PHP: Detect user language and able to change language

Question

I have a website with ability to choose language. And I wanted to make that when user enters first time to the website, php gets his system language and writes to cookie (So user by default every time when he enters time will have same language). But when user want to change website language, he will press a button with chosen language (For example Russian), then website language will be set for russian, and when he will enter website again, he will have russian language.

So far I have this code, but it's really confusing and it doesnt work properly.

HTML:

<a href="index.php?language=en">
<a href="index.php?language=ru">

PHP:

<?php
ini_set('display_errors',1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

$language = substr($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'], 0, 2);

if (empty($_COOKIE['language'])){
setcookie('language', $language);
}

if ( !empty($_GET['language']) ) {
    $_COOKIE['language'] = $_GET['language'] === 'en' ? 'en' : 'ru';
} else {
  switch ($language){
  case "ru":
      $language = 'ru';
      break;
  case "en":
      $language = 'en';
      break;
  default:
      $language = 'en';
      break;
}
}

if ( $_COOKIE['language'] == "en") {
   $language = 'en';
} else {
   $language = 'ru';
}

$xml = simplexml_load_file("language.xml") or die("Equestria forgot languages");

$s_nav_main = $xml->s_nav_main->$language;
$s_nav_more = $xml->s_nav_more->$language;
$s_nav_bot = $xml->s_nav_bot->$language;
$s_nav_partners = $xml->s_nav_partners->$language;
$s_nav_developer = $xml->s_nav_developer->$language;
$s_aboutus = $xml->s_aboutus->$language;
$s_title = $xml->s_title->$language;
$s_head_title = $xml->s_head_title->$language;
$s_head_info = $xml->s_head_info->$language;
$s_statistics_people = $xml->s_statistics_people->$language;
$s_statistics_online = $xml->s_statistics_online->$language;
$s_statistics_messages = $xml->s_statistics_messages->$language;
$s_why_we_best = $xml->s_why_we_best->$language;
$s_why_we_best_content_title = $xml->s_why_we_best_content_title->$language;
$s_why_we_best_content_info = $xml->s_why_we_best_content_info->$language;
$s_why_we_best_adm_title = $xml->s_why_we_best_adm_title->$language;
$s_why_we_best_adm_info = $xml->s_why_we_best_adm_info->$language;
$s_why_we_best_comfort_title = $xml->s_why_we_best_comfort_title->$language;
$s_why_we_best_comfort_info = $xml->s_why_we_best_comfort_info->$language;
$s_why_we_best_wtf_title = $xml->s_why_we_best_wtf_title->$language;
$s_why_we_best_wtf_info = $xml->s_why_we_best_wtf_info->$language;
$s_trusted_title = $xml->s_trusted_title->$language;
$s_trusted_info = $xml->s_trusted_info->$language;
$s_people_celestia = $xml->s_people_celestia->$language;
$s_people_celestia_comment = $xml->s_people_celestia_comment->$language;
$s_people_luna = $xml->s_people_luna->$language;
$s_people_luna_comment = $xml->s_people_luna_comment->$language;
$s_people_twilight = $xml->s_people_twilight->$language;
$s_people_twilight_comment = $xml->s_people_twilight_comment->$language;
$s_botinfo_info = $xml->s_botinfo_info->$language;
$s_botinfo_more = $xml->s_botinfo_more->$language;
?>

symcbean · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-18 20:45:50Z

The first place you should look for the users preferred language is the Accept-Language header. Geo-IP lookups are a dangerous and expensive waste of time (at least for determining language). Beyond that, you can set a cookie to override the choices presented by the browser, but there are legal implications around this for websites in Europe.

 $avail_lang=array(
            'en'=>1,
            'fr'=>1,
            'de'=>1,
            'ru'=>1
            );
 define("DEFAULT_LANG", 'en');
 ...
 if ($_COOKIE['language'] && isset($avail_lang[$_COOKIE['language']]) {
    $use_lang=$_COOKIE['language'];
 }
 // override with GET if provided
 if ($_GET['language'] && isset($avail_lang[$_GET['language']]) {
    $use_lang=$_GET['language'];
 }
 // no language? check browser
 if (!$use_lang) {
    $request_lang=explode(",", $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']);
    foreach($request_lang as $i) {
            list($lang, $pref)=explode("=", trim($i));
            $pref=$pref ? 0.0+$pref : 1.0;
            list($lang, $country)=explode("-", $lang);
            $pref_lang[$lang]=$pref;
    }
    rsort($pref_lang);
    $use_lang=array_shift(array_intersect_key($pref_lang, $avail_lang));
    if (!$use_lang) $use_lang=DEFAULT_LANGUAGE;
}
if (user_accepts_cookies() && $use_lang!=$_COOKIE['language']) {
    set_lang_cookie($use_lang);
}

Paritosh Pandey · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-18 19:26:55Z

1

a simple logic can be adopted here -

when a user lands at your website you should track his/her IP address, we can easily get their country using that IP. Then you can easily serve language to them.

answered Feb 18, 2018 at 19:26

Paritosh Pandey

1156 bronze badges

2 Comments

Jengas Over a year ago

I already have this. But I also want to make for them ability to choose language and save it, so user will not need to reload page every time

Paritosh Pandey Over a year ago

when you set cookie for first time using ip, second time you should check whether a cookie is set or not for language, if set then no need to do anything, if user manually wants to set language then overwrite the language value

Jengas · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-18 20:24:20Z

0

Found the way how to do this:

$lang = substr($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'], 0, 2);

if ( !empty($_GET['language']) ) {
    $_COOKIE['language'] = $_GET['language'] === 'en' ? 'en' : 'ru';
} elseif (empty($_COOKIE['language'])) {
    $_COOKIE['language'] = $lang;
}
setcookie('language', $_COOKIE['language']);

if ( $_COOKIE['language'] == "en") {
   $language = 'en';
} else {
   $language = 'ru';
}

answered Feb 18, 2018 at 20:24

Jengas

2042 silver badges11 bronze badges

1 Comment

symcbean Over a year ago

No q values? Dropping the cookie on every request? If/else to determine the whitelist?

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