lnkohana/system/guide/kohana/files/i18n.md

I18n

Kohana has a fairly simple and easy to use i18n system. It is slightly modeled after gettext, but is not as featureful. If you need the features of gettext, please use that :)

__()

Kohana has a __() function to do your translations for you. This function is only meant for small sections of text, not entire paragraphs or pages of translated text.

To echo a translated string:

<?php echo __('Hello, world!');?>

This will echo 'Home' unless you've changed the defined language, which is explained below.

Changing the displayed language

Use the I18n::lang() method to change the displayed language:

I18n::lang('fr');

This will change the language to 'es-es'.

Defining language files

To define the language file for the above language change, create a i18n/fr.php that contains:

<?php

return array
(
	'Hello, world!' => 'Bonjour, monde!',
);

Now when you do __('Hello, world!'), you will get Bonjour, monde!

I18n variables

You can define variables in your __() calls like so:

echo __('Hello, :user', array(':user' => $username));

Your i18n key in your translation file will need to be defined as:

<?php

return array
(
	'Hello, :user' => 'Bonjour, :user',
);

Defining your own __() function

You can define your own __() function by simply defining your own i18n class:

<?php

class I18n extends Kohana_I18n
{
	// Intentionally empty
}

function __($string, array $values = NULL, $lang = 'en-us')
{
	// Your functionality here
}

This will cause the built-in __() function to be ignored.