Welcome to a quick tutorial on how to create a multi-language website in PHP. I know, there are already a ton of these “multi-language” tutorials all over the Internet. So this one is going to be a little different from the rest, I am going to keep it as simple as possible – Read on for the example!
TLDR – QUICK SLIDES
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PHP MULTI-LANGUAGE WEBSITE
All right, let us now get into the example of creating a simple multi-language website with PHP.
STEP 1) HTML SITE LAYOUT
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title><?=$_TXT[0]?></title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
</head>
<body lang="<?=$_SESSION["lang"]?>">
<!-- (A) SET LANGUAGE -->
<form method="post">
<input type="submit" name="lang" value="en">
<input type="submit" name="lang" value="zh">
</form>
<!-- (B) SITE CONTENTS -->
<header><?=$_TXT[1]?></header>
<main><?=$_TXT[2]?></main>
<footer><?=$_TXT[3]?></footer>
</body>
</html>That’s right, this is just your “regular HTML layout”.
- A language switcher form. I went “full lazy and full simple” with this one, you will want to create your own “nice-looking” form here.
- Take note that all the text and contents are replaced with PHP variables instead –
<?=$_TXT[N]?>.
STEP 2) PHP LANGUAGE MANAGER
<?php
// (C) SET LANGUAGE INTO SESSION
session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION["lang"])) { $_SESSION["lang"] = "en"; }
if (isset($_POST["lang"])) { $_SESSION["lang"] = $_POST["lang"]; }
// (D) LOAD LANGUAGE FILE
require "lang-" . $_SESSION["lang"] . ".php"; ?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
...- To register the chosen language, we have to start the session first –
session_start(). - If the language is not chosen, we will set it to English by default –
if (!isset($_SESSION["lang"])) { $_SESSION["lang"] = "en"; } - When the “switch language” form is submitted, we change to the selected language –
if (isset($_POST["lang"])) { $_SESSION["lang"] = $_POST["lang"]; } - Lastly, load the language file –
require "lang-" . $_SESSION["lang"] . ".php";
STEP 3) LANGUAGE PACKS
3A) ENGLISH LANGUAGE PACK
<?php
$_TXT = [
"Test Website",
"My Website",
"Welcome To My Site",
"Copyright My Site"
];Remember that all the page content is a “placeholder variable” <?=$_TXT[N]?>? All we need to do in the language pack, is to create an array and “map” the text accordingly.
3B) CHINESE LANGUAGE PACK
<?php
$_TXT = [
"测试网站",
"我的网站",
"欢迎来到我的网站",
"版权所有: 我的网站"
];This is the Chinese translation. Create as many of such “language packs” as required in your own project.
DOWNLOAD & NOTES
Here is the download link to the example code, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything.
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EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD
Click here for the source code on GitHub gist, just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.
EXTRA BITS & LINKS
That’s all for this project, and here is a small section on some extras that may be useful to you.
ALTERNATIVE METHODS
Of course, the above example is not the only way to create a multi-language website. The other common methods are:
- Create separate websites for each language. For example,
http://site.comfor English,http://fr.site.comfor French,http://jp.site.comfor Japanese, etc… - Use a translation API – Check out Google Translate.
- Keep the language packs in the database instead of an array.
REFERENCES & LINKS
- Localized versions on Google
- Hreflang Tag on MDN
- Content language on MDN
- List of HTML language codes on GitHub
INFOGRAPHIC CHEAT SHEET
THE END
Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end of this guide. I hope that it has helped you with your project, and if you want to share anything with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!
Thank you very much! It is very easy to use.
Thank you for your method. It’s great and easy to use
It’s very nice.