Country sensing

Geoffo

Hi,

I've just placed a bit of script on my index.php to check the country the user is viewing from and automatically direct them to their language pages (using $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE).

Does anyone know how I can test whether it is working properly?

I know the English one works but how can I check if, say, the French or Italian one works? Any ideas?

Thanks,

Geoffo

Natty_Dreadlock

if u use IE, go to the internet options page. On the dialogue that comes up, there's a button Languages... Here u can add & modify the language code the IE sends to your page.

Geoffo

Thanks Natty_D,

Hmmm, ok well it ain't workin 🙁

It works with Google.com but not with my page.
This is the script I'm using:

<?php
if(strstr($HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE,"en")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mysite.com/uk/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE,"fr")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mysite.com/fr/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE,"de")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mysite.com/de/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE,"it")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mysite.com/it/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE,"es")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mysite.com/es/[/url]");
}
?>

The rest of the page is the html page where the user can choose which language he wants to visit. When I visit www.mysite.com it automatically directs me to www.mysite.com/uk/ so I figured it was workin ok.

Is there a better way of doing it?

Thanks,

Geoffo

John_Canyon

try

$_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE].

Cheers.

Geoffo

Thanks Mr Canyon, but that doesn't work either. I get sent to the UK version no matter what language I have set in my prefs, but in Google. com it goes to the correct version. ???

Any other ideas?

John_Canyon

I know this may be a silly question, but did you completely close your browser after you made the changes in your browser?

zingbats

right. if you are from the UK, the results should be en_gb. so, it doesn't know where to send you

John_Canyon

he is searching the string for "en" so, it would indeed know where to send you.

Geoffo

Not at first, but after I posted that message I figured that might be a factor so I tried it again and it still doesn't work.

Code used:

<?php
if(strstr($_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE],"en")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mouseup.co.uk/test/uk/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE],"fr")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mouseup.co.uk/test/fr/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE],"de")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mouseup.co.uk/test/de/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE],"it")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mouseup.co.uk/test/it/[/url]");
}
elseif(strstr($_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE],"es")) {
Header("Location: [url]http://www.mouseup.co.uk/test/es/[/url]");
}
?>

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html> ....

blah blah

If you want to test it yourself go to
http://www.mouseup.co.uk/test/

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Geoffo

If it doesn't pick up on any of the required terms it should just show the rest of the html page right? On the page I have the links to the other languages so that the person can choose themselves where they want to go.

John_Canyon

ok, what happens if you echo out...
$_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE] ?

What values are you getting?

(try both uk, and another language)

John_Canyon

Ahh.. just thought i would let you know by the way, that it does work. It works if you remove the [en] from the languages field, and lets say have only germany [de] listed.

I did get your script to work, and did not have to restart my browser.

Cheers.

Geoffo

Yes got that!
When I echo'd the $_SERVER[HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE] it returned 'it,fr;q=0.8,en-gb;q=0.6,es;q=0.4,de;q=0.2'

So I figured that it's returning every language I have specified in the list. Removing them all bar the one I want to use fixes the problem.

I guess the best way to do it would be to check the first two letters and not the whole string returned, as the preferred language is the first in the list.

Thanks for your help John (and others), much appreciated.

Geoffo

John_Canyon

If you are going to check only the first 2 letters then make sure you have an "else" for a default if those 2 letters are not found, otherwise someone from lets say China, just going to end up in empty space.

Cheers.

Geoffo

Will it not just show the html below the php?

<?php
...
...
?>
<html>
...
...
</html>[CODE]

John_Canyon

ahh, yes it will. I didnt have access to your script, just the snippet of code.

Cheers.