session with multilingual website - codeigniter

Question

I followed this tutorial but when selecting another language in the dropdown, the text doesn't switch to another language. The redirect works however.

I am using database session and the site_lang value in the database is changed correctly. I did a print_r($return_lang) in my view, return_lang being $data['return_lang'] = $this->session->all_userdata(); and the result is:

Array ( [__ci_last_regenerate] => 1458691563 )

It looks like the site_lang is never present there. Only in the database. I can't figure out what's wrong.

I used the Hooks method of the tutorial, the 3 language files are created under the language folder and I entered the following in my htaccess (from another tutorial) :

RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [PT,L]

RewriteCond $1 !^(index.php)

This is my homeController:

<?php
class homeController extends CI_Controller{
    public function index(){
        $data['main_content'] = 'home';
        $data['return_lang'] = $this->session->all_userdata();
        $this->load->view('templates/default',$data); 
    }
    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');
        }
    }
}

The other files are exactly the same as described in the tutorial.

There is one line I don't understand in LanguageSwitcher.php :

function switchLang($language = "") {

Why do we set language to "" ? I tried to remove = "" and it didn't help anyway...

UPDATE 1:

I found one of the problem:

$config['base_url'] was set to ' ' and I get the expected behavior only when using 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost in the URL.

I then changed to:

$config['base_url'] = 'http://localhost/mySite/';

but it only works when using localhost in the URL.

Using $config['base_url'] = 'http://127.0.0.1/mySite/'; makes it work fine only when using the ip address in the URL bar.

I would like to get it to work for anything (localhost and ip address). When I say it doesn't work as expected, the [site_lang] session is not populated with english/french/german.

Answer 1

I'm using LangSwitcher.php as well in my CI and this is my working code:

your_controller.php

function __construct(){ 
        parent::__construct();      

        $lang = $this->session->userdata('site_lang');      
        $this->lang->load("message",$lang);
}

LanguageSwitch.php (controller)

<?php
class LangSwitch extends CI_Controller
{
    public function __construct() {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->load->helper('url');
    }

    function switchLanguage($language = "") {
        $language = ($language != "") ? $language : "english";
        $this->session->set_userdata('site_lang', $language);               
        $url = (null !== $this->session->userdata('ciutat_name')) ? $this->session->userdata('ciutat_name') : "tria_ciutat";  

        redirect(base_url($url));
    }
}

Then, you must have different folders for each lang inside language folder like: english , french with all files called: message_lang.php

with the translations this way:

$lang["text"]   = "Text in english";

In the view you use this every time you need to use a translation: <?php echo lang('text'); ?> <?php echo lang('text'); ?>

And to switch then lang you should go to: <?php echo base_url('langswitch/switchLanguage/english'); ?> <?php echo base_url('langswitch/switchLanguage/english'); ?>

The structure is:

/controllers:
 - your_controllers.php //here in the __construct set the lang
 - langswitch.php //the langswitcher

/languages
  /english: message_lang.php  //here the translations
  /french: message_lang

/views
  your_views.php  //here you use lang()

Hope it helps to you or put some 'light' on your question.