Afternoon,
Bit of a tricky question this one, I have a website and need to translate the pages into french, I am using google translate API to do the translation. What I am doing is loading in the HTML templates into a string using PHP and then need to translate the text copy on the pages and then save as for example:
fr_master_header.html
de_master_header.html
The problem I have is identifying the text copy on the page ignoring the HTML, replacing the copy in the extact place and then saving the file with the HTML tags and trasnlated text copy.
Cheers in advanced.
Thinking about translating your application before you write it is going to save a massive amount of time/money. You might be able to go back and fix the HTML, but this is going to be seriously masochistic. You are far better off with the Goolge Ajax Language API if you are adding language support after you've built the app.
I took care of this problem by using variables for every piece of text. Then I check what the language the user wants and I include the corresponding language file. My template system takes care of where to place these variables. These language files look something like this:
$_TEXT['Login']['title']="Enter Username and Password";
$_TEXT['Login']['error']['pass']="incorrect password";
$_TEXT['Login']['error']['name']="invalid username";
The variable name is always going to be the same regardless of the language. This is very scalable, I can support as many languages as Google will translate without making any modifications.
Related
I would really appreciate if anybody could help me with this question :)
I want to know whether it's possible to create your own semantic markup in PHP, just like BB Codes, but I want to be able to use it within my template engine system, so I could use it to call custom modules like voting system, adding comments, login form, registration form and so on...
Let me make it clearer for you guys of how I mean;
I'm working on my own CMS not to use it for production purposes but to learn PHP in a better way;
So I had this idea to call specific modules in a page based on their position and in order to be able to do;
For instance we're having a login module which is simply a login form, nothing too crazy, however you want to be able to include that module dynamically in any page you want using the backend and not touching any code;
So all you do in the template page is using my bb codes that I told you earlier;
Something like this;
Remember this is only an idea;
<zone name="left_sidebar"></zone>
And you add this zone markup on your sidebar and if any of your module supposed to be displayed on your left sidebar, it will just by having this markup and nothing more...
And you gone have loads of these semantic markups based on how many editable blocks you have on your page; so you could have one for the right sidebar, one for footer and one for header... etc.
So I now need to know how to could lookup for opening and closing tags, in this case it would be <zone></zone> , then it need to lookup for its attribute and its value, in this case name="right_sidevar"
....
Anybody have any idea of how I could possibly do this kind of thing...
Thanks in advance :)
You could check out TWIG; while it doesn't directly support this kind of feature (because it uses a special syntax for its own elements) it does have very good support for making your own elements, tags, sub-applications and other funky things in the backend.
http://twig.sensiolabs.org/
There are also a number of systems that perform this kind of task in the front-end; this would mean that the substitution is done by Javascript in the browser. In addition to the already mentioned Polymer, there's also Google's framework, Angular.
https://angularjs.org/
Maybe you can use php's libxml module to parse your xml file.
I have a dating site which is currently in English language.
As per client requirement he told me to convert the website in Polish language.
If I will create language file for the website, then I need to rework on whole project.
Is there any technique so that my website is automatically translated into Polish language when it is loading in browser. There also some hidden div's that will be displayed when a specific event occurs.
The website is created in php with smarty templating.
Please help me for this.
Thanks
If you want a custom solution, you're going to have to do some editing of your current code.
Option 1
Store all your strings in YAML files or within a database, or flat file, or however else you want them stored. The fact of the matter is that, as soon as your application loads, it'll query the database for the strings in your language (your url will have /en, /fr, /de etc at the end) and place those onto your page.
This means you'll have to code the retrieval of this data, and placement within your application.
Option 2
Use Google's "Auto Translate" as per Dainis' suggestion in the comments. This isn't as customisable, but means you don't have to do any reworking of your current code.
Option 3
Use Bing's translate API and manually request strings for the data you want translated on each request. Access to the Bing API is free for developers and has loads of free translations included - but this will be data intensive unless you cache the translations for future use.
With Option 3, you'll still have to code your own custom solution. So if you're on a tight deadline or you're just plain lazy, go with Option 2.
I was having a "discussion" with my manager today about the merits of using PHP includes and functions as a template to build websites more quickly and efficiently. He has been using Dreamweaver templates for years and sees it as really the best way to go. I would like to start using some different and more efficient methods for web creation, because we need to get through our projects faster. I would like to know in detail what would make Dreamweaver dwts better than using code to accomplish the same task, or vice versa.
His reasoning is:
When you change links on the dwt file, it changes links for every page made from that dwt.
Even if you move pages around in directories, it maintains links to images
Everyone in the company should do it one way, and this is the way he chose (there are two of us, with someone who's just started who needs to learn web design from the beginning, and he plans to teacher her the dwt method)
If you edit a site made with a dwt, you can't change anything in the template (it's grayed out), making it safer
If he's building sites with dwt, and I'm doing it with PHP includes, we can't edit each others' sites. It gets all over the place. When we have new employees in the future, it will get all crazy and people can't make changes to others' sites if they're out of the office.
I've been studying PHP these days, and am thrilled with how powerful it is for creating dynamic pages. The site in question which sparked this "discussion" is more or less static, so a dwt would work fine. However, I wanted to stretch my wings a bit, and the code was getting REALLY jumbled as the pages grew. So I chopped off the header, footer, and sidebar, and brought them in to all the pages with a php include, as well as dynamically assigned the title, meta data, and description for each page using variables echoed in the header.The reasons I like this better are:
It's cleaner. If every page contains all the data for the header and footer, as well as the extra tags Dreamweaver throws in there, then I have to sift through everything to find where I need to be.
It's safer. It's sort of like the above reason dwts are safe, except I do all my code editing in a text editor like Coda. So on occasion I have accidentally deleted a dwt-protected line of code because those rules only apply within dreamweaver. I can't chop off part of the header if I can't see it. Incidentally, this makes it easier to identify bugs.
It's modern. I look through source when I see great pages made by designers and design firms I admire. I've never seen dwt tags. I believe by using PHP to dynamically grab files and perform other tasks that keeps me from having to go through and change something on every page, life becomes easier, and keeps things streamlined and up-to-date with current web trends and standards.
It's simple. This should be at the top of the list. Like I said we have to train a new person in how to create for the web. Isn't it much better for her to learn a simple line of PHP and get an understanding for how the language works, rather than learn an entire piece of (not exactly user-friendly) software just for the purpose of keeping her work the exact same as everyone else's? On that note, I believe PHP is a powerful tool in a web designer's arsenal, and it would be a sin to prevent her from learning it for the sake of uniformity.
It's fast. Am I mistaken in my thought that a page build with header and footer includes loads faster than one big page with everything in it? Or does that just apply when the body is loaded dynamically with AJAX?
I did extensive searching on Google and Stack Overflow on this topic and this is the most relevant article I could find:
Why would one use Dreamweaver Templates over PHP or Javascript for templating?
The answer is helpful, but I would really like to understand in more detail why exactly we shouldn't switch to a new method if it's simpler and has more potential. My manager insists that "the result is the same, so if there isn't something that makes me say, 'oh wow that's amazing and much better!', then we should just stay how we are now."
(I do apologize for the length of this question, but the guidelines asked that I be as specific as possible.)
Like I said in comments, without knowing what exactly sites you are working with it's hard to tell which PHP features are most important to showcase. However, I can try and describe the most simple kind of sites I was dealing with, and where and how PHP came in handy. If you work with something more complicated, the need of programming language may only increase.
The simple website may have a few different pages with text and images. I'm assuming nothing interactive (i.e. no inquiry form), no large amount of structured data (i.e. no product catalog), only one design template which is used by every page with no differences whatsoever. Here's the typical structure:
One PHP file (index.php) for handling all sorts of php-ish stuff
One design file (template.php for example) for storing everything html-ish (including header, footer and more. Basically all html with placeholders for text and menu)
One CSS file for, well, the site CSS
Most of the texts are stored in database or (worst case) just txt files. Menu (navigation) is stored in database as well
Images folder with all the needed images
The key features here are:
Simplicity. You only have as many files and code as you really need to keep things organized and clear
Reusability. You can basically copy/paste your php code with little to no changes for a new similar website
No duplicates whatsoever.
Data and design separation. Wanna change texts, fix typos? You do it without as much as touching design (html) files. Wanna make a completely brand new design for your website? You can do it without even knowing what those texts are or where they are kept.
like deceze said, no lock-ins. Use whatever software you like. (Including Dreamweaver)
PHP is responsible for taking texts, menus, design and rendering them all into a web page. If website is in more than 1 language, PHP code choose the right texts for the language of visitors choice.
If texts are stored in database, you don't even need notepad and ftp. You just need, i.e., phpMyAdmin (stored in server) so you can connect directly to database and edit any text you like using only web browser; from anywhere in the world. (I am assuming no real CMS). If you need to add one more page, you connect to database using myAdmin and browser, enter the page name (for menu) in 1 or more languages, enter the text for new page (in 1 or more languages), done! new page created, name placed in the menu, all hyperlinks generated for you. If you need to remove a page, you connect to database and click delete. If you need to hide a page for a while (i.e. for proof reading before publishing), you connect to database and uncheck "published" box.
All this doesn't come with just using database ofcourse, you need to program these features with PHP. It may take about 1 - 3 hours depending on experience and the code is fully reusable for every similar website in the future. Basically you just copy/paste php file, copy/paste database tables, enter new text and menu into database, put placeholders into your html file and done! brand new site created.
Which immediately makes most of the reasoning for DWT irrelevant. You don't move files around because you have only one html file and no directories, you don't need grayed out template because texts/images (content) and template are not even in the same file, there's no such thing as changing links in dwt file because it's PHP that generates them on the fly (these are not real links to real html files but rather links with parameters to tell PHP which exactly page must be rendered.. because remember we have just 1 file). The bottom line is, comparing features of the two side by side is like comparing features of a sword vs machinegun. Sharpness and length of the blade concepts are meaningless in a case of machinegun; while lifetime sword user won't really get the meaning of velocity and caliber before he tries and uses machinegun. And yet, while you can't compare their features one by one, no one brings sword to a gunfight for a reason :)
As for #3, currently there are many more people working with PHP than DWT (in a case you will need more employees in the future, or if other people will need to work with your websites later, etc.) As for #5, you can edit PHP websites with Dreamweaver as fine as DWT websites.
That's just off the top of my head. I wrote this in my lunch break so I likely forgot or missed quite a few things. I hope you will get a proper answer with detailed DWT vs PHP comparison too.
You simply can't compare PHP vs. DWT.
PHP is a programming language, where templating is just one of it's numerous features, and DWT is just a silly proprietary system to build simple web pages.
there is actually nothing to compare.
I would say that using DWT templates over PHP do have some advantages.
It does not need any extra server-side process, like PHP to process the files at the server.
You can serve all files to the user as .html files rather than .php files, though I suspect that it is possible to hide the .php extension. Why should any user see anything other than .html?
You don't have to learn PHP syntax/programming. It is true that you can do more with PHP that plain .dwt files but for plain templating the .dwt files can be just as clean.
It is not true that .dwt files are a lock-in technology. The feature is also implemented by other web editors, e.g. Microsoft Expression Web.
I'm looking to translate a webpage in PHP 5 so I can save the translation and make it easily accessible via mydomain.com/lang/fr/category/article.html rather than users having to go through google translate.
I've found various easy ways to translate text via CURL, however what i'd really like to be able to do is translate an entire webpage but obviously ignore the tags.
The problem is that Google Translate messes up all the HTML tags, class names etc
Does anyone know of a php class that can translate an entire webpage whilst ignoring the tags?
I'm guessing it may be possible via advanced regular expressions or something like that, but i'm not sure.
I can't just curl Google's response as i'll have all the extra JS that they put in.
Any ideas?
I know it's not quite what you asked for, but a much simpler alternative would just be to include the free Google Translate widget on all your pages. That way visitors select the language they would like to view the site in and Google dynmaically does the rest (and persists their selection throughout the site). You then don't need to worry about trying to create and keep updated dozens of different HTML files for every page, each with it's own set of internal links (which, frankly, sounds like a nightmare to maintain).
I'm developing a website that will be available in different languages. It is a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) setup, and it makes use of Smarty, mostly for the template engine.
The way we currently translate is by a self-written smarty plugin, which will recognize certain tags in the HTML files, and will find the corresponding tag in an earlier defined language file.
The HTML could look as follows:
<p>Hi, welcome to $#gamedesc;!</p>
And the language file could look like this:
gamedesc:Poing 2009$;
welcome:this is another tag$;
Which would then output
<p>Hi, welcome to Poing 2009!</p>
This system is very basic, but it is pretty hard to control, if I f.e. would like to keep track of what has been translated so far, or give certain users the rights to translate only certain tags.
I've been looking at some alternative ways to approach this, by either replacing the text-file with XML files which could store some extra meta-data, or by perhaps storing all the texts in the database, and retrieving it there.
My question is, what would be the best way to make this system both maintainable and perform well with high user-traffic? Are there perhaps any (lightweight) plugins I could take a look at?
You could give a shot at gettext. It is the way it is done in most C/C++ linux applications and it is an extension to PHP too. The idea is not very different from what you're already doing, but there are tools that ease the mantainance of translations (i.e. poedit).
For user rights to translations, gettext won't be of much help, I think you'll need to do it on your own or look at some frameworks if they have smarter solutions.
Maybe taking a look to gettext lib could help you get some hints http://php.net/manual/en/book.gettext.php hope it helps!
You will need to have a table in your database that you can use to store strings of text, each with an composite ID. the composite ID will be made up of language ID and text node ID.
You will need to give the user a chance to select a preferred language. You should make sure that you either have a default "this has not been translated" for every language you use, or a default language that your entire site can be vied in.
For every bit of text with in your web site, rather then store the text with in the page, you just assign it an ID.
When serving the page, look up the text node ID and preferred language ID and load that string of text, or the string for the default.
in our project, http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs, we use XML files to store translation key-value pairs. Browse our code: http://github.com/pkp/pkp-lib/blob/master/classes/i18n/PKPLocale.inc.php
We use that class to read the XML files for each locale and in our code we use Locale::translate('locale.key.name');. Similar to gettext, but using an XML file for easier updating.
Looking around at web stuff today I came across this website: http://translateth.is/
It looks simple to use... copy paste in some javascript.