Retrieve Language

[laphotoimage2]

I'm writing a web page using PHP and javascript and I need a way using either to retrieve the language being used on the users P.C. be that English, German, etc.

Thanks,

Tom

[Joe Makowiec]

On Thu 28 Apr 2005 04:22:42p, laphotoimage2 wrote in
macromedia.dreamweaver.appdev:

> I'm writing a web page using PHP and javascript and I need a way using
> either to retrieve the language being used on the users P.C. be that
> English, German, etc.

/Assuming/ the browser gives you correct information, you can access it in
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE or accept-language header. Using this script:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript1.2">
var nav_lng="peed-jahn_brah"; //default language string
if(navigator.language)nav_lng="navigator.language" ;
if(navigator.browserLanguage)nav_lng="navigator.us erLanguage";
if(navigator.systemLanguage)nav_lng="navigator.sys temLanguage";
if(navigator.browserLanguage)nav_lng="navigator.br owserLanguage";
if(navigator.userLanguage)nav_lng="navigator.userL anguage";
if(window.navigator.language)nav_lng="window.navig ator.language";
alert(nav_lng);
</script>

(adapted from [url]http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum91/2476-2-10.htm[/url])

It turns out that FireFox returns the value in window.navigator.language;
IE6/Win returns it in navigator.userLanguage.

In PHP, you can snag the value in $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']
See: [url]http://www.php.net/reserved.variables[/url]

[David Powers]

laphotoimage2 wrote:

> I'm writing a web page using PHP and javascript and I need a way using either to retrieve the language being used on the users P.C. be that English, German, etc.

Think very, very carefully what you do with that information. Not
everybody working on a computer running on a specific language will be a
native speaker of that language. An American accessing the internet in
the business centre of a hotel in Germany will not thank you for serving
up a page in German. I have one computer that uses Japanese as its base
language. I can read Japanese, but if my brother were to use my
computer, he'd be completely lost if you "kindly" served him a page in
Japanese.

Try to serve the most appropriate content by all means, but make sure
you give the user a clear option to change the language of the content.

--
David Powers
Author, "Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" (friends of ED)
Co-author "PHP Web Development with DW MX 2004" (Apress)
[url]http://computerbookshelf.com[/url]

[laphotoimage2]

Thanks for the help!