README

Automatic locale/language management for URLs.

This extension allows to use URLs that contain a language code like

/en/some/page
/de/some/page
http://www.example.com/en/some/page
http://www.example.com/de/some/page

Since 1.1.3 you can also configure friendlier language names if you want:

http://www.example.com/english/some/page
http://www.example.com/deutsch/some/page

The language code is automatically inserted into every URL created and read back on every request. No extra URL rules are required. For best user experience the language is also restored from session/cookie if the user returns to a URL without a language code.

Installation

Extract the package to your protected/extensions directory and rename it to localeurls. Then configure the components in your protected/config/main.php:

<?php
return array(
    // ...
    'components' => array(
        // ...
        'urlManager' => array(
            'class'     => 'ext.localeurls.LocaleUrlManager',

            // Advanced configuration with defaults (see below)
            //'languageParam'   => 'language',
        ),
        'request' => array(
            'class'     => 'ext.localeurls.LocaleHttpRequest',
            'languages' => array('en_us','en','de','fr'),

            // Since version 1.1.3 you can also map url => language
            // 'languages' => array(
            //      'english'   => 'en',
            //      'deutsch'   => 'de',
            //      'fr',
            //  )

            // Advanced configuration with defaults (see below)
            //'detecLanguage'           => true,
            //'languageCookieLifetime'  => 31536000,
            //'persistLanguage'         => true,
            //'redirectDefault'         => false,
        ),
        // ...
    ),
);

NOTE: You need to configure all available languages including the default language of your application. More specific language codes should come first, e.g. en_us before en above.

Mode of operation

With the above configuration in place you're all set to go. If a request comes in that has no language set, the component will try to auto detect the language from the HTTP headers and redirect to that URL, for example to www.example.com/fr. If fr is the default language of your application (i.e. what you configured in your main.php), it will not redirect - unless you set redirectDefault to true.

NOTE: If redirectDefault is enabled you can't access www.example.com anymore because you're always redirected to a specific language URL even for the default application language.

All URLs you create with any createUrl() and createAbsoluteUrl() method will also contain the current visitor's language in their URL. The same rules apply for the default language: Unless you set redirectDefault to true, the URLs you create will not contain a language code if the visitor uses the default language.

To let your users switch to another language, you can create URLs with the usual methods and add a language parameter there:

<?php
$germanUrl = $this->createUrl('site/contact', array('language' => 'de'));

Once a user visited a URL with a language code in it, this language is stored in his session. If the user returns to the start page (or any other page) without a language in the URL, he's automatically redirected to his last language choice. See below for a useful widget that creates a simple language selector.

API

LocaleHttpRequest

Properties

• detectLanguage: Wether to auto detect the preferred user language from the HTTP headers. Default is true.
• languageCookieLifeTime: How long to store the user language in a cookie. Default is 1 year. Set to false to disable cookie storage.
• languages: Array of available language codes. More specific patterns must come first, i.e. en_us must be listed before en. The default language from the application configuration must also be listed here. Since 1.1.3 you can also map URL values to languages: array('de','fr','english'=>'en').
• persistLanguage: Wether to store the user language selection in session and cookie. If the user returns to any page without a language in the URL, he's redirected to the stored language's URL. Default is true.
• redirectDefault: Wether to also redirect the application's default language, i.e. from www.example.com to www.example.com/en if the main application language is en. Default is false.

Methods

• getDefaultLanguage(): Returns the default language as it was configured in the main application configuration before it was overwritten during language detection

LocaleUrlManager

Properties

• languageParam : Name of the parameter that contains the desired language when constructing a URL. Default is language.

How to switch languages

Here's a simple example how you can create a language selector widget. It creates a dropdown taylored towards the popular Bootstrap framework.

<?php
class LanguageSelector extends CWidget
{
    public function run()
    {
        $app        = Yii::app();
        $route      = $app->controller->route;
        $languages  = $app->request->languages;
        $language   = $app->language;
        $params     = $_GET;

        echo CHtml::link($language. ' <b class="caret"></b>', '#', array(
            'class'         => 'dropdown-toggle',
            'data-toggle'   => 'dropdown'
        ));

        array_unshift($params, $route);

        echo '<ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenu">';
        foreach($languages as $lang)
        {
            if($lang===$language)
                continue;

            $params['language'] = $lang;

            echo '<li>'.CHtml::link($lang,$params ).'</li>';
        }
        echo '</ul>';
    }
}

Changelog

1.1.6

• Fix #8: URLs that contain the language code again are messed up

1.1.5

• Fix #4: Query parameters lost when switching to default language

1.1.4

• Fix #3: Could not create URL to switch to default language

1.1.3

• Add mapping feature.
• Add debug output under category ext.localeurls (only if YII_DEBUG is set)

Upgrade

From 1.0.0

• The parameter defaultLanguage was removed. You should configure the default language in your main application config instead. If you want to redirect to your default language, you can set redirectDefault to true.