detect browser language

[elkay02]

Hello,
I am very new to .php and I am experiencing some issues with my script. I will do the best to explain what I am trying to accomplish.

My website has three languages. I have a English, Spanish and Portuguese version. Currently I have a language selector at the top of each page. So the user can choose which language they would like to view. Works great, BUT I would like to have their language come up without them having to choose.
I found in the abyss of the internet some tutorials on building this script.
The first one was:

function redirect()
{
$lang=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];
if (substr($lang, 0, 2)=='en')
{
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/en/");
} else {
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/sp");
}
}
redirect();

Which worked perfect, but I have three languages not 2. So I then found:

function redirect()
{
$lang=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];
switch($lang) {
case "en":
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/en/");
break;
case "pt":
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/po/");
break;
case "es":
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/sp/");
break;
default "en":
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/en/");
}
redirect();

And this script is not working for me. Nothing comes up. Any Ideas?
Thank you for your time.🙂😕

[BIOSTALL]

Hi elkay,

Your code should look as follows:

function redirect() {

$lang=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];

switch($lang) {
    case "pt": {
        header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/po/");
        break;
    }
    case "es": {
        header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/sp/");
        break;
    }
    case "en":
    default: {
        header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/en/");
    }
}

}
redirect(); 

The 'default' option of a switch statement is what happens if none of the other cases are met.

Hope that helps

EDIT: You could infact lose the 'case "en":' as well as it will do the same thing.

[elkay02]

Thank you for your speedy reply BIOSTALL.

I fixed my script to match what you attached and its WORKING, kinda...
It will only return English even when I change my browser (Firefox) language to Portuguese or Spanish.
And if I move the case "en" to the top it will only return Portuguese.

Thanks for at least getting me here. I really appreciate it. If you have any ideas or things that may come to mind, please let me know.
Thank you
elkay

function redirect() {
$lang=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];
switch($lang) {
case "pt": {
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/po/index.php");
break;
}
case "es": {
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/sp/index.php");
break;
}
case "en":
default: {
header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/en/index.php");
}
}
}
redirect();

[BIOSTALL]

The problem is that the HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE variable can return the langauge in a number of formats, I believe depending on what browser you are using. Sometimes it will return 'en', sometimes 'en-gb', sometimes 'en-ca'.

As we are only interested in the first two characters to get the primary language lets modify your script a bit further:

function redirect() {

// only get the first two characters
$lang=substr($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'], 0, 2);

switch($lang) {
    case "pt": {
        header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/po/");
        break;
    }
    case "es": {
        header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/sp/");
        break;
    }
    default: {
        header("Location: http://www.mydomain.com/en/");
    }
}

}
redirect();

Try that and let me know how you get on.

Good luck!

[elkay02]

Thank you Biostall,
I appreciate you taking time to help me in my php learning journey. It's working perfect, and Thank you for the explanation comments, help a lot.
elkay02🙂