Programming Multi-Language PHP applications

Question

I'm developing a PHP application and I'm wondering about the best way to include multi-language support for users in other countries.

I'm proficient with PHP but have never developed anything with support for other languages.

I was thinking of putting the language into a PHP file with constants, example:

en.php could contain:

define('HZ_DB_CONN_ERR', 'There was an error connecting to the database.');

and fr.php could contain:

define('HZ_DB_CONN_ERR', 'whatever the french is for the above...');

I could then call a function and automatically have the correct language passed in.

hz_die('HZ_DB_CONN_ERR', $this);

Is this a good way of going about it?

-- morristhebear.

Answer 1

Weird. People seem to be ignoring the obvious solution. Your idea of locale-specific files is fine. Have en.php:

define('LOGIN_INCORRECT','Your login details are incorrect.');
...

Then, assuming you have a global config/constants file (which I'd suggest for many reasons), have code like this:

if ($language == 'en') {
  reqire_once 'en.php';
} else if ($language == 'de') {
  require_once 'de.php';
}

You can define functions for number and currency display, comparison/sorting (ie German, French and English all have different collation methods), etc.

People often forget PHP is a dynamic language so things like this:

if ($language == 'en') {
  function cmp($a, $b) { ... }
} else if ($language == 'de') {
  function cmp($a, $b) { ... }
}

are in fact perfectly legal. Use them.