What's the best logic for switching language in Laravel?

Question

I'm using Laravel localization to provide two different languages. I've got all the path stuff set up, and mydomain.com/en/bla delivers English and stores the 'en' session variable, and mydomain.com/he/bla delivers Hebrew and stores the 'he' session variable. However, I can't figure out a decent way to provide a language-switching link. How would this work?

Answer 1

I've solved my problem by adding this to the before filter in routes.php:

// Default language ($lang) & current uri language ($lang_uri)
$lang = 'he';
$lang_uri = URI::segment(1);

// Set default session language if none is set
if(!Session::has('language'))
{
    Session::put('language', $lang);
}

// Route language path if needed
if($lang_uri !== 'en' && $lang_uri !== 'he')
{
    return Redirect::to($lang.'/'.($lang_uri ? URI::current() : ''));
}
// Set session language to uri
elseif($lang_uri !== Session::get('language'))
{
    Session::put('language', $lang_uri);
}

// Store the language switch links to the session
$he2en = preg_replace('/he\//', 'en/', URI::full(), 1);
$en2he = preg_replace('/en\//', 'he/', URI::full(), 1);
Session::put('he2en', $he2en);
Session::put('en2he', $en2he);

Answer 2

This is a post i posted originally on the laravel forums, but maybe it will help somebody else, so i post it here also.

I had some trouble with building a easy language switcher for my app, and the info on the forums where a little bit old (some posts), so i made this simple piece of code that makes it supereasy to change language on your app on the fly.

I have the language strings in my views as following:

{{ __('languagefile.the_language_string'); }}

And I get the languages with a URL, i think this is the best way, also its good for seo and for links that people share. Example:

www.myapp.com/fi/support (Finnish)
www.myapp.com/en/support (English)
www.myapp.com/sv/support (Swedish)

Ok, so the problem was that i wanted a easy way to change the language on the fly, without having to mess with sessions and cookies. Heres how i made it:

Make a library in your libraries folder called chooselang.php

Insert this code inside:

class Chooselang extends HTML {
    /**
     * Generate a Language changer link.
     *
     * <code>
     *      // Generate a link to the current location,
     *      // but still change the site langauge on the fly
     *      // Change $langcode to desired language, also change the Config::set('application.language', 'YOUR-LANG-HERE')); to desired language
     *      // Example
     *      echo Chooselang::langslug(URI::current() , $langcode = 'Finnish' . Config::set('application.language', 'fi'));
     * </code>
     *
     * @param  string  $url
     * @param  string  $langcode
     * @param  array   $attributes
     * @param  bool    $https
     * @return string
     */

    public static function langslug($url, $langcode = null, $attributes = array(), $https = null)
    {
        $url = URL::to($url, $https);

        if (is_null($langcode)) $langcode = $url;

        return '<a href="'.$url.'"'.static::attributes($attributes).'>'.static::entities($langcode).'</a>';
    }

}

After this you are ready for getting your url switcher URL:s generated. Simply add them as you whould any other Blade links.

Example how to generate links for Finnish, Swedish and English (with Blade)

  {{ Chooselang::langslug(URI::current() , $langcode = 'Fin' . Config::set('application.language', 'fi')); }}
  {{ Chooselang::langslug(URI::current() , $langcode = 'Swe' . Config::set('application.language', 'sv')); }}
  {{ Chooselang::langslug(URI::current() , $langcode = 'Eng' . Config::set('application.language', 'en')); }}

The above will generate URL:s that are always on the current page, and change the lang slug to the one you want. This way the language changes to the one you want, and the user naturally stays on the same page. The default language slug is never added to the url.

Generated urls look something like:

<a href="http://localhost/laravel/public/support">Fin</a>
<a href="http://localhost/laravel/public/sv/support">Swe</a>
<a href="http://localhost/laravel/public/en/support">Eng</a>

PS. The links are specially useful if you add them to your master template file.

Answer 3

You could have a Route to hand language change, for example:

Route::get('translate/(:any)', 'translator@set');

Then in the set action in the translator controller could alter the session, depending on the language code passed via the URL.

You could also alter the configuration setting by using

Config::set('application.language', $url_variable');

Controller Example - translate.php

public function action_set($url_variable)
{
     /* Your code Here */
}

Answer 4

Just in case for future users if you want to use package for localization There is a great package at https://github.com/mcamara/laravel-localization. which is easy to install and has many helpers.

Answer 5

This question still comes in Google search, so here's the answer if you're using Laravel 4 or 5, and mcamara/laravellocalization.

<ul>
    <li class="h5"><strong><span class="ee-text-dark">{{ trans('common.chooselanguage') }}:</span></strong> </li>
        @foreach(LaravelLocalization::getSupportedLocales() as $localeCode => $properties)
            <li>
               <a rel="alternate" hreflang="{{$localeCode}}" href="{{LaravelLocalization::getLocalizedURL($localeCode) }}">
                   <img src="/img/flags/{{$localeCode}}.gif" /> {{{ $properties['native'] }}}
               </a>
           </li>
        @endforeach
</ul>

NOTE that this example shows flags (in public/img/flags/{{locale}}.gif), and to use it you will need a bit of .css, but you can modify it to display the text if you want...

FYI. The mcamara/laravellocalization documentation has examples and a LOT of helpers, so look through the documentation on github. (https://github.com/mcamara/laravel-localization)

Answer 6

Try use Session's. Somthing like this:

Controller:

 class Language_Controller extends Base_Controller {

        function __construct(){
            $this->action_set();
            parent::__construct();
        }

       private function checkLang($lang = null){
         if(isset($lang)){
           foreach($this->_Langs as $k => $v){
             if(strcmp($lang, $k) == 0) $Check = true;
           }
       }
        return isset($Check) ? $Check : false;
       }

       public function action_set($lang = null){
        if(isset($lang) && $this->checkLang($lang)){
            Session::put('lang', $lang);
            $this->_Langs['current'] = $lang;
            Config::set('application.language', $lang);
        } else {
            if(Session::has('lang')){
                Config::set('application.language', Session::get('lang'));
                $this->_Langs['current'] = Session::get('lang');
            } else {
                $this->_Langs['current'] = $this->_Default;
            }
        }
        return Redirect::to('/');
    }
}

In Route.php:

Route::get('lang/(:any)', 'language@set');

Answer 7

I've been doing it like this:

$languages = Config::get('lang.languages'); //returns array('hrv', 'eng')

$locale = Request::segment(1); //fetches first URI segment

//for default language ('hrv') set $locale prefix to "", otherwise set it to lang prefix
if (in_array($locale, $languages) && $locale != 'hrv') {
    App::setLocale($locale);
} else {
    App::setLocale('hrv');
    $locale = null;
}

// "/" routes will be default language routes, and "/$prefix" routes will be routes for all other languages
Route::group(array('prefix' => $locale), function() {

    //my routes here

});

Source: http://forumsarchive.laravel.io/viewtopic.php?pid=35185#p35185

Answer 8

What I'm doing consists of two steps: I'm creating a languages table which consists of these fields:

id | name | slug

which hold the data im gonna need for the languages for example

1 | greek | gr

2 | english | en

3 | deutch | de

The Language model I use in the code below refers to that table.

So, in my routes.php I have something like:

//get the first segment of the url
$slug = Request::segment(1);   
$requested_slug = "";

//I retrieve the recordset from the languages table that has as a slug the first url segment of request
$lang = Language::where('slug', '=', $slug)->first();

//if it's null, the language I will retrieve a new recordset with my default language
$lang ? $requested_slug = $slug :  $lang = Language::where('slug', '=', **mydefaultlanguage**')->first();

//I'm preparing the $routePrefix variable, which will help me with my forms
$requested_slug == ""? $routePrefix = "" : $routePrefix = $requested_slug.".";

//and I'm putting the data in the in the session
Session::put('lang_id', $lang->id);
Session::put('slug', $requested_slug);
Session::put('routePrefix', $routePrefix );
Session::put('lang', $lang->name);

And then I can write me routes using the requested slug as a prefix...

Route::group(array('prefix' =>  $requested_slug), function()
{
    Route::get('/', function () {
        return "the language here is gonna be: ".Session::get('lang');
    });

    Route::resource('posts', 'PostsController');
    Route::resource('albums', 'AlbumsController');
});

This works but this code will ask the database for the languages everytime the route changes in my app. I don't know how I could, and if I should, figure out a mechanism that detects if the route changes to another language.

Hope that helped.