Gettext and poEdit doesn't work

Question

I am trying gettext and poedit for the first time after reading an article about it. Gettext is enabled - that's not the problem. The problem is when I use poEdit. I will start showing you my files:

#localization.php

$locale = "de_DE";
if (isSet($_GET["locale"])) $locale = $_GET["locale"];
putenv("LC_ALL=$locale");
setlocale(LC_ALL, $locale);
bindtextdomain("messages", "./locale");
textdomain("messages");

#test.php

echo _("Welcome to my test page");

I have opened poEdit and saved a messages.po-file. Now, poEdit should scan files by itself and show all the strings, that should be translated. However, nothing seems to appear. This is my paths:

C:\Users\HS\SkyDrive\Webkodning\wamp\www\test\ <- Files in this folder
C:\Users\HS\SkyDrive\Webkodning\wamp\www\test\locale\de_DE\LC_MESSAGES <- messages.po in this folder

I think that the problem is the path (when saving the catalog). How should the path be like? Or maybe my path inside the bindtextdomain()-function i wrong. I really hope that I can receive some help on this area.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

First possibility:

1. You have to check the catalog properties (Open the .po file in POedit program then choose Menu 'Catalog'->'Properties' or simply just Alt+Enter, and check the Sources Path
2. Check the base path is correct refer to C:\Users\HS\SkyDrive\Webkodning\wamp\www\test\
3. Make sure youu already add "." (without quotes) in paths

Second possibility:

When you test the code use the lower string parameter for locale (de_de not de_DE) like this htttp:\url\test.php?locale=de_de

Third possibility:

Make sure poedit already generate the .mo file and if it's already then try to restart your WAMP server

Hopefully it will help

Answer 2

Ok, so you want PoEdit to scan your files for you instead of using the gettext utility xgettext?

Well, start PoEdit and go to Catalog -> Update from sources. If it is disabled you haven't told PoEdit where to look so go to Catalog -> Properties and select the Source paths tab. You may also go to the Sources keywords tab and add your translation keyword(s).

Answer 3

An important thing to keep in mind: Do not forget to set the charset in .po file! For example:

"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"

Then PHP will be able to find the .mo file you generated, using msgfmt, from the .po file WITH CHARSET SET.

Because of this I've wasted a lot of time debugging my code, testing every single little changes people suggested over this manual and Internet: