Options can be used with all adapters. Of course the options are different for all adapters. You can set options when you create the adapter. Actually there is one option which is available to all adapters: 'clear' sets if translation data should be added to existing one or not. Standard behaviour is to add new translation data to existing one. But the translation data is only cleared for the selected language. So other languages remain untouched.

You can set options temporarily by giving them to addTranslation(). And you can use the method setOptions() to set options permanent.

// define ':' as separator for the translation source files
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'csv',
        'content' => '/path/to/mytranslation.csv',
        'locale'  => 'de',
        'delimiter' => ':'
    )
);

...

// clear the defined language and use new translation data
$translate->addTranslation(
    array(
        'content' => '/path/to/new.csv',
        'locale'  => 'fr',
        'clear'   => true
    )
);

Here you can find all available options for the different adapters with a description of their usage:

When you want to have self defined options, you are also able to use them within all adapters. The setOptions() method can be used to define your option. setOptions() needs an array with the options you want to set. If an given option exists it will be signed over. You can define as much options as needed as they will not be checked by the adapter. Just make sure not to overwrite any existing option which is used by an adapter.

To return the option you can use the getOptions() method. When getOptions() is called without a parameter it will return all options set. When the optional parameter is given you will only get the specified option.

When working with different languages there are a few methods which will be useful.

The getLocale() method can be used to get the currently set language. It can either hold an instance of Zend_Locale or the identifier of a locale.

The setLocale() method sets a new standard language for translation. This prevents the need of setting the optional language parameter more than once to the translate() method. If the given language does not exist, or no translation data is available for the language, setLocale() tries to downgrade to the language without the region if any was given. A language of en_US would be downgraded to en. When even the downgraded language can not be found an exception will be thrown.

The isAvailable() method checks if a given language is already available. It returns TRUE if data for the given language exist.

And finally the getList() method can be used to get all currently set languages for an adapter returned as array.

// returns the currently set language
$actual = $translate->getLocale();

// you can use the optional parameter while translating
echo $translate->_("my_text", "fr");
// or set a new language
$translate->setLocale("fr");
echo $translate->_("my_text");
// refer to the base language
// fr_CH will be downgraded to fr
$translate->setLocale("fr_CH");
echo $translate->_("my_text");

// check if this language exist
if ($translate->isAvailable("fr")) {
    // language exists
}

// Let's expect the browser returns these language settings:
// HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE = "de_AT=1;fr=1;en_US=0.8";

// Example 1:
// When no fitting language is found, the message ID is returned
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => 'my_it.mo',
        'locale'  => 'auto',
        'scan' => Zend_Translate::LOCALE_FILENAME
    )
);

// Example 2:
// Best found fitting language is 'fr'
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => 'my_fr.mo',
        'locale'  => 'auto',
        'scan' => Zend_Translate::LOCALE_FILENAME
    )
);

// Example 3:
// Best found fitting language is 'de' ('de_AT' will be degraded)
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => 'my_de.mo',
        'locale'  => 'auto',
        'scan' => Zend_Translate::LOCALE_FILENAME
    )
);

// Example 4:
// Returns 'it' as translation source and overrides the automatic settings
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => 'my_it.mo',
        'locale'  => 'auto',
        'scan' => Zend_Translate::LOCALE_FILENAME
    )
);

$translate->addTranslation(array('content' => 'my_ru.mo', 'locale' => 'ru'));
$translate->setLocale('it_IT');

// in your bootstrap file
$locale = new Zend_Locale();
Zend_Registry::set('Zend_Locale', $locale);

// default language when requested language is not available
$defaultlanguage = 'en';

// somewhere in your application
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array('adapter' => 'gettext', 'content' => 'my_de.mo')
);

if (!$translate->isAvailable($locale->getLanguage())) {
    // not available languages are rerouted to another language
    $translate->setLocale($defaultlanguage);
}

$translate->getLocale();

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => 'my_de.mo',
        'locale'  => 'US'
    )
);

Zend_Translate can detect translation sources automatically. So you don't have to declare each source file manually. You can let Zend_Translate do this job and scan the complete directory structure for source files.

The usage is quite the same as initiating a single translation source with one difference. You must give a directory which has to be scanned instead a file.

// assuming we have the following structure
//  /language/
//  /language/login/login.tmx
//  /language/logout/logout.tmx
//  /language/error/loginerror.tmx
//  /language/error/logouterror.tmx

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array('adapter' => 'tmx', 'content' => '/language')
);

So Zend_Translate does not only search the given directory, but also all subdirectories for translation source files. This makes the usage quite simple. But Zend_Translate will ignore all files which are not sources or which produce failures while reading the translation data. So you have to make sure that all of your translation sources are correct and readable because you will not get any failure if a file is bogus or can not be read.

In our example we have used the TMX format which includes the language to be used within the source. But many of the other source formats are not able to include the language within the file. Even this sources can be used with automatic scanning if you do some pre-requisits as described below:

// assuming we have the following structure
//  /language/
//  /language/de/login/login.mo
//  /language/de/error/loginerror.mo
//  /language/en/login/login.mo
//  /language/en/error/loginerror.mo

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => '/language',
        'scan' => Zend_Translate::LOCALE_DIRECTORY
    )
);

// assuming we have the following structure
//  /language/
//  /language/login/login_en.mo
//  /language/login/login_de.mo
//  /language/error/loginerror_en.mo
//  /language/error/loginerror_de.mo

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => '/language',
        'scan' => Zend_Translate::LOCALE_FILENAME
    )
);

/languages/
/languages/en.mo
/languages/de.mo
/languages/es.mo

/languages/
/languages/view.en
/languages/view.de
/languages/view.es

/languages/
/languages/view_en.mo -> detects english
/languages/view_de.mo -> detects german
/languages/view_it.mo -> detects italian

/languages/
/languages/view_en_de.mo -> detects english
/languages/view_en_es.mo -> detects english and overwrites the first file
/languages/view_it_it.mo -> detects italian

/languages/
/languages/view_en-it.mo -> detects english because '_' will be used before '-'
/languages/view-en_it.mo -> detects italian because '_' will be used before '-'
/languages/view_en.it.mo -> detects italian because '.' will be used before '_'

$options   = array('ignore' => 'test');
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => $adapter,
        'content' => $content,
        'locale'  => $locale,
        'ignore'  => 'test'
    )
);

$options = array('ignore' => array('.', 'test', 'old'));
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => $adapter,
        'content' => $content,
        'locale'  => $locale,
        'ignore'  => array('.', 'test', 'old')
    )
);

$options = array(
    'ignore' => array(
        'regex' => '/test/u',
        'regex_2' => '/deleted$/u'
    )
);
$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => $adapter,
        'content' => $content,
        'locale'  => $locale,
        'ignore'  => array('regex' => '/test/u', 'regex_2' => '/deleted$/u')
    )
);

Not every message ID can be translated. But sometimes is can be useful to output the translation from another language instead of returning the message ID itself. You can archive this by using the route option.

You can add one route for every language. See the following example:

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => $adapter,
        'content' => $content,
        'locale'  => $locale,
        'route'   => array('fr' => 'en', 'de' => 'fr')
    )
);

The above returns a english translation for all messages which can not be translated to french. And it returns a french translation for all messages which can not be translated to german. It will even return an english translation for all messages which can wether be translated to german nor to french. So you can even define a complete translation chain.

This feature seems ot be interesting for anyone. But be aware that returning translations for wrong or other languages can be problematic when the user does not understand this language. So you should always use this feature sparingly.

When you are working with multiple translations you may come into a situation where you want to use different source types. For example the resource files which are provided by the framework and your own translations which are available by using the gettext adapter.

By combining multiple translation adapters you can use them within one instance. See the following example:

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => '\path\to\translation.mo',
        'locale'  => 'en'
    )
);

$translate_second = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'array',
        'content' => '\resources\languages\en\Zend_Validate.php',
        'locale'  => 'en'
    )
);

$translate->addTranslation(array('content' => $translate_second));

Now the first instance holds all translations from the second instance and you can use it within the application even if you used different source types.

When you are scanning for directories you may additionally want to use only one defined language. The predefined resources for example are available in more than 10 languages. But your application is not available in all of those language. Therefor you can also add only one language from the second adapter.

$translate->addTranslation(
    array(
        'content' => $translate_second,
        'locale'  => 'en'
    )
);

This allows you still to scan through the directories and still add only those languages which are relevant for your application.

Normally text will be translated without any computation. But sometimes it is necessary to know if a text is translated or not, therefor the isTranslated() method can be used.

isTranslated($messageId, $original = false, $locale = null) takes the text you want to check as its first parameter, and as optional third parameter the locale for which you want to do the check. The optional second parameter declares whether translation is fixed to the declared language or a lower set of translations can be used. If you have a text which can be returned for 'en' but not for 'en_US' you will normally get the translation returned, but by setting $original to TRUE, isTranslated() will return FALSE.

$english = array(
    'message1' => 'Nachricht 1',
    'message2' => 'Nachricht 2',
    'message3' => 'Nachricht 3');

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'array',
        'content' => $english,
        'locale' => 'de_AT'
    )
);

if ($translate->isTranslated('message1')) {
    print "'message1' can be translated";
}

if (!($translate->isTranslated('message1', true, 'de'))) {
    print "'message1' can not be translated to 'de'"
        . " as it's available only in 'de_AT'";
}

if ($translate->isTranslated('message1', false, 'de')) {
    print "'message1' can be translated in 'de_AT' as it falls back to 'de'";
}

When you have a bigger site or you are creating the translation files manually, you often have the problem that some messages are not translated. But there is an easy solution for you when you are using Zend_Translate.

You have to follow two or three simple steps. First, you have to create an instance of Zend_Log. Then you have to attach this instance to Zend_Translate. See the following example:

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => $path,
        'locale' => 'de'
    )
);

// Create a log instance
$writer = new Zend_Log_Writer_Stream('/path/to/file.log');
$log    = new Zend_Log($writer);

// Attach it to the translation instance
$translate->setOptions(
    array(
        'log'             => $log,
        'logUntranslated' => true
    )
);

$translate->translate('unknown string');

Now you will have a new notice in the log: Untranslated message within 'de': unknown string.

This feature can not only be used to log messages but also to attach this untranslated messages into an empty translation file. To do so you will have to write your own log writer which writes the format you want to have and strips the prepending "Untranslated message".

You can also set the 'logMessage' option when you want to have your own log message. Use the '%message%' token for placing the messageId within your log message, and the '%locale%' token for the requested locale. See the following example for a self defined log message:

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => $path,
        'locale'  => 'de'
    )
);

// Create a log instance
$writer = new Zend_Log_Writer_Stream('/path/to/file.log');
$log    = new Zend_Log($writer);

// Attach it to the translation instance
$translate->setOptions(
    array(
        'log'             => $log,
        'logMessage'      => "Missing '%message%' within locale '%locale%'",
        'logUntranslated' => true
    )
);

$translate->translate('unknown string');

Additionally you are also able to change the priority which is used to write the message into the log. Per default the priority Zend_Log::NOTICE is used. It equals with 5. When you want to change the priority you can use any of Zend_Log's priorities. See the following example:

// Create a log instance
$writer = new Zend_Log_Writer_Stream('/path/to/file.log');
$log    = new Zend_Log($writer);

$translate = new Zend_Translate(
    array(
        'adapter' => 'gettext',
        'content' => $path,
        'locale'  => 'de',
        'log'             => $log,
        'logMessage'      => "Missing '%message%' within locale '%locale%'",
        'logPriority'     => Zend_Log::ALERT,
        'logUntranslated' => true
    )
);

$translate->translate('unknown string');

Sometimes it is useful to have access to the translation source data. Therefor the following two functions are provided.

The getMessageIds($locale = null) method returns all known message IDs as array.

When you want to know the message ID for a given translation then you can use the getMessageId() method.

The getMessages($locale = null) method returns the complete translation source as an array. The message ID is used as key and the translation data as value.

Both methods accept an optional parameter $locale which, if set, returns the translation data for the specified language. If this parameter is not given, the actual set language will be used. Keep in mind that normally all translations should be available in all languages. Which means that in a normal situation you will not have to set this parameter.

Additionally the getMessages() method can be used to return the complete translation dictionary using the pseudo-locale 'all'. This will return all available translation data for each added locale.

// returns all known message IDs
$messageIds = $translate->getMessageIds();
print_r($messageIds);

// or just for the specified language
$messageIds = $translate->getMessageIds('en_US');
print_r($messageIds);

// returns all the complete translation data
$source = $translate->getMessages();
print_r($source);