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<h1>Language Class</h1> | |
<p>The Language Class provides functions to retrieve language files and lines of text for purposes of internationalization.</p> | |
<p>In your CodeIgniter system folder you'll find one called <dfn>language</dfn> containing sets of language files. You can create | |
your own language files as needed in order to display error and other messages in other languages.</p> | |
<p>Language files are typically stored in your <dfn>system/language</dfn> directory. Alternately you can create a folder called <kbd>language</kbd> inside | |
your <kbd>application</kbd> folder and store them there. CodeIgniter will look first in your <dfn>system/application/language</dfn> | |
directory. If the directory does not exist or the specified language is not located there CI will instead look in your global | |
<dfn>system/language</dfn> folder.</p> | |
<p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> Each language should be stored in its own folder. For example, the English files are located at: | |
<dfn>system/language/english</dfn></p> | |
<h2>Creating Language Files</h2> | |
<p>Language files must be named with <kbd>_lang.php</kbd> as the file extension. For example, let's say you want to create a file | |
containing error messages. You might name it: <kbd>error_lang.php</kbd></p> | |
<p>Within the file you will assign each line of text to an array called <var>$lang</var> with this prototype:</p> | |
<code>$lang['language_key'] = "The actual message to be shown";</code> | |
<p><strong>Note:</strong> It's a good practice to use a common prefix for all messages in a given file to avoid collisions with | |
similarly named items in other files. For example, if you are creating error messages you might prefix them with <var>error_</var></p> | |
<code>$lang['<var>error</var>_email_missing'] = "You must submit an email address";<br /> | |
$lang['<var>error</var>_url_missing'] = "You must submit a URL";<br /> | |
$lang['<var>error</var>_username_missing'] = "You must submit a username";</code> | |
<h2>Loading A Language File</h2> | |
<p>In order to fetch a line from a particular file you must load the file first. Loading a language file is done with the following code:</p> | |
<code>$this->lang->load('<samp>filename</samp>', '<dfn>language</dfn>');</code> | |
<p>Where <samp>filename</samp> is the name of the file you wish to load (without the file extension), and <dfn>language</dfn> | |
is the language set containing it (ie, english). If the second parameter is missing, the default language set in your | |
<kbd>application/config/config.php</kbd> file will be used.</p> | |
<h2>Fetching a Line of Text</h2> | |
<p>Once your desired language file is loaded you can access any line of text using this function:</p> | |
<code>$this->lang->line('<samp>language_key</samp>');</code> | |
<p>Where <samp>language_key</samp> is the array key corresponding to the line you wish to show.</p> | |
<p>Note: This function simply returns the line. It does not echo it for you.</p> | |
<h2>Auto-loading Languages</h2> | |
<p>If you find that you need a particular language globally throughout your application, you can tell CodeIgniter to <a href="../general/autoloader.html">auto-load</a> it during system initialization. This is done by opening the application/config/autoload.php file and adding the language(s) to the autoload array.</p> | |
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