Determining user language based on IP address (geolocation)

Question

I've integrated two pieces of PHP code found on different websites. The first part of code finds out what country you are in and the second one determines the language. I have tried running it but with no luck. It does not give me a error, just a blank white screen.

Here is the code:

<?php

function visitor_country()
{
    $client  = @$_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
    $forward = @$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
    $remote  = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    $result  = "Unknown";
    if(filter_var($client, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP))
    {
        $ip = $client;
    }
    elseif(filter_var($forward, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP))
    {
        $ip = $forward;
    }
    else
    {
        $ip = $remote;
    }

    $ip_data = @json_decode(file_get_contents("http://www.geoplugin.net/json.gp?ip=".$ip));

    if($ip_data && $ip_data->geoplugin_countryName != null)
    {
        $result = $ip_data->geoplugin_countryName;
    }

    return $result;
}

    session_start();
    header('Cache-control: private'); // IE 6 FIX

    if (isset($_GET['lang'])) {
            $lang = $_GET['lang'];

            // register the session and set the cookie
            $_SESSION['lang'] = $lang;

            setcookie('lang', $lang, time() + (3600 * 24 * 30));
    } else if (isset($_SESSION['lang'])) {
            $lang = $_SESSION['lang'];
    } else if (isset($_COOKIE['lang'])) {
            $lang = $_COOKIE['lang'];
    } else {
            $lang = 'en';
    }

    switch ($lang) {
            case 'en':
            $lang_file = 'lang.en.php';
            break;

            case 'de':
            $lang_file = 'lang.de.php';
            break;

            if(visitor_country() == "Germany") {
                default:
                $lang_file = 'lang.de.php';
                echo "Germany";
            } else {
                default:
                $lang_file = 'lang.en.php';
                echo "Not in Germany";
            }

    }

    include_once 'languages/' . $lang_file;



?>

I could not include the language code, but rest assured it works as I use it on my site without auto-country detection.

Answer 1

You code returns an error: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'default' (T_DEFAULT) in yourfile.php on line. It means that you're misusing default in switch statement. Replace your last part of your code with this:

default:
  if(visitor_country() == "Germany") {
     $lang_file = 'lang.de.php';
     echo "Germany";
  } else {
     $lang_file = 'lang.en.php';
     echo "Not in Germany";
  }

Take out default from inside of if/else statement.

EDIT 1:

Make sure that PHP displays ERRORS, WARNING and NOTICES to properly debug your code:

ini_set('display_errors', -1);

EDIT 2:

If it was working without the switch statement, like you said, then you must make sure that files lang.en.php/lang.de.php really exist.

EDIT 3:

You are suppressing errors with having @ in-front of json_decode(file_get_contents. Most likely you would have to edit your php.ini and enable allow_url_fopen to make it work. I bet if you remove @, you will get an error:

 Warning: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0 in

I wouldn't strongly recommend using this kind of method to detect user language and enabling allow_url_fopen as it's possible security flaw! In case you're interested, I will provide you with much better solution for determining user browsers' language.