How does CakePHP handle multiple languages?

CakePHP is a popular PHP development framework that helps developers quickly build high-quality web applications. With the development of globalization, more and more applications need to support multiple languages, and CakePHP also provides corresponding support. This article will introduce how CakePHP handles multiple languages.

1. Multi-language support

Multi-language support is an important feature of CakePHP. Starting with version 2.0, CakePHP supports the gettext file format, which is a simple text file that contains all the strings that need to be translated. In CakePHP, we can use the integrated I18n class library to process gettext files.

2. Internationalization and localization (i18n and l10n)

In multi-language processing, it is necessary to understand the two concepts of internationalization and localization.

i18n often refers to internationalization, which means preparing an application to support more than one locale or language, making it easier to adapt the application to target users and markets. In CakePHP, we can use the I18n class library to implement internationalization.

l10n usually refers to localization, which means adapting an application to a specific language or locale. In addition, the application also needs to use the corresponding date, time, currency format, etc. CakePHP can support localization very well, helping developers expand to more languages ​​and regions.

3. How to generate translation files?

To use multi-language support, you first need to generate translation files in the gettext file format, and then place these translation files in the corresponding directory. In CakePHP, you can use the cake i18n extract command to generate the default template file, which is a .pot file.

$ bin/cake i18n extract

After executing the above command, CakePHP will check all CakePHP files and application files, extract the strings in them, and decide which characters need to be translated. Then generate a .pot file, which will be used as a template file for translation and saved in the localepot directory.

4. How to introduce translation files?

Convert the generated .pot file into a language-specific PO file to start translation. After completing the translation, save the PO file to a specific language directory (such as localezh_CNLC_MESSAGESdefault.po). At the same time, we also need to compile all translated PO files into MO files and place them in the corresponding LC_MESSAGES subdirectory of the language directory.

In CakePHP, you can use the I18n class library to load translation files, as shown below:

//引入语言文件$file = ROOT . DS . 'locale' . DS . $language . DS . 'LC_MESSAGES' . DS . $domain . '.po';
$locale = new Locale();$locale->loadMo($file);

In the above code, the values ​​of $language and $domain are the translation files that the program wants to use. language and domain. Call the $locale->loadMo() method to load the MO file for a specific language and domain. After loading is complete, we can start using the translation file.

5. How to use translation files?

In CakePHP, we can use the __() function to get the translated string. When using the __() function, if the string is not translated in the current language file, the original string will be returned.

For example, we can change the string in the view file to the following:

<?php echo __('Welcome to my website!'); ?>

If we want to add a new translation to translate it to "Welcome to my website!":

• Generate a new .po file and translate it
• Compile the translated .po file into a .mo file
• Put the .mo file into the program in the language directory where it is located, such as locale/zh_CN/LC_MESSAGES/default.mo

Then, when the application uses the string, CakePHP will automatically load the appropriate translation file and return the translated string.

6. How to dynamically modify the language?

If we need to dynamically switch languages ​​or the view layer needs to support multi-language switching settings, we need to dynamically change the language environment. Developers can achieve this using the I18n class library and Session component.

For example, we can write the following code in UsersController:

public function changelang($lang = null) {
    if ($lang) {
        $this->request->getSession()->write('Config.language', $lang);
    }
    return $this->redirect($this->referer());
}

In the above code, first check whether $lang is empty. If it is not empty, Config.language will be set to $ lang (obtained from the client request), otherwise the default language is used.

When the user logs in, we can set the current locale according to the previously set locale. The code is as follows:

public function login() {
    if ($this->request->is('post')) {
        if ($this->Auth->login()) {
            //Set language based on user preference
            $this->request->getSession()->write('Config.language', $this->request->data['Users']['language_preference']);
            $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirectUrl());
        } else {
            $this->Flash->error(__('Invalid username or password, try again'));
        }
    }
}

In the above code, when the user logs in successfully, the $this->request->data'Users' gets the language selected by the user and saves it to Config.language in the following code. This way, every time the user logs in, the application will prioritize using the previously saved locale for translation.

7. Summary

In this article, we introduced CakePHP’s method of handling multiple languages. First, you need to generate translation files in gettext format, and then place these files in a specific directory. Through the I18n class library and the __() function, the program can automatically select the appropriate translation file and return the translated string. Finally, we also covered how to use the Session component to dynamically change the locale. In addition, we also need to note that multi-language processing requires a lot of translation work. We should pay attention to distinguishing the concepts of i18n and l10n, and write them flexibly to facilitate later maintenance work.

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