php - Zend framework 2 - How to make a language switcher

Question

I am developing a Zend Framework 2 Application and now I want to implement a language switcher from where guest/registered user can choose the language they want, the thing I can't understand is how is it made in Zend Framework 2 using the storage ( not from urls ), I want to keep the preffered language of guest in the storage once he selects one, and for the registered users I can retrieve the preffered one from cookie/database and reuse it with storage. But where and how should I start/implement this? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Setup your Locales in your global.config.php:

'locale' => array(
    'default' => 'en_US',
    'available'     => array(
        'de_DE' => 'Deutsch',
        'nl_NL' => 'Dutch',
        'en_US' => 'English',
        'fr_FR' => 'French',
    ),
),

So in your ApplicationModule.php you can add a method which sets the default ZendTranslatorTranslator:

class Module {

    public function onBootstrap(MvcEvent $e)
    {
        $applicaton = $e->getApplication();
        $serviceManager = $application->getServiceManager();
        // Just a call to the translator, nothing special!
        $serviceManager->get('translator');
        $this->initTranslator($e);

        // Etc, more of your bootstrap function.
    }

    protected function initTranslator(MvcEvent $event)
    {
        $serviceManager = $event->getApplication()->getServiceManager();

        // ZendSessionContainer
        $session = New Container('language');

        $translator = $serviceManager->get('translator');
        $translator
            ->setLocale($session->language)
            ->setFallbackLocale('en_US');
    }
}

So now the default Locale is en_US as the session has no Locale available. For changing the locale you need to catch the users input and validate the available locales you support, provided in your global.config.php. So in order to change it you might need to add a controller action which catches the input of the user and sets the new locale. Example of the controller action without any form usage!

public function changeLocaleAction() 
{
    // New Container will get he Language Session if the SessionManager already knows the language session.
    $session = new Container('language');
    $language = $this->getRequest()->getPost()->language;
    $config = $this->serviceLocator->get('config');
    if (isset($config['locale']['available'][$language]) {
        $session->language = $language;
        $this->serviceLocator->get('translator')->setLocale($session->language);
    }
}

The session allows the users to change their locale and remember it until the session ends, so they won't need to change it when they get back after a while. Hope this will help you and can help you to write some code to save it for your registered users on your application.