RE: [PEAR-DEV] New class in PEAR: Translation

> From: Markus Wolff [mailto:wolff@21st.de] > Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 1:12 PM > > Am Tue, 01 Oct 2002 12:30:35 +0200 schrieb Wojciech Zieliñski > <voyteck@caffe.com.pl>: > > > Can I please have some votes (if someone thinks, it's bad idea - then > > also vote against :) I will at least know, that I am not going the good > > direction :) ) > > If someone wants to see this class - it is right now available on > > http://voyteck3.free.komrel.net/translation/ > > IMHO Wolfram´s I18N class and your new Translation class are very good > examples why it´s a good thing to have more than one solution for a > problem in PEAR - when this class will be added, there will be two > different approaches to the same problem in PEAR, but still not the one > that I would need, so there´s still room for another :-) > > However, here´s my +1 for adding this class as I think it will be useful > for some people. You might consider choosing another License though as I > believe "Postcardware" is not one of the licenses that are listed as > compatible to the PHP-License :-) > > In case you´re wondering what I have in mind when I think of a > translation class, it´s basically this: > > When I need to output strings in a script, I make an instance of a > translation class... > $t = new Translation("DE"); // For translating into german > > To get a translated string, I´d simply do something like this: > $trans = $t->get("Translation is good"); > Or this: > printf($t->get("You have %s unread mails", $num); > > The "get" method will look up the string in a database table that looks > like this: > > BASE (Primary Key) | DE | FR > ------------------------+-------------------------------+--------------- -- > -------- > Translation is good | Übersetzung ist gut | Je ne parle pas > Francais > You have % unread mails | Sie haben %s ungelesene Mails | > > The field "BASE" will always contain the original strings in the base > language. This is the language that I´m using in my PHP code and will be > English in most cases I guess. This way my code is very easy to read and > understand. Also, it doesn´t matter on which page I am which is > especially important as I sometimes need to output stuff in scripts when > I can´t possibly know where I am at the moment. > > When a string is not yet in the database, it will be added for future > reference. The other column names are identical to the language string > that is passed to the translation class constructor. > > If no translation for a specific string is available (meaning the target > language´s column is empty or doesn´t exist), the string will always be > returned in the base language. > > This is a drop-dead-simple method of translation that is not only easy > to use but also easy to maintain even with tools like phpMyAdmin. If > someone here knows a class that already does this or something very > similar, please drop me a line. If not, I´ll have to write this myself > as I need something like this and have no use for page-oriented > translation. > well i would not use a text string as your "base". What if you decide to change the english text for one of your clients? Maybe the client is addressing a younger audience so the text should be less formal etc. The base should be something more abstract like "mail_error" and also it would make sense to group the texts into something like general and modul specific. So you can say $t->get('mail_error', 'contact'); ommitting 'contact' would mean you want the general translation. Regards, Lukas