MySQL and PHP: Internationalization and Localization of Web Applications

You’re probably well acquainted by now with how things work in the PHP world. You’re familiar with classes, methods, arrays, loops, and you can talk about database queries even in your sleep. Or maybe not, but hey, kudos for getting this far! But now, you’re facing a brand new challenge: how do you adapt your website for users across the globe? Don’t sweat it, buddy! Relax, lean back, and let’s talk about the dynamic duo: MySQL and PHP. Prepare for a ride, because we’re about to dive into the world of Internationalization and Localization.

H2 – The Global Village

As you know, the web, much like an over-enthusiastic golden retriever who just spotted a flock of pigeons (run, guys!), knows no boundaries. Your application, sitting snuggly on its little corner of the internet, can reach people all over the world. This is where Internationalization (i18n – because who in their right mind wants to type 18 letters every time?) and Localization (L10n – yes, we’re running with the theme here) come into play.
Internationalization is the process of coding your web application in a way that it can adapt to different languages, regions and cultures. Localization, on the other hand, is the process of adapting your internationalized application for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components. You may think of it as your web application being a well-travelled polyglot, equally comfortable in discussing the weather in English, ordering sushi in Japanese or waxing poetic about existential philosophy in German.

H2 – Si, Oui, Ja, Hai: Speaking the Language with PHP

PHP is your steadfast partner in this endeavor. Its gettext extension makes it fairly straightforward to prepare your web application for multilingual audiences. You would use the _() (yes, that’s an actual function name, not a typo or me falling asleep on the keyboard) to mark the strings in your code that will need to be translated.

php
// This is an example of how you'd use gettext
echo _("Hello, world!");

The beauty of this is that gettext will use the translation of the string specific to the user’s locale, should one be available. If not, it will use the string in the original language.

H2 – MySQL: The Keeper of Tongues

Once you’ve got PHP sorting out your language specifics, MySQL waltzes in to effortlessly provide the perfect storage solution for your multilingual data. You just have to keep in mind to set the character set and collation correctly to allow for handling and sorting of international strings.

mysql
CREATE DATABASE my_db
  CHARACTER SET utf8mb4
  COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

In this example, we’ve set the character set as utf8mb4 allowing you to store any Unicode character (yep, even our beloved emojis) and the collation as utf8mb4_unicode_ci, which determines the rules for string comparison.

H3 – Front Row Seat to the Global Stage

With PHP and MySQL in your toolkit, you are poised to make your web applications truly global. With this knowledge, the world is your oyster, or rather, your website can be everyone’s oyster (no marine biology or cooking skills required, promise!).
Remember, the best applications are like the best people. They can adapt where needed and are always ready to communicate with those around them. So, get out there, make friends around the globe with your PHP and MySQL skills, and take your web applications along for the adventure.
Till we meet again, happy coding, mate!