In my own opinion database content translation with core CakePHP ‘translate’ behavior is a kind of pain when the matter comes to HABTM relations and any bulk records manipulations. It’s not a secret that it is also pain for java ORM engines, like Hibernate.
So the situation needs simple solution that just works.
- User wants to add, delete and amend some classifiers in all languages the application is available. This means default.so file is not our friend any more and the magic __() function also. Of course it’s possible to modify the SO files but why we need it if there is a database to store this kind of data.
- Database content localization should not complicate bulk records manipulations with sub queries.
- Localization of single record CRUD should be simple for developer. Perfect solution – change nothing.
- There is legacy database fields that should remain unchanged to keep current functionality up and running after the localization functionality deployed. Also this field values should be used as default values if there is no translation.
- Development contract defines how many languages should support application, so we know from the beginning what languages should the application support. If user locale does not match supported locales then application should fallback to default locale.
In a couple of minutes I found at least three following approaches how to store the data.
| Solution | Bulk manipulations | Single CRUD |
| 1. Store localized data in separate table, like it does CakePHP translation behavior (i18n table). | Bulk manipulations with this approach can be done at programming language level with loops. Direct SQL queries will include additional relation to the table with localized data. Localized data field type is a memo for all types of data. |
Here is possible to use model object interceptors to amend sql to read data from external table before CRUD request and manipulate data after CRUD request to set localized values. In CakePHP implementation I found that if there is no translated content in i18n table then no record selected at all. |
| 2. Just store all data in one field in a kind of xml or symbol separated format, e.g. English String; Russian String. | Because all data in one field it’s hard to manipulate with localized values with SQL. There is overhead with unnecessary data load that hard to fix. For example you have 28 languages and user want to see data in selected locale. The rest 27 localized values just wasting computer memory. | On read we have to get whole field value and select value for current locale in code. On save we should done reverse process. |
| 3. Store localized data In the same table - for each localizable field create fields for default value and localized values, e.g. crate fields with _eng and _rus suffix and map |
Bulk manipulations with localized data are simple because you can access localized value with sql column name without external table linkage and sql queries are easy to localize with text parser. | Method requires to intercept request before a) read operation to select only localized values and localize sql field names; b) save operation to write content to the current locale field. If you need to read values for more then one language then: a) you can select multiple columns - pass array of locales to read and locale to use as default; b) you can read same model object multiple times - one time per selected locale. |
I’ve selected approach 3 because second looks bad to me, and I already had experience with the first one. Maybe there are some other solutions, but I fill comfortable with the third one - it looks simple to me can match all requirements. Lets go deeper in the third approach implementation for CakePHP…
The i18n model behavior
A weekend is passed. Finally I’ve done with i18n behavior prototype. Here is the code:
<?php /* SVN FILE: $Id: $ */ /** * Requires: * CakePHP 1.2.1.8004 * * I18n behavior for database content internationalization using locale dependent table field names. * * I18n behavior integration steps: * 1. Identify which languages you are going to use * (e.g. English and Russian) * 2. Identify your default language * (e.g. English); * 3. Identify fields of your models to be internationalized ( * (e.g. model Country field 'name' should be i18n compatible); * 4. Update your database tables for each model field to be i18n compatible * (e.g. rename 'name' field to <name>.'_'.DEFAULT_LANGUAGE - default, and create field 'name_rus' that will be russian content); * 5. Add to your model this behavior; * (e.g. $artAs = array('i18n' => array('fields' => array('name'), 'display' => 'name');) * 6. Add to all models that are associated with i18n compatible models this behavior; * (e.g. $actAs = array('i18n'); //you can simply add this to each model ) * Its necessary because beforeFind and afterFind invoked for the behavior of the model that calls find method. * During beforeFind and afterFind the behavior will look for any i18n behaviors, see _localizeScheme and _unlocalizeResults. * 7. In your model you can set $displayField as usual. The i18n behavior will unlocalize result field names in afterFind. Default $displayField is 'name'. * 8. In your model you can set $order as usual. The i18n behavior will localize your order field name in beforeFind. * 9. In your relations you can set order attribute for one field and it will be localized. * 10. To save multiple locales pass data with database field names. * (e.g. 'name_rus', 'name_eng'); * 11. To save data in to current locale pass data without locale profex. * (e.g. 'name' will be saved to 'name_eng' if current locale is 'eng'); * 12. To load values for all locales detach the i18n behavior before calling model read. * (e.g. $this->MyModel->Behaviors->detach('i18n'); $this->MyModel->read();) * 13. i18n can be used with Containable behaviour, but becuase it relies on recursion while searching for localizable * fields througth relations, check you have enougth recursion level (default recursion=1); * * PHP versions 4 and 5 * * Copyright 2008, Palivoda IT Solutions, Inc. * * Licensed under The MIT License * Redistributions of files must retain the above copyright notice. * * @filesource * @copyright Copyright 2008, Palivoda IT Solutions, Inc. * @link http://www.palivoda.eu * @package app * @subpackage app.models.behaviors * @since CakePHP(tm) v 1.2 * @version $Revision: $ * @modifiedby $LastChangedBy: $ * @lastmodified $Date: $ * @license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php The MIT License */ class I18nBehavior extends ModelBehavior { //for each model stores lozalizable field names and their aliases to current locale var $fields = array(); /** * Reads configuration of behavior. * Allowed values: * fields - array of i18n compatible field names; */ function setup(&$model, $config = array()) { if (!defined('DEFAULT_LANGUAGE')) { trigger_error("Add to bootstrap.php line: define('DEFAULT_LANGUAGE', 'eng');"); } if (!empty($config['fields'])) { $this->fields[$model->alias] = array_fill_keys($config['fields'], null); } } function cleanup(&$model) { $this->_refreshSchema($model); //debug('I18n behaviour detached from '.$model->alias.' model.'); } function beforeFind(&$model, &$query) { $locale = $this->_getLocale($model); //debug('i18n-'.$model->alias.'-beforeFind-'.$locale); //debug($query); //reset shema if model locale set and was changed since last query if (isset($model->locale) && $locale != $model->locale) $this->_refreshSchema($model); $recursive = empty($query['recursive']) ? (empty($model->recursive) ? 0 : $model->recursive) : $query['recursive']; //during 'delete' there are queries with empty recursive $this->_localizeScheme($model, $locale, $recursive); $this->_localizeQuery($model, $query, $recursive, true); //debug($query); return $query; } //Recursively replaces $localField values to $localAlias in $section array (or string) function __localizeArrayInQuery(&$model, &$section, $localField, $localAlias, $isPrimary, &$level) { if ($level <= 0) return; //rectrict recursion level //multiple filed as array if (is_array($section)) { //localize array values foreach($section as $queryAlias => &$queryField) { if (is_array($queryField)) { //for containable [model] => array('fields'=>array(...)), all sub calls will localize by short name too if ($queryAlias == $model->alias) $isPrimary = true; //localize array values in sub section (like contain, order) $this->__localizeArrayInQuery($model, $queryField, $localField, $localAlias, $isPrimary, $level); } else { //full name if (preg_match('/(^|,| )('.$model->alias.'.'.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', $queryField)) $queryField = preg_replace('/(^|,| )('.$model->alias.'.'.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', '$1'.$model->alias.'.'.$localAlias.'$3', $queryField); //short name else if ($isPrimary && preg_match('/(^|,| )('.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', $queryField)) $queryField = preg_replace('/(^|,| )('.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', '$1'.$localAlias.'$3', $queryField); } } //localize array keys $oldKeys = array(); foreach($section as $queryAlias => &$queryField) { //full name if (preg_match('/(^|,| )('.$model->alias.'.'.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', $queryAlias)) { $newKey = preg_replace('/(^|,| )('.$model->alias.'.'.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', '$1'.$model->alias.'.'.$localAlias.'$3', $queryAlias); $section[$newKey] = $queryField; $oldKeys[] = $queryAlias; debug($queryAlias.''.$newKey); } //short name else if ($isPrimary && preg_match('/(^|,| )('.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', $queryAlias)) { $newKey = preg_replace('/(^|,| )('.$localField.')(,| |$)/i', '$1'.$localAlias.'$3', $queryAlias); $section[$newKey] = $queryField; $oldKeys[] = $queryAlias; debug($queryAlias.''.$newKey); } } foreach($oldKeys as $removeKey) { unset($section[$removeKey]); } unset($queryAlias); unset($queryField); unset($section); } //multiple fileds in one string, comma separated else { //full name if (strstr($section, $model->alias.'.'.$localField) != false) $section = str_replace($model->alias.'.'.$localField, $model->alias.'.'.$localAlias, $section); //short name else if ($isPrimary && strstr($section, $localField) != false) $section = str_replace($localField, $localAlias, $section); } } /** * Modifies query fielelds to load localized content for current locale. * isPrimary should be true only when localizing model that has afterFind event */ function _localizeQuery(&$model, &$query, $recursive, $isPrimary) { if (isset($model->Behaviors->i18n) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n->fields[$model->alias])) { foreach($model->Behaviors->i18n->fields[$model->alias] as $localField => $localAlias) { //$localAlias set by _localizeScheme //localize field names in query sections: //1. fields - localize full and short array values //2. contain - localize full array values //3. conditions - localize array keys, localize array values //4. order - localize array values as comma separated string foreach(array('fields', 'contain', 'conditions', 'order') as $section) { if (isset($query[$section])) { $level = 3; //recursion level for __localizeArrayInQuery only $this->__localizeArrayInQuery($model, $query[$section], $localField, $localAlias, $isPrimary, $level); } } //on primary model append default display name to query if not exists if ($isPrimary && is_array($query['fields']) && $model->displayField == $localField && !in_array($model->alias.'.'.$localAlias, $query['fields']) && !in_array($localAlias, $query['fields']) ) { //keep only one Id column in query $query['fields'] = array_values(array_unique($query['fields'])); $query['fields'][] = $model->alias.'.'.$localAlias; //set displayFieled fof list type of query $query['list']['valuePath'] = '{n}.'.$model->alias.'.'.$localField; } } } //if no recursive set then localize fields of related models if (empty($recursive)) $recursive = 0; if ($recursive < 0) return; //go throught related models and if thay has i18n behaviour then localize theme //Note: models A-B-C, if B is not i18n then C will not be localized, even if it has i18n behaviour foreach(array('belongsTo','hasOne','hasMany','hasAndBelongsToMany') as $relationGroup) { if (isset($model->$relationGroup)) { foreach ($model->$relationGroup as $name => &$relation) { if (isset($model->Behaviors->i18n)) { $model->Behaviors->i18n->_localizeQuery($model->$name, $query, $recursive-1, false); } } } } } /** * Modifies theme to load localized content only for default and current locale. */ function _localizeScheme(&$model, $locale, $recursive, &$relation = null) { $model->locale = $locale; if (isset($model->Behaviors->i18n) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n->fields[$model->alias])) { foreach($model->Behaviors->i18n->fields[$model->alias] as $configName => &$configAlias) { //ammend schema and store in config localized field name <name>_<locale> or <name>_def $foundSpecific = false; foreach($model->_schema as $shemaName => $v) { if (strpos('_'.$shemaName, $configName) == 1) { //is one of i18n fields if ($configName.'_'.DEFAULT_LANGUAGE != $shemaName) { //not for default locale if ($configName.'_'.$locale != $shemaName) { //not for current locale unset($model->_schema[$shemaName]); } else { $foundSpecific = true; $configAlias = $configName.'_'.$locale; } } } } unset($shemaName); unset($v); if ($foundSpecific) { //found locale specific content, no need in default content unset($model->_schema[$configName.'_'.DEFAULT_LANGUAGE]); } else { $configAlias = $configName.'_'.DEFAULT_LANGUAGE; } //set defailt display field to i18n name or title if (empty($model->displayField) || $model->displayField == 'id') { if (isset($this->fields[$model->alias]['name'])) { $model->displayField = 'name'; } if (isset($this->fields[$model->alias]['title'])) { $model->displayField = 'title'; } } //localize relations if (isset($relation)) { // localize other relation attributes: 'conditions', 'fields', 'order', //TODO: 'finderQuery', 'deleteQuery', 'insertQuery'. $sections = array(&$relation['fields'], &$relation['order'], &$relation['conditions']); foreach ($sections as &$section) { //do not localize more than once if (isset($section)) { if (is_array($section)) { foreach ($section as &$subSection) { if (substr_count($subSection, $configAlias) == 0) $subSection = str_replace($configName, $configAlias, $subSection); } } else { if (strlen($section) > 0 && substr_count($section, $configAlias) == 0) $section = str_replace($configName, $configAlias, $section); } } } } } } //if no recursive set then update schema of related models if (empty($recursive)) $recursive = 0; if ($recursive < 0) return; //go throught related models and if thay has i18n behaviour then localize theme //Note: models A-B-C, if B is not i18n then C will not be localized, even if it has i18n behaviour foreach(array('belongsTo','hasOne','hasMany','hasAndBelongsToMany') as $relationGroup) { if (isset($model->$relationGroup)) { foreach ($model->$relationGroup as $name => &$relation) { if (isset($model->Behaviors->i18n)) { $model->Behaviors->i18n->_localizeScheme($model->$name, $locale, $recursive-1, $relation); } } } } } function afterFind(&$model, &$results, &$primary) { //debug('i18n-'.$model->alias.'-afterFind'); if (is_array($results)) { foreach ($results as &$result) { $this->_unlocalizeResults($model, $result, $this->_getLocale($model)); } } return $results; } /** * Narrows fields of loaded data to locale independant names, e.g. fields <name>_def and <name>_eng will became just <name>. * It recurse as far as resulsts are exists. If you made find with recursive 2 then it will recurse till second level of results. * TODO: The reverse process should be made before model saved. */ function _unlocalizeResults(&$model, &$result, &$locale) { if (isset($model->Behaviors->i18n) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n->fields[$model->alias])) { //collection of models if (!empty($result[$model->alias])) { $data = &$result[$model->alias]; } //single model else { $data = &$result; } foreach($model->Behaviors->i18n->fields[$model->alias] as $name => $alias) { //alias set in _localizeScheme //unlocalize field name if (is_array($data) && array_key_exists($alias, $data)) { $data[$name] = $data[$alias]; unset($data[$alias]); } } unset($data); } if (isset($model->belongsTo)) { foreach ($model->belongsTo as $name => $relation) { $behaviors = $model->$name->Behaviors; if (isset($result[$name]) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n)) { $model->Behaviors->i18n->_unlocalizeResults($model->$name, $result[$name], $locale); } } } if (isset($model->hasOne)) { foreach ($model->hasOne as $name => $relation) { $behaviors = $model->$name->Behaviors; if (isset($result[$name]) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n)) { $model->Behaviors->i18n->_unlocalizeResults($model->$name, $result[$name], $locale); } } } if (isset($model->hasMany)) { foreach ($model->hasMany as $name => $relation) { $behaviors = $model->$name->Behaviors; if (isset($result[$name]) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n)) { foreach ($result[$name] as &$record) { $model->Behaviors->i18n->_unlocalizeResults($model->$name, $record, $locale); } } } } if (isset($model->hasAndBelongsToMany)) { foreach ($model->hasAndBelongsToMany as $name => $relation) { $behaviors = $model->$name->Behaviors; if (isset($result[$name]) && isset($model->Behaviors->i18n)) { foreach ($result[$name] as &$record) { $model->Behaviors->i18n->_unlocalizeResults($model->$name, $record, $locale); } } } } } function beforeSave(&$model) { //get current locale $locale = $this->_getLocale($model); //if user is saving unlocalized values then reset shema and do not localize any value foreach($this->fields as $modelAlias => $modelFields){ foreach($modelFields as $fieldName => $fieldAlias){ if(isset($model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldAlias])) { $this->_refreshSchema($model); return true; //exit } } } //save localized value to alias database field foreach($this->fields as $modelAlias => $modelFields){ foreach($modelFields as $fieldName => $fieldAlias){ if(!empty($model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName])){ $model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldAlias] = $model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName]; unset($model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName]); } } } //debug($model->data); return true; } public static $_i18n = null; function _getLocale(&$model) { //instanciate current locale storage class if (self::$_i18n == null) { if (!class_exists('I18n')) { uses('i18n'); } self::$_i18n =& I18n::getInstance(); } //retreive current locale $locale = self::$_i18n->l10n->locale; //debug($model->alias.' get locale '.$locale); return $locale; } function _refreshSchema(&$model) { $model->_schema = null; $model->schema(); //debug($model->alias.' schema renewed'); } } ?>
Localized find operation
Lets imagine we have following table in the database with fields for localized content for English and Russian languages:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `countries` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `name_eng` varchar(64) character SET utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL, `name_rus` varchar(64) character SET utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ); --- and here is sample records INSERT INTO `countries` (`id`, `name_eng`, `name_rus`) VALUES (1, 'Australia', 'Австралия'), (2, 'Austria', 'Австрия');
Next we have the model class /app/models/country.php:
<?php class Country extends AppModel { var $name = 'Country'; var $useTable = 'countries'; var $actsAs = array('i18n' => array('fields'=>array('name')) ); var $displayField = 'name'; var $order = 'name'; } ?>
Note, we have i18n in the behaviors list ($actAs) and name of the field we want to localize - “name”. Here in our example we have only one filed, but you can add as many fileld to the array as you wish, like
var $actsAs = array('i18n' => array('fields'=>array('name', 'shortname', 'firstname', 'mydrandmaname')) );
CakePHP uses “name” or “title” as default display name and i18n behavior do the same, therefore we can skip definition of $displayField variable but I will leave it for example.
As far as we have our model we can drop the i18n behavior in to the /app/models/behaviors/i18n.php (full source code of i18n is at the top of the page).
Next we have to define that English is our default language in /app/config/bootstrap.php
define('DEFAULT_LANGUAGE', 'eng');
Fallback to default language happens when the database field for the specific locale not found. e.g. user wants Lithuanian locale, but in the database there are fields name_eng and name_rus, but no field name_lit, then values from name_eng field will be selected.
Now we are ready to read our localized model from database, and here is how we do that:
//output localized list or countries debug($this->Country->find('list')); //output all countries with all fields with localized names debug($this->Country->findAll());
That’s all about find operation localization.
I tried making one of the fields empty, but it does not falls back to the default locale language. I want to select default value if column exists but value is empty. Like user has Russian locale and there is name_rus but values are NULL in the database. Then app should select values from name_eng.
This will increase the amount of selected data (we need to select default and locale specific) fields from the database and in afterfind event of the behavior we should parse all results to check for empty locale specific value. It’s really bad from performance point of view. My idea is to write default value to the empty locale specific value during save operation. E.g. we have name_eng, name_rus, user has Russian locale and saves model, if value is empty then value of nam_eng will be written to the name_rus. Note, this functionality not implemented yet.
I have a one to many relationship table - a category table which has many product relationship. Product model has id field, i18n ‘name’ field (name_eng and name_zh_tw), and this table belongs to category by category_id field. When I retrieve the category table with recursive of two, I wanted to retrieve the name of the product depending on the locale.
What you should keep in mind it is the i18n behavior should be both:
a) in the model that has the localizable fields;
b) in the model that does find operation.
In your case you have: category (no i18n fields) 1 - M product (i18n fileds: name_eng, name_zh_tw).
For this case you should put the i18n behavior:
a) in to the product model the i18n behavior to mark fields that you are going to localize;
var $actsAs = array('i18n' => array('fields'=>array('name')) );
b) in to the category model to allow the i18n behavior to intercept the beforeFind and afterFind calls:
var $actsAs = array('i18n');
What’s next?
As you can see in comments the save interception is not implemented yet. And if you will try to save localized model you will got error message that field not found.
I will keep up to date the post and commit updates to the code as I will progress in the area. Right now this functionality is enough for me and it works great.
Do not hesitate to post comments and code improvements.
As soon as the code became more or less functional and stable enough it will be introduced to CakePHP community.
That’s all for now, happy coding. 
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Thank you for the solution, this comes at the best time. I am trying to implement this, if possible an example on how to use this code will be helpful. Thank you
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Follow the integration steps as described in comments at the top of the code.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
1. I am not sure I understand the solution completely, for this solution, because the locale is appended the to the column name, hence if the locale has a hypen, they might be a problem with ORM framework like cakephp model findall,
for example locale en-gb, the column name for i18n the field “name” is name_en-gb,
hence your field in database is name_en-gb, but these field will not work as conditions in searching in ORM framework like cakephp model findall.
So what I did is to convert the code to ensure it reads name_en_gb instead of name_en-gb
2. Another point is the locale is from defined(’DEFAULT_LANGUAGE’), if this is a static variable, then they will be concurrency issues due to concurrent read and write, I am not good at php, I am not sure is that a static variable, but sure looks like one to me.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
1. take a look at /cake/libs/l10n.php at he $__l10nCatalog in dimension of locale, there are only a three letter names without special characters. Then take a look at the i18n behavior code at the _getLocale function, it uses $I18n->l10n->locale.
2. the DEFAULT_LANGUAGE from i18n behavior point of view is read only. Search the code of i18n behavior for DEFAULT_LANGUAGE.
I hope the answers are clear.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:06 pm
any updates?
June 11th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Code updated to CakePHP 1.2.0.7125 RC1.
July 14th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for the nice solution.
Here’s my suggestion for beforeSave method. Simple, but i find it useful for me
function beforeSave(&$model) {
$locale = $this->_getLocale($model);
foreach($this->fields as $modelAlias => $modelFields){
foreach($modelFields as $fieldName=>$asd){
if(empty($model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName.’_’.$locale])){
$model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName.’_’.$locale] = $model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName];
unset($model->data[$modelAlias][$fieldName]);
}
}
}
}
July 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Rostislav, I found mistake in your code in comments. There you say about $arts not $acts
Thank you!
July 21st, 2008 at 1:19 pm
It seems I have found error.
When I found all items (i.e. var_dump($this->News->findAll());) this code works very well and return somethink like that:
array
0 =>
array
‘News’ =>
array
‘id’ => string ‘1′ (length=1)
‘intro_eng’ => null
‘intro_ukr’ => string ” (length=0)
‘title’ => string ‘Test’ (length=4)
‘body’ => string ‘ttttttttttt’ (length=22)
1 =>
array
‘News’ =>
array
‘id’ => string ‘2′ (length=1)
‘intro_eng’ => null
‘intro_ukr’ => string ” (length=0)
‘title’ => string ‘Test’ (length=4)
‘body’ => string ‘ttttttttttttttttt asdfdsfa’ (length=37)
……………………………………………………………………………………..
But when I try to find only one item (i.e. var_dump($this->News->find(array(’News.id’ => $newsId)));) it returns only:
array
‘News’ =>
array
‘title’ => string ‘testlast’ (length=8)
Thats it! Where is id, body? In news model there is present description of fields:
var $actsAs = array(’i18n’ => array(’fields’ => array(’title’, ‘body’)) );
Have you any suggestions how I can fix this problem?
Thank you!
July 21st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Sorry, you can say to me rtfm
This code is fine works: $this->News->find(’first’, array(’News.id’ => $newsId))
September 14th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hi !
Thanks for this great behavior, works fine.
Can you explain how to retrieve all fields (without localization) ? I run into this problem in the admin section, I’d like to retrieve all fields to be able to edit them without changing locale.
I used this method, is there anything better ?
$this->News->Behaviors->disable(’i18n’);
Thank you Rostislav, saved me a lot of time !
September 17th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Very nice! Thanks, just what i needed!!
September 20th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Disable i18n behvior to retreive all fields is good solution.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Thanks for a great article,mate.
I was localizing my app in Russian, and stumbled upon this problem!
October 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
You want to add languages dynamically which is very limited in this solution. If I want to add French to my application, it means I have to alter every single table to add the appropriate columns. Also, can u imagine you have a name, blurb, body, field 1, field 2 in 10 languages ? that means you would need 50 columns per table …. crazy.
What you should do is setup your table with a language_id and a parent_id. Your default entry will have an empty parent_id. This would be your default language also say en. Then if you want to add multiple languages, all you do is add another record, insert the main parent_id and language_id.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Hi Deon,
I confirm there is the issue with dynamic adding / removing languages. But take a look at the requirements point five- development contract defines from the very beginning a set of languages to use.
But wait, what you can do is to send an SQL to amend database table to add additional columns or remove. See sql AMMEND TABLE reference.
You can write a stored procedure that does that. In this way you encapsulate all your language add / remove functionality in one stored procedure that is very easy to maintain. If you add any localizable filed you add this field to the stored procedure, the same is when you remove localizable field.
With stored procedure you don’t have to change the PHP code and you will get the best performance. Use SQL92 and you will be able to jump from one db engine to another without SQL code changes.
Hope this helps.
Rostislav
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 am
Great tutorial. Works just fine and am using it on a website which has English and Japanese.
Only questions I have is that this doesn’t seem to work with the ‘find’ function’s conditions statement.
e.g.
$this->Event->find(’all’, array(
‘conditions’ => array(
‘Event.name ‘ => ”,
),
)
In that example it does not seem to translate the Event.name in the conditions statement and I just get an SQL error message as this is not translated.
Is there a way to do this so that it translates?
Thanks again.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
The issue is about your criteria was not localized - e.g. from Country.name to Country.name_eng. Try that way:
debug($this->Event->find(’all’, array(’Event.name’ =>”), null, 2));
should work.
If you think you need to localize also criterias in the ‘conditions’ subarray then look into the _localizeQuery function of i18n behaviour.
Hope this helps.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Rostislav,
Thanks for your help. I am currently adding a condition filter for the __localizeQuery and will upload it when completed.
I have a question though for a hasMany feature. Currently the table is set as:
Event –> hasMany –> EventDetail
I have created the $actsAs in the Event model which works perfectly fine. But when I do an $actsAs in the EventDetail model the view does not seem to pick it up. I just used a standard $this->Event->read(null, $id) statement in the controller. Any ideas?
Thanks again for your help.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Both your models should have i18n behaviour. If you look in to the code of model->read you will find that it’s a wrapper for model->find. Try to make working model->find first.
April 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
It’s all good. Very helpful. Thank you for your work!
Just one question. Is there anyway to make your behavior work with cake’s built-in pagination?
April 5th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
It should work. Check the the behaviour beforeFind and afterFind methods are invoked.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
> In CakePHP implementation I found that if there is no translated content in i18n table then no record selected at all.
By default, TranslateBehavior works in ’strict’ mode - if translation for selected locale is missing, record is not returned - it is nothing weird to not show english visitors chinese text, for example. If one wants to return one of existing translations, just set $this->Model->locale to array of locales - first found translation for record will be returned.
As of translations of associated models, current implementation of model layer does not call behaviors callbacks on associated models. One of possible workarounds (written just for this group post, but could be easily generalized to be generic enough for needs of some application) could be found here: http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php/browse_thread/thread/9b7e60900269643b/e46edc4db31164a5
April 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Currently I have about 30 models in the application, all of them use the i18n behavior and I have never had any issue with associated models translation. Just ensure that both - main and related models have i18n behavior. I would say that for now the i18n is in production stable state.
May 12th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Struggled with this problem for about a year ago. In response to a question from Karim Metwalli - a few weeks ago - I reposted my solution to the CakePhp Google group. This solutions (using parent_id and language key as mentioned above by Dion) works fine and fast. I think this should be the way to go.
See: http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php/browse_thread/thread/76d2c9c9cf3e0620%23
May 12th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
The above google groups topic does not make any sense to me… it’s my personal opinion. Possible some one other will find that solution useful. Thanks for link.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
How to change language dynamically?
I tried:
$this->News->locale = {here I read some variable from Session} like
$this->News->locale = “eng” but it falls back to my default language in DB (pol).
How come?
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:44 pm
This code will change the application language:
if (!class_exists(’I18n’)) { uses(’i18n’);}
&I18n::getInstance()->l10n->get(’eng’);
July 24th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Hi
I want to build a site in such a way that during installation it will ask me to install language i just give name that language which language i want to install, and after that whole site will work in that language. language can b like english , urdu , french , hindi. But keep in mind i want to get language during installation and that name will be same from the the give list of language folder. language folder hold the message for the label of selected language. Means content will be that language but label of presentation view are in language folder
like in codeignitor MVC
is cakephp is proiding such thing like this
July 24th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Hi! Sure you can do thatwith CakePHP. If you put the
if (!class_exists(’I18n’)) { uses(’i18n’);}
&I18n::getInstance()->l10n->get(’eng’);
into the config/bootstrap.php file then your application language will be always English and message functions __() will return values from /app/locale/eng/LC_MESAGES/default.po file and the i18n behaviour described in this topic will return database values from ._eng fields. So your installation will have to append this lines into the bootstrap.php file. That’s it.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:10 am
It doesn’t seem to work with Containable? Any idea? Otherwise great!
September 29th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Tested again - the problem only appears, when I define fields in the contain array :/
October 5th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Note the i18n behavior modifies the CakePHP database theme cache. As example: if you have requesting name then after the I18n::beforeFind call the theme and query will contain name_eng (if current is English locale). Please make sure the containable behavior done it’s job before the i18n. Try to put the i18n in the end of actAs list, like var $actsAs = array(’containable’, ‘i18n’,…); in all your models. Hope this helps.
October 6th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Okay, thank you, will test it out soon. But I think I found a bug in line 212 to 214. At first you loop a variable called section and then you change the $section variable into a string, after that, the foreach throws a warning, caused by wrong parameter.
foreach ($section as &$subSection) {
if (substr_count($subSection, $configAlias) == 0)
$section = str_replace($configName, $configAlias, $subSection);
}
Or is break missing?
October 6th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Yes, you right. Thanks. At 213 should be $subSection =…
October 13th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Nice work. Helping me a lot. But what about using mysql IF command?
I’ve write my own framework and it works well, but I’m tired of being the only developer and lose time when a bug appears. So I decided for the migration to cake.
I’m trying to implement some things that I had on my framework, but I haven’t much knowledge on cake.
I had one simillar solution on there that uses the mysql if:
SELECT IF( LENGTH(name_rus), name_rus, name_eng ) as name from…
If the name_rus column is not empty, then select the data from there and put on the name alias, else select data from name_eng, the default field.
It would be nice if your solution had the same funcionality.
Sorry by my brazilian self taught poor english.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Hi,
Thank you a lot for your great work on this behaviour.
I think I found a minor bug. When using it with only one filed set to be localized and set debug as 2 (core.php) there is a warning generated by line 302 regarding second parameter not being an array or object. This warning primarily does not affect the behaviour but can potentially break some controller action like set a cookie or session due headers being sent before finishing processing. Fortunately this could be easily avoided change the line 302 to:
if ((is_array($data)) && (array_key_exists($alias, $data))) {
(just adding a test for $data array before send it to array_key_exist)
November 25th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Hi,
I could not manage to have containable behaviour working together this behaviour when I need to specify fields in the query. If I retrieve entire records there is no problem but when asking just some fields I got error saying filed XYZ does not exist. I followed your suggestion to put i18n after containable in the array but this did not solve the issue unfortunately.
Thanks again and regards,
Benito
November 29th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Behavior updated to localize where conditions and containable fields.
Thanks to Robin and Benito for pointing the defects.
Note: to translate containable fields the recursion level must reach realizable models.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:14 am
Hi Rostislav,
Thanks a lot for your great effort in put things together and implement new functionality in order to make this compatible with containable.
Regards,
Benito
December 18th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Hallo,
great work, but containable still isn’t working - that’s what I’m doing:
$this->find(’first’, array(’fields’ => …, ‘contain’ => ‘FishSpecies.name’)
instead of FishSpecies.name he should select FishSpecies.name_{langcode}
December 18th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Okay I think I fixed it! I think there is a error in line 69:
if (!empty($config[’fields’]))
should be
if (!empty($config[’fields’]) && is_array($config[’fields’]))
He threw an error - but I think that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was:
$this->Behaviors->attach(’i18n’, ‘Containable’);
has to be
$this->Behaviors->attach(’i18n’);
$this->Behaviors->attach(’Containable’);
December 18th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
If I have something like this:
$this->contain(array(’Award’ => array(’AwardType’ => array(’fields’ => ‘name’))));
It doesn’t translate ‘name’ of AwardType
December 18th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Try to increase recursion level and also check both models has i18n behavior.
March 23rd, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Great article.!!!
I have managed to use the behavior successfully and I must say I have been struggling to make i18n work in cakephp, especially with HABTM associated models.
Could you give me some guidelines, or link to an existing article so that I can successfully use the routes to insert the Lang suffix in the url and to change the language.
Thank you very much
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Yes, sure, look for P28n component, it’s step % in the url http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/p28n-the-top-to-bottom-persistent-internationalization-tutorial
Hope this helps. Rostislav.
April 11th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Thank you so much for this beautiful and useful work!
Merci beaucoup pour cet excellen travail.
Guillaume de Québec, Canada
April 18th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Hello and thanks for this great behavior!
however i still have a problem with paginator:
1) sort doesn’t work for any localized fields.
2) any non-localized fields being sorted desc throws an error.
ex generated query :
…WHERE 1 = 1 ORDER BY `Post`.`id` _fre desc LIMIT 20
but asc sorting generate the correct query
…WHERE 1 = 1 ORDER BY `Post`.`id` asc LIMIT 20
anyone experiencing the same problem ?
April 19th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Wondering why __localizeArrayInQuery finction wants to localize your ID field in beforeFind handler..
April 19th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
actually you put me on the track to solve that
i have 2 localized fields in my model.
var $actsAs = array(’i18n’ => array(’fields’=>array(’name’, ‘desc’)) );
so i guess it tries to localize the ‘desc’ field name.
it was so obvious i didn’t see it.
if i use
var $actsAs = array(’i18n’ => array(’fields’=>array(’name’)) );
everything runs smoothly as intented.
and since desc is a mysql reserved word, i was really stupid on this one
Thanks again for your insight.