Internationalization

• Language files
• Usage
• Language routing

The I18n class makes it easy to create a multilingual web application.

The name of a language pack should use the following convention: en_US (ISO 639-1 language code and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code).

The default language of your application is defined in the app/config/application.php file.

All language packs must be installed in the app/resources/i18n directory.

Language files

Mako language files are just simple arrays:

<?php

// examples.php

return
[
	'have_10_apples' => 'I have 10 apples',
	'have_n_apples'  => 'I have %d apples',
	'my_name_is'     => 'Hi! My name is %s',
];

Usage

Setting the language you want to use use is done by calling the setLanguage method.

$this->i18n->setLanguage('no_NO');

The getLanguage returns the name of the current language pack.

$language = $this->i18n->getLanguage();

Fetching a string is done with the get method. If no string is found then the key is returned.

// Will print "I have 10 apples"

echo $this->i18n->get('examples.have_10_apples');

// Will print "I have 20 apples"

echo $this->i18n->get('examples.have_n_apples', [20]);

You can check if a string exists using the has method.

$exists = $this->i18n->has('my_key');

The pluralize method returns the plural form of the chosen noun. Unlike most other frameworks Mako will use language based inflection rules when pluralizing words.

The pluralize method will only work if the chosen language pack includes inflection rules.

echo $this->i18n->pluralize('woman'); // Will print "women"

echo $this->i18n->pluralize('woman', 1); // Will print "woman"

echo $this->i18n->pluralize('woman', 2); // Will print "women"

You can also pluralize words in translated strings.

return array
(
	'new_messages' => 'You have %1$u new <pluralize:%1$u>message</pluralize>.',
);

We can now enjoy simple pluralization in our views

{{$i18n->get('ui.new_messages', [1])}} // Will print "You have 1 new message."

{{$i18n->get('ui.new_messages', [10])}} // Will print "You have 10 new messages."

The number method returns a number that has been formatted according to the current locale.

$formatted = $this->i18n->number(1234);

You can also format numbers in translated strings:

return
[
	'new_messages' => 'You have <number>%1$u</number> new <pluralize:%1$u>message</pluralize>.',
];

Language routing

Language route prefixes can be configured in the app/config/application.php config file.

'languages' =>
[
	'no' => ['strings' => 'nb_NO', 'locale' => [LC_ALL => ['nb_NO.UTF-8', 'nb_NO.utf8', 'C'], LC_NUMERIC => 'C']],
],

Visiting http://example.org/no/foo/bar set the language to Norwegian before executing the /foo/bar route.