How to implement language packs in PHP

Question

I created 3 language packs for my site: English, Spanish and French. I am just having trouble implementing them based on user selection. I have the following drop down menu:

<select onchange='document.location.href=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;'>
  <option>Select</option>
  <option value="?lang=eng">US English</option>
  <option value="?lang=esp">Español</option>
    <option value="?lang=fra">Français</option>
</select>

How can I include the language files based on what the user selects, I just don't know what to put as the condition in the if statement.

Thanks.

Answer 1

At first, save the value that the user selected in the user session. e.g.:

switch($_POST['lang']) {
    case 'en': $_SESSION['lang'] = 'English'; break;
    case 'sp': $_SESSION['lang'] = 'Spanish'; break;
    default:   $_SESSION['lang'] = 'English'; break;
}

On every page request, fetch the language files from the relevant language folder according to the value the you saved.

For example, this how will look the files structure:

• English
  • Global.php
  • Register.php
• Spanish
  • Global.php
  • Register.php

Then, whenever you need to load a text file, use:

function load_text_file($filename) {
    include 'languages/' . $_SESSION['lang'] . '/' . $filename.'php';
    return $txt;    // $txt should be an array
}
//...

$text = array();
$text += load_text_file('Global');
$text += load_text_file('Register');