Add a language switcher link to $primary_links

I'm posting this theming snippet that I added to page.tpl.php because it took me so long to debug, given the somewhat complex way that the translations.module api works. That's not a dig on the module - it's pretty amazing!

Basically, I have a English/Spanish site and wanted to add a single menu item to my primary links that switches from English to Spanish and vice versa. The complexity comes in how URLs are translated verses how links to a translated node work. Anyway, perhaps this will help someone build a cool bi-lingual site. (Oh, and it's not the most elegant code, so refinement tips would be much appreciated.)

This snippet is taken from a zen-based theme I am developing.

      </div> <!-- /logo-title -->

      <div id="navigation" class="menu<?php if ($primary_links) { print " withprimary"; } if ($secondary_links) { print " withsecondary"; } ?> ">
        <?php if (!empty($primary_links)): ?>
          <div id="primary" class="clear-block">
            <?php
              $current_lang = i18n_get_lang(); // Look up current language with a call to this i18n function, setup link array elements.
              if ($current_lang == "es") {
                $switch_lang = "en";
                $lang_title = "English";
                $trans_link = "trans-link-en";
              } else {
                $switch_lang = "es";
                $lang_title = "Español";
                $trans_link = "trans-link-es";
              }
              $current_url = $_GET['q'];
              $switch_url = translation_url($current_url, $switch_lang);
              
              If (arg(0) == "node") {
                // If working with node translations, need to use translation_url function to get correct link.
                $primary_links = array($trans_link => array("title" => $lang_title, "href" => $switch_url)) + $primary_links;
              } else {  
                // If working with system paths, views, and URL aliases, translation_url doesn't work, so create translation link manually.
                $primary_links = array($trans_link => array("title" => $lang_title, "href" => $switch_lang . "/" . $current_url)) + $primary_links;
              }
              print theme('links', $primary_links);
            ?>
          </div>
        <?php endif; ?>

      </div> <!-- /navigation -->

Comments

Function in template.php

devnate commented 7 February 2008 at 01:59

Thanks, This was helpful. I actually just wanted a link not in a menu, so I modified the code a little and made it a function in my template.php file, so I could just call the function and get the html for the link.

Better snippets for language switching

jmav commented 12 March 2008 at 21:07

Better snippets which are originally used in i18n module.

This is rearranged code from module translation inside project i18n (block) - which is switching the interface language an the content if available.
To print links in LI element

  <?php //get listed links of languages
      $query = drupal_query_string_encode($_GET, array('q'));
      print theme('item_list', translation_get_links($_GET['q'], empty($query) ? NULL : $query));
  ?>

Just print links

  <?php //get links of languages
    $query = drupal_query_string_encode($_GET, array('q'));
    $lang = translation_get_links($_GET['q'], empty($query) ? NULL : $query);
    foreach($lang as $lang_tmp) {
      print $lang_tmp;
    }
  ?>

This is rearranged code from module i18n (block) - which is switching only the interface language.
To print links in LI element

  <?php //get listed links of languages
  $query = drupal_query_string_encode($_GET, array('q'));
  print theme('item_list', i18n_get_links($_GET['q'], empty($query) ? NULL : $query));
  ?>

Just print links

  <?php //get links of languages
  $query = drupal_query_string_encode($_GET, array('q'));
  $lang = i18n_get_links($_GET['q'], empty($query) ? NULL : $query);
  foreach($lang as $lang_tmp) {
    print $lang_tmp;
  }
  ?>

Active language ling gets "ACTIVE" class name.

Works great! Just create a

drozzy commented 28 April 2008 at 18:25

@jmav Thanks!!!
Works great! Just create a new PHP block with that code and everything is hunky dory:

 <?php //get listed links of languages
      $query = drupal_query_string_encode($_GET, array('q'));
      print theme('item_list', translation_get_links($_GET['q'], empty($query) ? NULL : $query));
  ?>

My quick hack is this a)

kumarldh commented 26 May 2008 at 07:28

My quick hack is this
a) after you do il8n module settings create separate menu for another language, as I did for French in my case
b) put this code where you want your language switcher to appear

echo '<a href="'.$base_path.'en'.(substr_replace( $_REQUEST["q"], '', 0, 2)).'">EN</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="'.$base_path.'fr'.(substr_replace( $_REQUEST["q"], '', 0, 2)).'">FR</a>';

That's it

------
Why is drupal so hard to learn?

Removing Flags

light-blue commented 27 May 2008 at 18:50

For many reasons (including SEO, country-flag ambiguity, etc.), you may not want to show the flag in your link.

In that case, override it with something simple like this: http://drupal.org/node/179991#comment-610287

Simple way to show languages before header

light-blue commented 27 May 2008 at 23:51

I spent about 8 hours trying to figure out how to put a drop-down language selector in my primary links, then in a block, then in panels2, I finally just got frustrated because none of those *looked good* with my design.

If you are interested in a simple, effective, SEO-friendly, and good-looking approach , open up page.tpl.php and copy and paste this line just before the id="header"

<? foreach (translation_get_links($_GET['q'], empty($query) ? NULL : $query) as $lang) print("{$lang} "); ?>

There are probably more efficient ways to handle the above code, so feel free to offer corrections.