superblock errors?

Question

I would like to add a language code segment to my URIs in CodeIgniter, but I'd like to somehow — possibly with routing — force the browser to stop interpreting a language code as a path.

I haven't yet successfully implemented any of the i18n libraries in my CodeIgniter install, and I'm fairly certain my problem is simple enough to solve without a library anyway.

The method I had in mind was simply to load the appropriate language files respective of the language code that appears in the URI.

For example

http://example.com/about        // Default language
http://example.com/sv/about     // Load Swedish language

Here's the controller logic:

<?php
//  ** Update **
//  The following updated code works, as long as the language code appears
//  at the end of the URI, e.g, http://example.com/about/sv
//
//  Ideally, I would like the language code segment to always appear first.
//
//  There is also the problem of keeping the language selected while
//  navigating around the site…

class Pages extends CI_Controller {
    public function view ($page = 'home') {

        if (!file_exists('application/views/pages/'.$page.'.php'))
            show_404();

        $uri = explode("/", $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
        $lang_code = end($uri);

        $data['title'] = $lang_code;

        switch ($lang_code) {
            case "sv": $the_language = "swedish"; break;
            case "no": $the_language = "norwegian"; break;
            default: $the_language = "english";
        }

        $this->lang->load('general',$the_language);
        $this->load->view('templates/header', $data);
        $this->load->view('pages/'.$page, $data);
        $this->load->view('templates/footer', $data);
    }
}

?>

Am I going about this the wrong way? If so, why? Please avoid canned responses.

Solution

/dev/sda is the wrong device to run fsck on. sda is the whole disk. Your Linux filesystem is on /dev/sda5.

Comments

[jippie]

Always copy exact error messages when asking questions, don't try telling about what you understood from them.

[Jezen Thomas]

Yeah, for that reason I really want the language code to exist in the URI.

[danneth]

There's surely a better way to do this (htaccess perhaps) but perhaps you could alter/extend the routing class to check the first URI segment is a language (pseudocode here) if (in_array(uri_segment(1), array('sv', 'en')) { set_language_var; strip_first_segment_from_uri; } continue routing;

[Jezen Thomas]

My solution is sort of half-way there now (code updated); I don't really understand how uri-routing works.

[danneth]

There is a built in function $this->uri->segment(n) which gives you the segments of the URI without having to do explode. As for keeping the language selection you could set $data['lang_path'] = $lang_code . '/' if a language is selected (and leave it as an empty string otherwise). Then you will have to prepend all your links with this variable. I again stand with the suggestion of just using a cookie. I think this path will be rather complex once you start passing data to your controller(s).

[Jezen Thomas]

@Mudshark I don't understand how that works. This is why I'm asking the question.

[danneth]

An alternative solution is to put the selection in a cookie, and then create your own extension to the CI_Controller which attempts to read the language selection (or set default), and place that in $this->the_language or similar. Of course having the language code in the URL makes it clear for users what language to expect, so it has it's benefits as well.

[Jezen Thomas]

That's great! It's beginning to work as I'd like it to. A couple of things though: 1) The language segment now displays the language name, instead of the language code, i.e., http://example.com/english/home; How should I shorten it? 2) It needs a language segment, otherwise nothing works, i.e., http://example.com/home doesn't work. How can I default the site to English? It shouldn't display the language code in the URI if it's in the default language.

[Mudshark]

Bit pressed for time here, but in routes.php you could start off with $route['default_controller'] = "pages/view/sv";. As for english vs en: create an array in the constructor, $languages = array('en' => english', 'sv' => 'swedish', etc);, then in your view function determine the language as $current_lang = $this->languages[$this->language]

[Jezen Thomas]

Your answer has helped considerably, so I'm upvoting and marking as correct. I'm not all the way there yet though, so I'm continuing in another question.