Locale URLs
Automatic locale/language management for URLs., (*1)
This extension allows to use URLs that contain a language code like, (*2)
/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:, (*3)
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., (*4)
Installation
Extract the package to your protected/extensions
directory and rename
it to localeurls
. Then configure the components in your protected/config/main.php
:, (*5)
<?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., (*6)
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
., (*7)
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., (*8)
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., (*9)
To let your users switch to another language, you can create URLs with the usual methods
and add a language
parameter there:, (*10)
<?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., (*11)
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., (*12)
<?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.