Multi-language website function

[jetsettt]

Hi,

 

I am trying to build a multi-language function for my website. I have looked at many tutorials and all seem to suggest that language files are used. However, I wish to have easier administration of the language entries and storing these in a DB would be much better for myself.

 

I have 2 tables. This is my schema.

 

'Lang' table

'Lang_id'

'Lang_name'    (eg  English)

 

'Lang_entries' table

'Lang_entry_id'

'Lang_entry_data'      (eg.  'Hello! This is English text')

'Lang_entry_code'      (eg.  AA0001)   

'Lang_id'                      (eg.  '1')

 

 

Not sure if this is the best way, but I intend to query the 'Lang_entries' table by 'Lang_id' for example and get all of the 'English' entries so that they can be PHP echoed in various places on the page by 'Lang_entry_code'

 

The problem that I am having is that I can only echo the first result from the query.

 

Is it possible to echo any of the  'Lang_entry_data'  by a  'Lang_entry_code'  ?

 

Thankyou in advance if anyone can advise. Not sure how to go about this.

[lastkarrde]

What is your query?

[jetsettt]

This is the query that I am using to bring back all results for 'English'  (id 1)

 

SELECT lang_entry_data, lang_entry_code

FROM lang_entries

WHERE lang_id = '1'

 

 

 

[jetsettt]

I have come up with a solution that works but I am unsure if it good practice.

 

To display a language entry from the DB anywhere on the page, I run a DB query such as ...

 

<?php
$query_language = "SELECT lang_entry_data, lang_entry_code FROM lang_entries WHERE lang_entry_code = 'AA0005'";
$language = mysql_query($query_language, $db) or die(mysql_error());
$row_language = mysql_fetch_assoc($language);
  echo $row_language['lang_entry_data']; 
?>

 

 

It seems to work ok without having to load the whole of the language entries into the page for use.

 

This will result in many DB quiries per page, is this bad practice ?

[analog]

A lot of queries for a single page would be quite bad for performance and scalability.

 

You can load all the language strings into an assoc array and use that.

 

Something like this (Untested code):

<?php

$query_language = "SELECT lang_entry_data, lang_entry_code
FROM lang_entries
WHERE lang_id = '1'";

$language = mysql_query($query_language, $db) or die(mysql_error());

$lang = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($language))
$lang[$row_language['lang_entry_data']] = $row_language['lang_entry_data'];


echo $lang['AA0005']; // output the lang string for AA0005

?>

[jetsettt]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I guessed that repeated queries throughout the page might make an impact on performance.

 

The method of using an array looks like a better solution.

 

I will give this a try.

 

Thanks very much for your help. 

[jetsettt]

Thanks analog,

 

Just what I need. This seems a really good way to add multi-language to a web site. Storing the data in a DB rather than files is much better for me.

 

I had to make a small change to the code to get it to work so that the correct  language entry data could be called by it's ID. All I have to do now to show a language entry anywhere on a page is call it by its ID!  Thanks again analog. 

 

$lang[$row_language['lang_entry_data']] = $row_language['lang_entry_data'];

 

Altered to.

 

$lang[$row_language['lang_entry_code']] = $row_language['lang_entry_data'];