CodeIgniter dynamic language functionality - php

Question

I am Codeigniter and i need dynamic language for users.
I have added drop-down at the header and i want to allow users to change language of site at the frontend.
i tried to change language with below code in one controller
$this->config->set_item('language','spanish');
but its not working its not changing language
i also tried with taking session with below code in one of my controller
$mylanguage = $this->session->set_userdata(array('my_language',$dynamiclang));
and tried to access this variable in config file but its also not working.
help me to make this work.

Answer 1

Finally I Got Success to make multi language
follow below steps
MY_Lang.php file in application\core folder
MY_Lang.php
<?php
(defined('BASEPATH')) OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
class MY_Lang extends CI_Lang
{
function __construct() {
global $URI, $CFG, $IN;
$config =& $CFG->config;
$index_page = $config['index_page'];
$lang_ignore = $config['lang_ignore'];
$default_abbr = $config['language_abbr'];
$lang_uri_abbr = $config['lang_uri_abbr'];
#exit('my_lang');
#print_r($URI);
/*if($index_page=='es')
{
#$config['index_page'] = 'es';
#$config['lang_uri_abbr'] = 'es';
#$IN->set_cookie('user_lang', 'es', $config['sess_expiration']);
#$URI->uri_string = str_replace('es','en',$URI->uri_string);
}
else{
#$config['index_page'] = 'en';
#$config['lang_uri_abbr'] = 'en';
#$IN->set_cookie('user_lang', 'en', $config['sess_expiration']);
}
/* get the language abbreviation from uri */
$uri_abbr = $URI->segment(1);
#$uri_abbr='es';
/* adjust the uri string leading slash */
#print $URI->uri_string;
$URI->uri_string = preg_replace("|^\/?|", '/', $URI->uri_string);
if ($lang_ignore) {
if (isset($lang_uri_abbr[$uri_abbr])) {
/* set the language_abbreviation cookie */
$IN->set_cookie('user_lang', $uri_abbr, $config['sess_expiration']);
} else {
/* get the language_abbreviation from cookie */
$lang_abbr = $IN->cookie($config['cookie_prefix'].'user_lang');
}
if (strlen($uri_abbr) == 2) {
/* reset the uri identifier */
$index_page .= empty($index_page) ? '' : '/';
// exit('654');
/* remove the invalid abbreviation */
$URI->uri_string = preg_replace("|^\/?$uri_abbr\/?|", '', $URI->uri_string);
/* redirect */
header('Location: '.$config['base_url'].$index_page.$URI->uri_string);
exit;
}
} else {
/* set the language abbreviation */
$lang_abbr = $uri_abbr;
}
/* check validity against config array */
if (isset($lang_uri_abbr[$lang_abbr])) {
/* reset uri segments and uri string */
//$URI->_reindex_segments(array_shift($URI->segments)); # this is commented becasue this is giving error : #$hok : 09/August/2015
$URI->uri_string = preg_replace("|^\/?$lang_abbr|", '', $URI->uri_string);
/* set config language values to match the user language */
$config['language'] = $lang_uri_abbr[$lang_abbr];
$config['language_abbr'] = $lang_abbr;
/* if abbreviation is not ignored */
if ( ! $lang_ignore) {
/* check and set the uri identifier */
$index_page .= empty($index_page) ? $lang_abbr : "/$lang_abbr";
/* reset the index_page value */
$config['index_page'] = $index_page;
}
/* set the language_abbreviation cookie */
$IN->set_cookie('user_lang', $lang_abbr, $config['sess_expiration']);
} else {
/* if abbreviation is not ignored */
if ( ! $lang_ignore) {
/* check and set the uri identifier to the default value */
$index_page .= empty($index_page) ? $default_abbr : "/$default_abbr";
if (strlen($lang_abbr) == 2) {
/* remove invalid abbreviation */
$URI->uri_string = preg_replace("|^\/?$lang_abbr|", '', $URI->uri_string);
}
/*echo '<pre>';
print_r($_SERVER);
print_r($config['base_url'].$index_page.$URI->uri_string);
exit;*/
$q = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
if($q)
$q = "/?".$q;
/* redirect */
header('Location: '.$config['base_url'].$index_page.$URI->uri_string.$q);
exit;
}
/* set the language_abbreviation cookie */
$IN->set_cookie('user_lang', $default_abbr, $config['sess_expiration']);
}
log_message('debug', "Language_Identifier Class Initialized");
}
}
/* translate helper */
function t($line) {
global $LANG;
//print_r($LANG);
// exit;
return ($t = $LANG->line($line)) ? $t : $line;
}
function _t($line,$params=array()) {
global $LANG;
if($params){
echo str_replace(array_keys($params),array_values($params),($t = $LANG->line($line)) ? $t : $line);
}
else
echo ($t = $LANG->line($line)) ? $t : $line;
} ?>
and added below things in config.php
$config['language'] = "english";
/* default language abbreviation */
$config['language_abbr'] = "en";
/* set available language abbreviations */
$config['lang_uri_abbr'] = array("en" => "english","es" => "spanish","ca" => "catalan");
/* hide the language segment (use cookie) */
$config['lang_ignore'] = TRUE;
added below code in route.php
$route['^en/(.+)$'] = "$1";
$route['^es/(.+)$'] = "$1";
$route['^ca/(.+)$'] = "$1";
$route['^(\w{2})$'] = $route['default_controller'];
$route['^(\w{2})/(.+)$'] = "$2";
and added language files in language folder like below
language/catalan
language/spanish
language/english
i hope this will help.

Answer 2

Have you tried to add this in Your controller?
$this->load->helper('language');

Answer 3

Load the current language in the cookie and load the language file using the language value in the cookie
Example whenever user selects a language use the function below to set the current language to the cookie
function language($lang = false) {
if($this->input->get('lang')){ $lang = $this->input->get('lang'); }
$folder = 'application/language/';
$languagefiles = scandir($folder);
if(in_array($lang, $languagefiles)){
$cookie = array(
'name' => 'lang',
'value' => $lang,
'expire' => '31536000',
'prefix' => 'my_',
'secure' => false
);
$this->input->set_cookie($cookie);
}
$this->config->set_item('language', $lang);
redirect($_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"]);
}
Then on the constructor of your main Custom Controller or if you are just extending CI_Controller then load on each controller's constructor the language file(s) and like
$this->lang->load('language_filename', get_cookie('my_lang'));
You are done