PHP Beginners: How to Add Multi-language Support to a Website
Posted on July 23, 2009, Filled under PHP,
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Are you interested in having a multilingual website? This is a tutorial that shows you how you can do that in PHP.

The first thing we need to do is to create a couple of files that will contain the text for each of the languages that will be supported by the website. For demo purpose I have chosen English, Spanish and German. Make a directory named “directory”. In this directory create 3 files: lang.de.php, lang.en.php, and lang.es.php. In our main file (index.php) we will include a file (common.php) containing a piece of code that gets the requested language. Here’s the content of those 3 language files:
lang.en.php
<?php
/*
------------------
Language: English
------------------
*/
define('LANG_PAGE_TITLE', 'My website page title');
define('LANG_HEADER_TITLE', 'My website header title');
define('LANG_SITE_NAME', 'My Website');
define('LANG_SLOGAN', 'My slogan here');
define('LANG_HEADING', 'Heading');
// Menu
define('LANG_MENU_HOME', 'Home');
define('LANG_MENU_ABOUT_US', 'About Us');
define('LANG_MENU_OUR_PRODUCTS', 'Our products');
define('LANG_MENU_CONTACT_US', 'Contact Us');
define('LANG_MENU_ADVERTISE', 'Advertise');
define('LANG_MENU_SITE_MAP', 'Site Map');
?>lang.es.php
<?php
/*
------------------
Language: Spanish
------------------
*/
define('LANG_PAGE_TITLE', 'TÃtulo de la página de mi sitio web');
define('LANG_HEADER_TITLE', 'Mi sitio web de la cabecera tÃtulo');
define('LANG_SITENAME', 'Mi Sitio Web');
define('LANG_SLOGAN', ' Mi lema aquÃ');
define('LANG_HEADING', 'TÃtulo');
// Menu
define('LANG_MENU_HOME', 'Inicio');
define('LANG_MENU_ABOUT_US', 'Sobre Nosotros');
define('LANG_MENU_OUR_PRODUCTS', 'Nuestros productos');
define('LANG_MENU_CONTACT_US', 'Contáctenos');
define('LANG_MENU_ADVERTISE', 'Publicidad');
define('LANG_MENU_SITE_MAP', 'Mapa del Sitio');
?>lang.de.php
<?php
/*
-----------------
Language: German
-----------------
*/
define('LANG_PAGE_TITLE', 'Meine Webseite Titel');
define('LANG_HEADER_TITLE', 'Meine Website-Header Titel');
define('LANG_SITE_NAME', 'Meine Website');
define('LANG_SLOGAN', 'Mein Slogan hier');
define('LANG_HEADING', 'Position');
// Menu
define('LANG_MENU_HOME', 'Heim');
define('LANG_MENU_ABOUT_US', 'Über uns');
define('LANG_MENU_OUR_PRODUCTS', 'Unsere Produkte');
define('LANG_MENU_CONTACT_US', 'Kontaktieren Sie uns');
define('LANG_MENU_ADVERTISE', 'Werben');
define('LANG_MENU_SITE_MAP', 'Site Karte');
?>As you can notice, some constants are created using the define() function. In every file the defined constants have the same name, bu the values is different. We will output the values of the constants inside the index.php file. Therefore we will see different text every time we will call other language file.
Determine the right language
Let’s analyze the common.php file:
<?php
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;
case 'es':
$lang_file = 'lang.es.php';
break;
default:
$lang_file = 'lang.en.php';
}
include_once 'languages/'.$lang_file;
?>After we determine the value of $lang, we use switch() to compare its value with some different values, and execute a different piece of code depending on which value it equals to. After the value of the $lang_file is determined, the script will include the necessary language file. As you can see I have used sessions to register the value of $lang. This way users can navigate through the whole site and see the content in the chosen language (lang=[language here] does not need to be passed in every URL). Additionally, I have used cookies to store the selected language in users computer for 30 days. When the visitor will come back he will see the site in the language that he previously selected.
How if the website’s language requested?
In this demo I have chosen to use some image flags, each image having a link to index.php?lang=[LANG HERE]. So, to see the site in german we will use the German image flag which links to index.php?lang=de.
Lastly, the constants values should be outputted in the page. Examples:
for document title
<title><?php echo LANG_PAGE_TITLE; ?></title>
for header menu
<ul>
<li><a href="/"><?php echo LANG_MENU_HOME; ?></a></li>
<li><a href="about_us"><?php echo LANG_MENU_ABOUT_US; ?></a></li>
<li><a href="our_products"><?php echo LANG_MENU_OUR_PRODUCTS; ?></a></li>
<li><a href="contact_us"><?php echo LANG_MENU_CONTACT_US; ?></a></li>
<li><a href="advertise"><?php echo LANG_MENU_ADVERTISE; ?></a></li>
<li><a href="sitemap"><?php echo LANG_MENU_SITE_MAP; ?></a></li>
</ul>

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- July 23, 2009
- article by Gabriel C.
- 36 comments
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36 Replies to "PHP Beginners: How to Add Multi-language Support to a Website"
July 25, 2009 at 5:44 PM
This may works out for a couple of pages, but not for much, ( except the menu and static stuff ) as the page title is vital for SEO, and every page having the same title will really be a problem.
Furthermore you’d need to write all your content in 3 languages and associate that with the pages that should display that content later on. Better is to have a nice – maybe written by your own – CMS that really does nothing else than “spit” out requested content in the requested language on the appropriate page.
We use a small CMS for our news section, which supports 3 languages. Using such a thing together with your approach then makes sense. It displays contents on our different language websites accordingly.
August 4, 2009 at 1:30 AM
I wonder could that be changed so when changing the language, the hrefs of the header change aswell as the title of the link? that way i could simply just add
“href=”index.php?page=etusivu&lang=th”
and with include, bring in different texts to the body area, according to the language:
include ($lang.”/etusivu.html”);
That way, I dont need to define different words for different languages, since all words will be in separate .php or .html file.
August 4, 2009 at 3:55 AM
It’s good to have a certain order of the files and keep each language words in separate files. I have seen many professional applications built this way and I really recommend this practice. I don’t like the idea of changing the links inside the page. I believe it’s better to use specific links or (flag) images to set the desired language.
August 4, 2009 at 9:19 PM
@Gabriel,
I aggree on the point: of using specific links or imgs to set the language, but the href that i want to change is the menu’s links “home, links, contact, etc”
could that be possible with your script? Im a newbie sorta with php.
Thanks
August 11, 2009 at 10:55 AM
[...] This post was Twitted by planetphp [...]
August 11, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Hi,
Using constants is just the simplest way of localizing your content. Personally I got realy fond of the way WordPress has incorporated localisation. Somewhat simplified but everywhere you want to use a localized string you just wrap it in __() or _e():
to echo a localized string. The function _e($str) knows if a translated version of the string is present in your translation set. If so the translation is outputted, otherwise the unaltered text. This makes sure you never get ugly constant warnings in your interface.
Using any of the dozens of ways you can easily hook your __() and _e() implementation to your prefered dictionairy method of choice. Be it ini files, or xml files, or when you are up to it going with gettext (.po/.me and .pot files, with POEdit).
This post is okee for just a simple site, but when you get into larger sites, you need to get a more sound and less error prone approach.
My 2cts
Arnoud
September 17, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Thanks
man.
.-= simi.ro’s last blog ..U Tv =-.
November 23, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Hi buddy this is very simple way to convert language……..
December 9, 2009 at 4:07 AM
Great tutorial. It’s what the feature I am looking for for my dating website.
Can you tell us a bit further how do replace the flag icon with the dropdown box option.
December 23, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Hi
Is it actually possible instead of redirecting each language link to the index
Instead of <a href="?lang=en" rel="nofollow">
use
lt;a href="<?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>" rel="nofollow">?lang=nl">
December 26, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Hi Peter i think a better explaination would be better coz the second link is sensless
February 1, 2010 at 1:22 PM
How to modify for use with mysql database?
February 2, 2010 at 12:31 PM
I do like this but I prefer to do this a different way and I think it keeps files more organized but I’m not sure how to do it. Perhaps someone can tell me.
I want to have each language files in their own folder (en/ and fr/) for english and french for example. I want to be able to click on the image/text and have the page I’m currently on change to the same page but in a different language. So essentially, we are just changing the folder name from en to fr.
Can anyone please tell me how to do this? A sample site here but it’s in ASP code (http://www.contacservices.com/)
Thank you in advance.
July 29, 2010 at 12:17 AM
hey like your site loos great – looking to do something similar with ours but possibly using sessions and cookies so you would not have to duplicate pages i.e. index_en && index_fr etc..
February 7, 2010 at 9:19 PM
Very usefull tutorial!
I have a doubt. How can I add to this code a php function to identify the default browser language?
February 23, 2010 at 10:38 PM
Can anyone tell me how to use multilanguage for a dynamic content from database
February 24, 2010 at 3:48 PM
thank for your very good posting
March 3, 2010 at 7:39 PM
Hi @ e11world
That’s fairly easy. Create a new directory/folder and named it to english for english and spanish for spanish and german for german and so on.
After that, create lang.en.php, lang.es.php and lang.de.php. Rename these files like lang.en.php into english.php and so on and put them in their respective directories.
Next step, you’ll have to modify the common.php.
Look for line 29 $lang_file = ‘lang.en.php’; and replace with this code below:
$lang_file = ‘english’; //let’s remove the .php extension instead^^
Do this for the other languages you like.
Now, go into line 45 and change this code: include_once ‘languages/’.$lang_file;
into this code below:
include_once ‘languages/’.$lang_file.’/’.$lang_file.’.php’;
You now have languages in each directories. It’s more clean and cumpty this way specially when you suddenly decided to separate each language section in each files, you’re translator won’t have a hard way.
To change language, use the below code.
@ket
To replace it with drop down menu, you’ll have to use this example code below:
function jump(menu){
var loc = menu[menu.selectedIndex].value.split(“|”);
if(loc.length == 2)
window.open(loc[1], loc[0]);
}
<option value="_top|?&lang=en” >English
<option value="_top|?&lang=de” >German
<option value="_top|?&lang=es” >Spanish
It will repeat the requested language over and over until you click other links. I know, the javascript is old but i used it to my site. It’s good and it’s not jquery.
Hi @ Peter
It’s quite easy, omit the index.php so instead of index.php?lang=en it would be better this way ?&lang=es and you won’t be redirected in the index.php for changing language! It will repeat the requested language over and over again but atleast it wort. Hope other users will find a better way and please mail me @ brixter.deleon[@]paper-soup.com.
Hi @ Marzio
It’s already in there. Take a good close look at line 40. If the script can’t find the language requested by the user, it will automatically call on the default which is the english. So when a user submitted lang?=justajoke, the script will automatically call in the default which is the english language.
Anyways, nice tutorial kudos to the author.
May 1, 2010 at 12:59 PM
@Brixter
Thanks for the help. I actually found many sites offering the same way you suggested here but it’s not what I want and I found another way to do this exactly how I want. Thanks!
March 4, 2010 at 10:22 PM
I wanted to know if it is possible to use this define method but instead of having text, direct it to an image. If i have a menu that is constructed of images, how would I come about doing that?
Thanks.
March 14, 2010 at 3:19 PM
Ah what you mean is that instead of text links you used image links like those buttons?
Here is the answer, you can define it like this:
Follow above instructions, then create a image link like below:
define(‘LANG_HEADING’, ”);
Hope that clears out your question,
March 14, 2010 at 3:20 PM
define(‘LANG_HEADING’, ‘[img src="position.jpg" /]‘);
change [ to < oky?
March 23, 2010 at 8:09 AM
Great article on adding multiple language support to php. If you don’t like having multiple language files, you can also get the same effect by having a single file that contains all translations in a single array. You can see a tutorial about this approach here:
http://tips4php.net/2010/03/support-multiple-languages-in-php/
March 26, 2010 at 3:46 AM
@ laur: I guess your missing proper fonts. Or you can use CHECK LINK for profer displaying special characters in html.
March 24, 2010 at 1:11 AM
Hi
Tell me how can i make to appear German character.
Ex: In demo website on menu “About us”, if i change on German language it appear ? instead the special character. what can i do?
April 15, 2010 at 1:36 AM
Hi there,
This is a great tutorial, but I have one question. Is it possible to fallback to the English text if the translated text for the chosen language is not available?
Thanks!
April 15, 2010 at 12:26 PM
Great script! Would really like to get this to work.
Standalone it works.
http://www.mashamoto-imports.com/languages.php
But when I try to work it into my site I’m getting header errors.
Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter – headers already sent (output started at /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/index.php:1) in /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/common2.php on line 2
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/index.php:1) in /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/common2.php on line 3
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/index.php:1) in /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/common2.php on line 12
These 3 lines give me the “headers already sent” error
session_start();
header(‘Cache-control: private’); // IE 6 FIX
setcookie(“lang”, $lang, time() + (3600 * 24));
Could anyone please tell me how to solve this?
June 6, 2010 at 10:15 PM
Arthur try this; cut “session_start();” from common2.php and paste it into index.php
April 15, 2010 at 1:15 PM
BTW, I just noticed that when I copy & paste the exact same code from index.php in a new file called index2.php it works flawless :s ?
http://www.mashamoto-imports.com/index2.php
What could be causing this? The code is exactly the same?
May 12, 2010 at 6:32 PM
Arthur, are you saving your web page as a UTF-8 or ANSI? UTF-8 will create that issue too. Try saving your page again but with a ANSI encoding.
April 26, 2010 at 8:22 AM
How can I use Chinese or Japanese characters?
May 12, 2010 at 10:48 PM
Thanks matey! I got it working
May 16, 2010 at 4:31 AM
I haven’t saw this error (as posted by Author) in my local apache server but it displays in the internet.
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/index.php:1) in /opt/www/mashamotoltd2/web/www.mashamoto-imports.com/common2.php on line 12
I guess saving the file as ANSI works. thanks @ tempest.
June 15, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Hello is this script SEO friendly ?
If it is then how i can make a sitemap icluding the 3 different languages ?
June 27, 2010 at 4:47 AM
Is there any way to make this SEO friendly?
June 30, 2010 at 10:42 PM
There’s no one to answer…..