Read this in other languages:

• English
• عربى

Language code in URL:

• jorider.com/en/about
• jorider.com/ar/about

The CodeIgniter Language Class is used in order to fetch and display (directly in the HTML) the appropriate text defined in the respective language file.

View file

<p><?php echo lang('I\'m a man')?></p>

English language file

$lang['I\'m a man'] = "I'm a man";

Arabic language file

$lang['I\'m a man'] = "انا رجل";

Result with jorider.com/en/about

<p>I'm a man</p>

Result with jorider.com/ar/about

<p>انا رجل</p>

Before using this library, please read and learn about the CodeIgniter Language Class concepts and methods.

• Clone repository;
• Place the MY_Lang.php and MY_Config.php files together in the application/core folder.

In application/config/routes.php add:

// example: '/en/about' -> use controller 'about'
$route['^en/(.+)$'] = "$1";
$route['^ar/(.+)$'] = "$1";
// '/en' and '/ar' -> use default controller
$route['^(en|ar)$'] = $route['default_controller'];

Other routing examples:

$route['^(en|ar)/contact'] = "pages/contact";
$route['^(en|ar)/privacy-policy$'] = "pages/index/privacy_policy";
$route['^(en|ar)/terms-of-use$'] = "pages/index/terms_of_use";

Important Note: make sure to add other routs before wildcards regular expression routes above:

$route['^(en|ar)/contact'] = "pages/contact";
$route['^(en|ar)/privacy-policy$'] = "pages/index/privacy_policy";
$route['^(en|ar)/terms-of-use$'] = "pages/index/terms_of_use";
// example: '/en/about' -> use controller 'about'
$route['^en/(.+)$'] = "$1";
$route['^ar/(.+)$'] = "$1";
// '/en' and '/ar' -> use default controller
$route['^(en|ar)$'] = $route['default_controller'];

• application/language/english/about_lang.php

  <?php
  
  $lang['I\'m a man'] = "I'm a man";
  

• application/language/arabic/about_lang.php

  <?php
  
  $lang['I\'m a man'] = "انا رجل";
  

application/controllers/about.php

<?php
class About extends CI_Controller {

  function index()
  {
    // you might want to just autoload these two helpers
    $this->load->helper(['language', 'url']);

    // load language file
    $this->lang->load('about');


    $this->load->view('about');
  }
}

application/views/about.php

<p><?php echo lang('I\'m a man')?></p>

http://your_base_url/en/about

<p>I'm a man</p>

http://your_base_url/ar/about

<p>انا رجل</p>

• You might need to translate some of CodeIgniter's language files in system/language. Example: if you're using the Form Validation library for Arabic pages, translate system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php to application/language/arabic/form_validation_lang.php.

• links to internal pages are prefixed by the current language, but links to files are not.

  site_url('about/my_work');
  // http://mywebsite.com/en/about/my_work
  
  
  base_url('css/styles.css');
  // http://mywebsite.com/css/styles.css
  

• Get the current language:

  $this->lang->lang();
  // en
  

• Switch to another language:

  anchor($this->lang->switch_uri('ar'),'Display current page in Arabic');
  

• the root page (/) is supposed to be some kind of splash page, without any specific language. However, this can be changed. Read the No splash page section below.

• the CodeIgniter system/core/Config.php site_url() method is overridden in MY_Config.php: a language segment can be added (when appropriate) to generated URLs. It is also used by anchor(), form_open()...

• If a key is not found in the language file's array, a file called strings_lang.php will be created and the key and value will be added to it. E.g. if line('xyz') is not available, strings_lang.php will be created and will contain:

  <?php
  
  defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');
  
  $lang['xyz'] = "xyz";
  

A special URI is not prefixed by a language. The root URI (/) is by default a special URI.

You might need other special URIs, like for an admin section in just one language.

In application/core/MY_Lang.php, by adding the 'admin' string to the $special array, links to the admin page will not be prefixed by the current language.

site_url('admin');
// http://your_base_url/admin

In application/core/MY_Lang.php:

1. remove "" from the $special array;
2. set $default_uri to something else like home;
3. if English is your default language, now a request to / will be redirected to en/home;
4. the default language is the first item of the $languages array.

application/core/MY_Lang.php: add a new language to $languages array

// example: German (de)
'de' => 'german',

application/config/routes.php: add new routes

// example: German (de)
$route['^de/(.+)$'] = "$1";
$route['^(en|ar|de)$'] = $route['default_controller'];

• create the corresponding language folder in application/language. For this German example, it would be called german.