Language selection

[izzy]

Hi guys and gals,

 

I would like to make my site a multi language site.

As this might involve a lot of work i prefer to only have to do this once and do it right.

So i would like to have suggestions on how to do this the right way so that:

* visitors can easily change the language of the site

* other languages can easily be added when needed

* this function does not make the website slow in any way

 

Any and every sugestion is welcome.

 

Thanks in advance!!

[tryingtolearn]

A few things would factor into the path you take

Things like

What kind of site?

What parts of the site need to be multilingual

For instance, the site documents might need to be translated but a site forum wouldn't need every message translated just the categories.

Then you would have to think about currency on an e commerce site.

 

From the administrative standpoint who is supplying the translations and how are the translations going to be updated.

 

etc...

 

in a nutshell - you'd be hard pressed to get an answer on the "right" way of doing it. Not really one "right" way of doing every site.

It would take careful planning and a detailed road-map before you start.

[brotherZ]

Store all your text strings used on your website in a file or in a database.

Have the strings translated in other languages that you want to provide and store the strings in separate files, or in the database.

When the user selects a language, drop a cookie with the language selection.

Use the value in the cookie to automatically choose the right language file or database entries.

You may also use the visitor's location (IP address) to automatically select a default language.

[izzy]

Thanks for your feedback and answers.

brotherZ, What you mention is the route i was thinking about too.

Do you have an example of how to get the values from an external file?