Gettext will always use system default locale

Question

I need to localise a Windows-only PHP web application and I\'m evaluating the gettext extension but I\'m having the hardest time trying to make it work in my Windows 7 devel

Answer 1

First problem: setlocale()

To make this work, you need to set a valid locale. On windows, setlocale() won't work as expected. You need to set an environment variable, like this:

// putenv("LANG=$lang");  <- WRONG!
putenv('LC_ALL='.$locale);

Second problem: locale names.

Windows locale names are different from Linux. Try with 'ita', 'eng', 'deu', 'ger', 'esp'. You can get a complete list here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/msdn/goglobal/default.mspx

Example:

//putenv("LANG=esp");  <- WRONG!
putenv('LC_ALL=esp');

Third problem, the big one: gettext extension on windows is not thread safe. Each time you change language, the change is process wide. If you run php as fast-cgi you're ok. If you run php as apache module (for example) it's a total mess because language changes for every php instance. The problem is that gettext() relies on locale setting. This setting is process wide on windows PHP. You cannot change locale for a PHP thread but only for PHP process.

Said this, here is some working code:

// $MAINPATH is your document root

$locales=array(
  'it'=>'ita',
  'en'=>'eng',
  'de'=>'deu',
  'fr'=>'fra',
  'es'=>'esp',
  'ru'=>'rus'
);

$locale = $locales[$lang];
$res=putenv('LC_ALL='.$locale);
$rres=bindtextdomain('default', $MAINPATH.'locale');
$dres=textdomain('default');

locale directory structure must be the following:

deu
  LC_MESSAGES
    default.mo
esp
  LC_MESSAGES
    default.mo
fra
  LC_MESSAGES
    default.mo
ita
  LC_MESSAGES
    default.mo
rus
  LC_MESSAGES
    default.mo