email different languages

[sirTemplar]

i have this php code which sends email to those celebrating their bday on a daily basis. it works pretty well.

but now i want something more. i have on my database a field called language. now i want is the email message text changes according to the language, i.e. when they have english message is sent while if spanish or italian, another message is sent. how could i do that? here is my present code. thanks.

<? 

//Connector

// connection here

//Send email to user 

$time = date("l, F j");

$result_num_birthdays_today=mysql_query("select count(*) from users 
				WHERE DATE_FORMAT(bday, '%m-%d') = '" . date ('m-d') . "'") 
				or die ("Couldn't read the number of birthdays for this date."); 

$num_birthdays_today = mysql_result($result_num_birthdays_today, 0, 0);
				print("Today there are $num_birthdays_today birthdays today<br>");

$result = mysql_query ("SELECT name, surname, email, bday, year(bday) AS year from users 
				WHERE DATE_FORMAT(bday, '%m-%d') = '" . date ('m-d') . "'"); 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc ($result)) 

{ 
    extract ($row); 
	$how_old = date ('Y') - $year; 
    $to = "$name $surname <$email>"; 
    $from = 'from: me <[e-mail]>'; 
    $subject = 'Happy Birthday!'; 
    $message = "$time

Dear $name $surname, you are $how_old today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


sirTemplar"; 

$mail = @mail($to, $subject, $message, $from); 
if ($mail) {echo 'mail sent<br>';} else {echo 'mail FAIL<br>';} 
}

?> 

[Weedpacket]

Put the pieces of text you want to internationalise into arrays

$language_text['en']['mail_subject']='Happy Birthday!';
$language_text['en']....

$language_text['it']['mail_subject']='Buon Compleanno!';
$language_text['it']...

$language_text['es']['mail_subject']='!Feliz Cumpleanos!';
$language_text['es']...

(I'm using ISO two-letter codes to specify the languages - you'd use whatever code you use)

And then, assuming the desired language is specified in $language

$mail_text = $language_text[$language];

and when building the email have stuff like

 $subject = $mail_text['mail_subject'];  

For the body of the message, where you want to insert values of variables, the easiest solution would be to use [man]sprintf[/man] (see the examples on that page).

[sirTemplar]

i tried this.

<?
{ 

$language_text['english']['subject']='Happy Birthday!'; 
$language_text['english']['message']="$time

Dear $name $surname, you are $how_old today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

sirTemplar"; 


$language_text['italian']['subject']='Buon Compleanno!'; 
$language_text['italian']['message']="$time

Ciao $name $surname, sei $how_old oggi. Buon Compleanno!

sirTemplar"; 

extract ($row);
$mail_text = $language_text[$newslang];
$how_old = date ('Y') - $year; 
$to = "$name $surname <$email>"; 
$from = 'from: me <[e-mail]>'; 
$subject = $mail_text['subject'];
$message = $mail_text['message'];


$mail = @mail($to, $subject, $message, $from); 
if ($mail) {echo 'mail sent<br>';} else {echo 'mail FAIL<br>';} 
}
?>

the subject changes as well as the text according to language but the variable $name $surname, $how_old are left blank on the email sent!

[Weedpacket]

Because when you created those strings those variables didn't have any value. That's why I suggested you look at sprintf.

[sirTemplar]

i tried so much trying to understand how sprintf works but still in vain! any help? thanks

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by sirTemplar
i tried so much trying to understand how sprintf works but still in vain! any help? thanks

Not that difficult to understand.

$subject = "It is %s's birthday today!";
$string = sprintf($subject,$name);

$subject is a template string with a placeholder (the %s). $name is a variable containing the person's name. sprintf replaces the placeholder in $subject with the $name.

When you've got more than one placeholder, sprintf uses the first additional argument (after the format string) to fill in the first placeholder, the second additional argument to fill in the second placeholder and so on.

The %1\s bit is because different languages order their words differently, and the bit that comes first in one language might not be the same bit that comes first in another, so PHP lets you say which extra argument goes with which placeholder.

Try it out. That's the fastest way to learn these things.

[sirTemplar]

thanks for the explanation, i will try it out as soon as i recover from my cold, maybe trying to understand a lot of php. hehehe. see you here again.