include file based on browser language

hotavatars_com

i have the next script, and when i trying to run it it show me "Error there is no document by that language." as defauilt. but i have "en" language in my opera browser, please help to fix it.

<?php
$browser = explode(",", $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE);
/* $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE is a server predefined variable. It stores what languages the users browser is enabled for. I believe the first one is the "default language" meaning, that's the language it will use first if "Automatic Detection" is enabled in the users browser (Or in another term, it's what the user prefers.). The explode() splits the $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE value where there is a comma. The values are then assigned into their own array. So, say the person visiting knows English, French, and Spanish and the visitor sets their browser in that order (Also note, the user prefers English). The value in $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE would be "en,fr,sp". explode() would then split that string into three arrays because I set explode to split strings wherever there is a comma. Now since the user has one major preference "English", The $browser[0] array contains the string "en". This variable is then passed to the switch function below. switch() is like a bunch of branched off if() statments. */

switch($browser[0])
{
/* Below I used strings as the case instead of numbers. switch will match up whatever value in $browser[0] is to the correct document. Back to the example of the English speaking visitor. Since the value in $browser[0] is "en" the switch statment branches off to "case: 'en'". Thus the english document would be included into the file (There is no redirection needed.) The "break;" statement just ends that block of coding. "default:" is just any other value that doesn't match. For example if $browser[0] was "de", there is no other matching "de" case. So it would go down to default. */


case 'de':
include("de.txt");
break;
case 'en':
include("en.txt");
break;
case 'es':
include("es.txt");
break;
default:
print("Error there is no document by that language.");
}
?>

Rodney_H_

Change the first line from this: $browser = explode(",", $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE);

to this: $browser = explode(",", $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']);

Hopefully that will do it...

hotavatars_com

hi Rodney, thanks for answer!

the problem in the browser, the next script(it showing browser info.) me there next:

<?
print $_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE"];
?>

Opera:es;q=1.0,en;q=0.9
IE:en-us,es-us;q=0.5

in the script i need to enter(for IE):

case 'en-us': 
include("en.txt");

case 'es-us': 
include("en.txt");

its possible to use only 'en' or 'es' except 'en-us', 'es-us', etc?

Rodney_H_

Oh yes, I see the problem. In that case you can change the first line to this:

$browser = explode('-', $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']);

And explode at the hyphen "-" to get "en" or "es".

Rodney_H_

OK, I think I uderstand this problem: Browsers are inconsistent in the way they display the language charset information. So how about this:

<?php
$language = $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];

switch($language)
{
	case strpos($language, 'de'):
		include('de.txt');
	break;

case strpos($language, 'en'):
	include('en.txt');
break;

case strpos($language, 'es'):
	include('es.txt');
break;

default:
	print('Error there is no document by that language.');
break;
}
?>

Weedpacket

No, they're consistent; it's just that the format for language codes (]RFC1766) is not as trivial as it looks, and then you have to consider how it's used in http RFC2616, Section 14.4. The header provided in the example by Opera is specifying Spanish or English. the example from IE is referring to specifically to the US dialects of those two languages. You'll probably also want to look at the quality settings (those 'q' parts) because they hint at which language is preferred.

Rodney_H_

Weedpacket, thanks for clarifying this.

I always learn something new from you!

-RH