I18N Blog

The following are extracts from PHP Internationalization of Software Internationalization Tool World Wide Navi‘s Internationalization Programming Advisory Info.

1. Put Strings To Localize In gettext Function
Put strings that you want to localize in gettext function (in most cases, ‘_()’).

These strings get localized (translated) by each external resource file.

echo "Hello from PHP!"; ->
echo _("Hello from PHP!");

2. Write Initalizing Code
Apply user locale (language & region) and tell the resource name and path to gettext mechanism.

index.php (or other php)

<?php require_once($_SERVER[
"DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/gettext/wwnaviRs/' .
'wwnavi.gettext.php');?>
// Running initializing
code for locale setting
and gettext reading.
...
echo _("Hello from PHP!");
...

wwnavi.gettext.php
// Initializing code.

require_once('wwnaviLang.php');
// Language and
region arrays used later.

$header = $_SERVER[
'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];
// Getting user
HTTP header with language info.

$lang='';
// Parse user locale
from HTTP headers.
// Locale expression are different
from each web browser('en', 'en-us', 'en_US'...),
// but setlocale parameters
need to be 'language_REGION'.
if(strpos($header, ',')>0) {
    $hds = explode(',', $header);
    $lang = $hds[0];
    $lang = str_replace('-', '_',
$lang);
    if(strpos($lang, '_')>0) {
        $ls = explode('_', $lang);
        if(count($ls)>1) $lang = $ls[0] .
       '_' . strtoupper($ls[1]);
    }else if(!empty($wwnaviLang[
        $lang])) {
        $lang .= '_' . $wwnaviLang[
        $lang];
        // If language code
        (e.g. 'en') only, add region
        code (e.g. 'US')
        // from pre-defined arrays
       because setlocale needs full
      locale name.
    }
}
//echo $lang . '
';
//putenv("LC_ALL=$lang");

setlocale(LC_ALL, $lang);
// $lang need to be
language and region name (e.g. "en_US") at least.

$domain = 'wwnaviBundle';
// Telling gettext resource
name and path.
bindtextdomain($domain,
dirname(__FILE__));
textdomain($domain);
bind_textdomain_codeset($domain,
'UTF-8');

wwnaviLang.php 
// Pre-defined arrays of
language and default region code.

$wwnaviLang = array(
...
'de'=>'DE',
'en'=>'US',
'es'=>'ES',
'et'=>'EE',
'eu'=>'ES',
'fa'=>'IR',
'fi'=>'FI',
'fo'=>'FO',
'fr'=>'FR',
...
'ja'=>'JP',
...

3. Create gettext Master Template Resource (.POT)
You need to create a master resource (.pot) with pairs of msgid and msgstr under the resource path.

xgettext command is useful which scans ‘_()’ strings and create pot files.

YOUR_DOCUMENT_ROOT/gettext/
wwnaviRs/(*1)
 ... wwnaviBundle.pot(*1)

*1)The same directory
as specified in the code above.

wwnaviBundle.pot
...

#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2012-03-05 17:32+0900\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
"Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: /...../examples/php/gettext/index.php:10
msgid "Hello from PHP!"
msgstr ""

#: /...../examples/php/gettext/index.php:13
msgid "This is a DIV text."
msgstr ""
...

#: /root/wwnavi/workspace/examples/php/gettext/
sub/sub2/sub2.php:31
#, php-format
msgid "My local time is %c!"
msgstr ""

xgettext -j -L php  -k"_" --from-code=UTF-8
-o /..../examples/php/gettext/wwnaviRs/
wwnaviBundle.pot  \
   /..../examples/php/gettext/index.php

4. Localize .POT Into Each Language Resource (.PO)
Copy the master template to the target locale directory
(LOCALE(e.g. ‘ja_JP’)/LC_MESSAGES) as a .po file
and translate msgstr.

Case of Japanese Translation

YOUR_DOCUMENT_ROOT/gettext/
wwnaviRs/ja_JP/LC_MESSAGES
… wwnaviBundle.po

ja_JP/LC_MESSAGES/wwnaviBundle.po
…

#, fuzzy
msgid “”
msgstr “”
“Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n”
“Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n”
“POT-Creation-Date: 2012-03-05 17:32+0900\n”
“PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n”
“Last-Translator: FULL NAME \n”
“Language-Team: LANGUAGE \n”
“MIME-Version: 1.0\n”
“Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n”
“Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n”

#: /…../examples/php/gettext/index.php:10
msgid “Hello from PHP!”
msgstr “PHPからこんにちは!”

#: /…../examples/php/gettext/index.php:13
msgid “This is a DIV text.”
msgstr “これはDIVのテキストです。”
…

#: /root/wwnavi/workspace/examples/php/gettext/
sub/sub2/sub2.php:31
#, php-format
msgid “My local time is %c!”
msgstr “わたしの現地時間は%cです!”

***CAUTION: Do not modify(translate) format string like ‘%c’.

5. Compile .PO Into .MO (Resource Binary)
Run msgfmt command to create a resource binary (.mo)
in the target locale directory.

msgfmt -o
 wwnaviBundle.mo wwnaviBundle.po

Now you can switch your messages between English and Japanese changing your browser language settings.

These process can be checked with PHP string externalization samples in World Wide Navi.

POT/PO localization process gets more easy and effective with our localization tool, Sisulizer.