the user's choice in a session and carry-on -- simple. It wouldn't be any different than a php style sheet switcher, like this: http://sperling.com/examples/styleswitch1/ Instead of green/red/blue/black, why not English/French/Spanish/German? HTH's Cheers, tedd -- --- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
tedd wrote: At 9:37 AM -0400 11/27/07, Jeff Benetti wrote: Any any and all comments are welcome, it will be a learning curve no matter which route I take so a little advice on the best direction pros cons would be great. Thanks, Jeff Jeff: If it were me, I wouldn't use any problematic browser detects schemes (they don't work) or any of that high-thought stuff -- it's beyond me. whether it's beyond you or not only you can judge, but I disagree that it's problematic. I should note that I recommend using browser language preference detection (as per my previous post) as a means to initially select a [hopefully] suitable language BUT that this should be done in addition to offer the user an explicit mechanism for language selection. I would simply use a click here for English/French/Whatever link and then pull all the language specific stuff from the dB. Then throw the user's choice in a session and carry-on -- simple. It wouldn't be any different than a php style sheet switcher, like this: http://sperling.com/examples/styleswitch1/ Instead of green/red/blue/black, why not English/French/Spanish/German? HTH's Cheers, tedd -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Newbie asks about multi-lingual website strategies
At 11:05 PM +0100 11/27/07, Jochem Maas wrote: tedd wrote: If it were me, I wouldn't use any problematic browser detects schemes (they don't work) or any of that high-thought stuff -- it's beyond me. whether it's beyond you or not only you can judge, but I disagree that it's problematic. I should note that I recommend using browser language preference detection (as per my previous post) as a means to initially select a [hopefully] suitable language BUT that this should be done in addition to offer the user an explicit mechanism for language selection. My beyond me statement was meant in jest, but browser sniffing is notorious for being inaccurate and the practice is highly controversial. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_sniffing If you're going to permit the user to select his language, then what difference does it make what language you choose first? IMO, you would be better off to keep a record of the languages chosen and then present to a new user the highest ranking one first. Cheers, tedd -- --- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
