Internationalizing Your Cakephp Application(support multiple languages cakephp)

For some developers, allowing a website to support multiple languages is essential. Luckily cakePHP 1.2 has the foundations available to make this possible.

I certainly hope after using this guide you can quickly and easily implement multiple languages in your cake app without needing to skip around the place. If I fall short of this and you have suggestions, leave a comment.

Once you complete this tutorial your site will be able to:
1. display multiple languages
2. allow users to switch languages
3. store language settings in cookies, so returning visitors don't need to re-select their preferred language
The sites that I build typically require 3 languages:
1. British English(eng)
2. Koren (kor)
3. Japanes (jap)
Step 1: Setup the directories and file for your messages
app/locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/ default.po
app/locale/kor/LC_MESSAGES/ default.po
app/locale/jap/LC_MESSAGES/ default.po

Example Code of app/locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/ default.op file.
msgid "home"
msgstr "Home"
msgid "about_us"
msgstr "About us"
msgid "membership_options"
msgstr "Membership Options"
msgid "our_lessons"
msgstr "Our lessons"
msgid "community"
msgstr "Community"
msgid "contact_us"
msgstr "Contact Us"
msgid "faqs"
msgstr "FAQ's"

Step 2: Write some strings to translate.(.ctp view file code sample)

image("lang-3.gif", array("alt" => "english",'url' =>_ROOT.'lang/kor')); ?>

image("lang-2.gif", array("alt" => "english",'url' =>_ROOT.'lang/jap')); ?>

image("lang-1.gif", array("alt" => "english",'url' =>_ROOT.'lang/eng')); ?>

Step 3: Change the default language
// config/bootstrap.php
define(DEFAULT_LANGUAGE, 'eng');
Step 4: Let users change the language
Component Class:
class P28nComponent extends Object {
var $components = array('Session', 'Cookie');

function startup() {
if (!$this->Session->check('Config.language')) {
$this->change(($this->Cookie->read('lang') ? $this->Cookie->read('lang') : DEFAULT_LANGUAGE));
}
}

function change($lang = null) {
if (!empty($lang)) {
$this->Session->write('Config.language', $lang);
$this->Cookie->write('lang', $lang, null, '+350 day');
}
}
}
?>
Controller Class:
class P28nController extends AppController {
var $name = 'P28n';
var $uses = null;
var $components = array('P28n');

function change($lang = null) {
$this->P28n->change($lang);

$this->redirect($this->referer(null, true));
}

function shuntRequest() {
$this->P28n->change($this->params['lang']);

$args = func_get_args();
$this->redirect("/" . implode("/", $args));
}
}
?>
Controller Class:
//app_controller.php
class AppController extends Controller {
var $components = array('P28n');
}
?>
The final piece of code, are some custom routes that need to be added to cake/app/config/routes.php

//route to switch locale
Router::connect('/lang/*', array('controller' => 'p28n', 'action' => 'change'));

//forgiving routes that allow users to change the lang of any page
Router::connect('/eng/*', array('controller' => "p28n",'action' => "shuntRequest",'lang' => 'eng'));
Router::connect('/jap/*', array('controller' => "p28n",'action' => "shuntRequest",'lang' => 'jap'));
Router::connect('/kor/*', array('controller' => "p28n",'action' => "shuntRequest",'lang' => 'kor'));
Step 6: Links to change language

image("lang-3.gif", array("alt" => "english",'url' =>_ROOT.'lang/kor')); ?>

image("lang-2.gif", array("alt" => "english",'url' =>_ROOT.'lang/jpn')); ?>

image("lang-1.gif", array("alt" => "english",'url' =>_ROOT.'lang/eng')); ?>