The Multi-Language feature is necessary for the modern web application for the purpose of internationalization.Using CodeIgniter’s Language class, you can easily make your site multi-language in your website.

You just have follow some steps for building a multi-language website with CodeIgniter. If you are new to learn CodeIgniter, you can read Learn CodeIgniter Tutorial for Beginners first.

Open the application/config/config.php file and set the site’s default language.

$config['language'] = 'english';

Using Hooks:

For using the hooks option you need to enable the hooks feature in config file

$config['enable_hooks'] = TRUE;

We will use the session to store user’s requested language and load the respective language.

Before starting to implement multilingual features, open the application/config/autoload.php file and load SESSION library and URL helper.

 

$autoload['libraries'] = array('session');
$autoload['helper'] = array('url');?

Now you should need to create a .htaccess file in root directory and this file will contain the following code.

	RewriteEngine on
	RewriteCond $1 !^(index.php)
	RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /codeigniter/index.php/$1 [L]

applicationlanguage

Following language diretory you have to create some language’s directory.Each language director have a language array – $lang file.

Here the language files must be named with _lang suffix.

For example, if you want to create a file containing site’s message translation then the file name might be message_lang.php.

In language files, you would need to assign each line of text to $lang array.

english/message_lang.php

$lang['welcome_message'] = 'Welcome to CodexWorld';
$lang['receive_text'] = 'Receive recent programming blogs and much more from us.';
$lang['subscribe'] = 'Subscribe my updates via Email:';?

 

Now you have to load default language in controller.

Into the controller’s __construct() function write the following code.

$this->lang->load('message','english');

Next to open application/config/hooks.php file and define a hook.

	$hook['post_controller_constructor'] = array(
	'class' => 'LanguagesLoader',
	'function' => 'initialize',
	'filename' => 'LanguagesLoader.php',
	'filepath' => 'hooks'
	);?

 

Create a class with the name LanguagesLoader in LanguagesLoader.php file inside the application/hooks/ directory.

LanguagesLoader.php file contain the following code.

 class LanguagesLoader{
	function initialize() {
	$ci =& get_instance();
	$ci->load->helper('language');
	$siteLang = $ci->session->userdata('site_lang');
	if ($siteLang) {
	$ci->lang->load('message',$siteLang);
	} else { 
	$ci->lang->load('message','english');
	}
	}
}

We will create LanguagesSwitcher controller for handing the language switch.application/controllers/LanguagesSwitcher.php file contain the following code.

class LanguagesSwitcher extends CI_Controller{
	public function __construct() {
	parent::__construct();
	}
	function switchLang($language = "") {
	$language = ($language != "") ? $language : "english";
	$this->session->set_userdata('site_lang', $language);
	redirect($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);
	}
}

Display The language switcher on your view page

(View/welcome_message.php).

<select onchange="javascript:window.location.href='<?php echo base_url(); ?>LanguagesSwitcher/switchLang/'+this.value;">
	<option value="english" <?php if($this->session->userdata('site_lang') == 'english') echo 'selected="selected"'; ?>>English</option>
	<option value="french" <?php if($this->session->userdata('site_lang') == 'french') echo 'selected="selected"'; ?>>French</option>
	<option value="german" <?php if($this->session->userdata('site_lang') == 'german') echo 'selected="selected"'; ?>>German</option>
</select>

In this tutorial has described the language switcher guide of CodeIgniter application. If you have any questions about this tutorial, please let us know by leaving a comment below.