Yii Embed vs OpenCart language selection

[dfumagalli]

Hello again,

I don't know if there's a better way to ask you questions than opening GitHub issues - if there is please tell me, but here we go.

I need to deliver the Yii Embed app in 7 languages. At the top of our e-commerce website pages there's the default OpenCart language selector and it works within OpenCart itself.

What happens if I switch language in a page populated by Yii Embed? Did you create some glue code on the matter?

I mean, I have done a quick look around and have seen that Yii needs to persist such kind of user choices by using cookies:

<?php
/**
 * ApplicationConfigBehavior is a behavior for the application.
 * It loads additional config paramenters that cannot be statically 
 * written in config/main
 */
class ApplicationConfigBehavior extends CBehavior
{
    /**
     * Declares events and the event handler methods
     * See yii documentation on behaviour
     */
    public function events()
    {
        return array_merge(parent::events(), array(
            'onBeginRequest'=>'beginRequest',
        ));
    }

    /**
     * Load configuration that cannot be put in config/main
     */
    public function beginRequest()
    {
        if (isset(Yii::app()->request->cookies['pref_lang']))
          $this->owner->language= Yii::app()->request->cookies['pref_lang']->value; //set a language for each request
        else 
            $this->owner->language='en';
    }
}

Now, I suppose the code above could be tweaked to just use the OpenCart language cookie... unless you have already implemented the mechanism in your code.

Did you?

[cornernote]

Hey @dfumagalli,

Asking by opening issues is fine and I will answer quickly if I have time. But sometimes if I am flat out it can take a little while. If you want commercial level support you can contact me at brett@mrphp.com.au.

I haven't done anything with multi-language. Yii uses something like this to output a translated string:

Yii::t('app', 'Hello World');

The translated language is defined in your config/main.php as a setting like this:

return array(
    'language' => 'en',
    ... other config things ....
);

You can change this setting on the fly using:

Yii::app()->language = 'foo';

More info can be found here: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/topics.i18n

Let me know if you need more info.

[dfumagalli]

Does Yii support something like OpenCart for translations when using its file based method?

That is, instead of using:

Yii::t('app', 'Hello World');

Use an "handle" to the translation. That is:

Yii::t('app', 'hello_world');

and every translation file associates hello_world (and not the literal "Hello World" string) to its own translation.

Doing so, I could do something more "abstract" and consistent. In OpenCart it'd be something like:

$_['hello_world']           = 'Hello World';

Best regards, dfumagalli

[cornernote]

Yes, it's very flexible. The following code will allow you to hook into the existing OpenCart language files.

config/main.php

return array(
    'sourceLanguage' => 'xx',
    'language' => 'en',
    'components' => array(
    'messages' => array(
        'class' => 'MessageSource',
    ),
);

yiiembed/components/MessageSource.php

class MessageSource extends CMessageSource 
{
    private $_messages=array();

    protected function loadMessages($category,$language)
    {
        // load the OC language file (eg: $category='module/bestseller')
        Yii::app()->registry->load->language($category);
        $this->_messages[$category.'/'.$language] = true;
    }

    protected function translateMessage($category,$message,$language)
    {
        if (!isset($this->_messages[$category.'/'.$language])) {
            $this->loadMessages($category,$language);
        }
        $message = Yii::app()->registry->language->get($message)
        if (!$message) {
            $message = parent::translateMessage($category,$message,$language);
        }
        return $message;
    }
}

Then translate like this:

echo Yii::t('module/bestseller', 'heading_title');

I haven't tested this code, but the concept should work.

more info: http://www.yiiframework.com/wiki/243/how-to-translate-and-do-the-translations-the-easy-way/

[cornernote]

I updated the above comment a few times, please view it on github for the latest.

[cornernote]

I thought this was a good idea, so I added the code into the yii-embed-opencart extension.

Now you can simply use it like this:

echo Yii::t('module/bestseller', 'heading_title');

No need to do the config.

Please let me know how it goes.

[cornernote]

A small note, you have to update your config/main.php as per the included code...

catalog/yiiembed/config/main.php

return array(
    'language' => $config['registry']->get('config')->get('config_language'),
);

admin/yiiembed/config/main.php

return array(
    'language' => $config['registry']->get('config')->get('config_admin_language'),
);

[dfumagalli]

Hello,

Having noticed you made a lot of changes, I removed and reuploaded the whole Yii Embed. Everything works, even the issues I mentioned in the other "ticket".

I have put in a little translation (I'd have proposed for addition to your source if I knew how to do it) for the demo files, the attached screenshot shows the translation in action. It's more than I even hoped to see, and I'll certainly suggest your name to my boss in case we'll need third party PHP consulting.

One final suggestion: I followed all the "walkthrough" to the solution so I was aware of what you have done. For others, I suggest you update the README to mention they have to copy / rename the admin and catalog main-dist.php files to main.php.

Best regards and a big thank you! dfumagalli

[cornernote]

There was already a note in the configuration section in the documentation. I moved it to the installation section so that it's more noticeable.

Glad you're all up and running.

Thanks for the feedback, it helps to make this a better extension.