Content-in-database language output!

[itandme]

Hello!

I am doing a cpl of websites for a conference center, and am planning to put the content in a database for easy update and editing of it. And also I think it makes it much more neater when having the sites in several languages, in my case two (swedish and english).

Soo, lets say all the actually html content specific for the diffirent sub-pages lies in a mysql table, with a specific value if its the english or swedish text, and another one for what page it belongs to.

And then also a button or two on the mainpage for changing language.

Whats the best way to retrive the specific language in?

Having a session set when pressing the change-language button, which defines a variable that is used in the mysql query?

Or having the language variable be sent between the pages through something like 'index.php?page=whisky&lang=eng' and then pass the lang variable further and further?

Suggestions?

Thanks

[Weedpacket]

Setting a session variable would be better: less chance of it getting damaged, then.

Take a look at the headers sent by the client when they first visit ($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']): see what languages they prefer. You can use that as the initial value for the language until they decide to switch (if they do).

If their preference is different from what their client says in its headers, and you anticipate repeat visits, you might want to set a persistent cookie to store their preference.

So....
If there is a session variable containing the preferred language, use that.
Otherwise, if there is a persistent cookie containing the preferred language, use that.
Otherwise, if you can handle one of the languages the client specifies, use that.
Otherwise fall back on some default language.

If they specify a preference, set the session variable and the persistent cookie.