Getting myself confused with sessions...

[darthmahon]

Hi,

I am trying to create a multilingual site and am having a few problems keeping track of the language the user has selected, using the following at the top of the page at the moment:

// Detect and include correct language
session_start();

// $lang not set
if(!isset($lang)) {
	// get language set to browser
    $lang = getenv('HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE');
	// get the first two characters of HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE
	$lang = substr($lang,0,2);
	// set default language to en
    $lang_default = "en";
}

// get $lang variable
$lang = $_GET['lang'];

// make sure $lang file exists
if (is_file("../_lang/index.$lang.php"))
{

// file exists, load language
$_SESSION["lang"] = $lang;
include("../_lang/index.$lang.php");

} else {

// file does not exist, load default language
$_SESSION["lang"] = $lang_default;
include("../_lang/index.$lang_default.php");

}

So when i first load the site it gives me english as my default as my browser headers are set to this.

I then select french and move onto the next page - instead of keeping french, it puts it back to English.

I'm sure this is because I keep resetting the language to english but I am getting confused as to the order of my if statements.

I am using the following links to create the change between languages:

<? if ($_SESSION["lang"]=="en") {

echo"<a href=\"?lang=fr\">";

} else if ($_SESSION["lang"]=="fr") {

echo"<a href=\"?lang=en\">";

} ?>

Really getting muddled now, hopefully someone can put me in the right direction! Thanks.

Chris.

[devinemke]

i suggest that you store all of the languages that your site offers in an array ($lang_array) and then do something like:

<?
session_start();

$lang_array = array('en', 'fr', 'sp', 'it');

if (isset($_GET['lang']) && in_array($_GET['lang'], $lang_array))
{
	$lang = $_GET['lang'];
}
else
{
	$lang = 'en';
} 

$_SESSION['lang'] = $lang;
include('../_lang/index.' . $lang . '.php');
?>

[jazz_snob]

I think checking !isset( $_SESSION['lang'] ) is what you're after. I recooked your code this way:

session_start();

// $lang not set
if( !isset( $_SESSION['lang'] ) ) 
{
	$lang = getLanguage();
    // set default language to en
    $lang_default = "en";
	$_SESSION['lang'] = setLanguage( $lang, $lang_default );
}


function getLanguage()
{
	if( isset( $_GET['lang'] ) )
	{
		return $_GET['lang'];
	}
	return substr( getenv( 'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE' ), 2 );
}

function setLanguage( $choice, $default )
{
	// make sure $choice file exists
	if (is_file("../_lang/index.$choice.php"))
	{
		// file exists, load language
		include("../_lang/index.$choice.php");
		return $choice;
	} else {
		// file does not exist, load default language
		include("../_lang/index.$default.php");
		return $default;
	}
}

-Tom.