Ben Scholzen is …

• Freelancing Software Architect & Consultant
• Author and maintainer of core components in Zend Framework
• Open Source Contributor

• Internationalization (i18n):
  Designing your application to be able to be adapted to various languages and regions.
• Localization (L10n):
  Adding information for a specific locale or region.
• Locale:
  A short identifier which can include language, region and additionally a character encoding.
• Character set:
  A subset of characters (Unicode, Latin, …).
• Character encoding:
  Specification about how to encode characters in memory (UTF-8, ASCII, …).
• Collation:
  Comparision method for characters.

de-CH.utf-8 (old style: de_CH.utf-8)

• de: the language of the locale (German)
• CH: the region of the locale (Switzerland)
• utf-8: the encoding of the locale

• A translator with integration into various components
• View helpers for formatting numbers, currencies and dates
• Validators for numbers, post codes and alphanumeric strings
• Filters for numbers and alphanumeric strings

• All i18n components make use of the intl extension
• Default locale can be set via \Locale::setDefault()
• If no locale is set, the system default is used

• Designed to work similar to gettext
• Handles multiple text domains per locale
• Provides functionally to handle plurals

• Each provided by an individual source (e.g. a file)
• Contain a mapping of message IDs and their translation
• Provide plural rules for ordinal numbers

• Gettex
• PHP arrays
• More to come (TMX, XLIFF, …)

• Individual files per text domain and locale
• File patterns per text domain
• Remote sources per text domain

nplurals=5; plural=n==1 ? 0 : n==2 ? 1 : n < 7 ? 2 : n < 11 ? 3 : 4
      

• nplurals defines the number of plural forms available in the language
• plural defines how to find out which plural form to use
  • Syntax is the same C
  • Expression is parsed internally, not used via eval()
  • Available variables: n (number to resolve)
  • Available operators: +, -, *, /, %, &&, ||, !, ?: <, >, <=, >=, !=, ==
  • Parantheses also work
  • Boolean operations return 1 or 0

return array(
    '' => array(
        'plural_forms' => 'nplurals=2; plural=n!=1'
    ),
    'bacon' => 'speck',
    '%d house' => array(
        'Ein Haus',
        '%d Häuser'
    )
);
      

use Zend\I18n\Translator\Translator;

$translator = new Translator::factory(array(
    'locale' => 'de_DE',
    'files' => array(
        array(
            'type' => 'phparray',
            'filename' => 'languages/de-DE.php'
        )
    )
));
      

Simple string:

echo $translator->translate('bacon'); // speck
      

String with plural form:

$houses = 5;

printf(
    $translator->translatePlural('%d house', '%d houses', $houses),
    $houses
); // 5 Häuser
      

<?php echo $this->translate('bacon'); ?>
      

<?php printf(
    $this->translatePlural('%d house', '%d houses', $number),
    $number
); ?>
      

Switch text domain for a single call

<?php echo $this->translate('bacon', 'module-b'); ?>
      

Switch text domain for all following calls

<?php $this->plugin('translate')->setTranslatorTextDomain('module-b'); ?>
      

<?php echo $this->translate('bacon', null, 'fr-FR'); ?>
      

use Zend\I18n\Translator\Translator;

$translator = new Translator::factory(array(
    'locale' => 'de_DE',
    'patterns' => array(
        array(
            'type'     => 'phparray',
            'base_dir' => 'translations',
            'pattern'  => '%s.php'
        )
    )
));
      

• Date handling via \DateTime
• Formatting and parsing through \IntlDateFormatter
• View helper wrapping around \IntlDateFormatter

• By default, the standard Locale in \Locale is used
• Alternatively, a specific locale can be passed as last parameter to the date format view helper.

$view->plugin('dateFormat')->setLocale('en-US');
      

• By default, the standard timezone of the system is used

$view->plugin('dateFormat')->setTimezone('Europe/Berlin');
      

<?php echo $this->dateFormat(
    $date,
    $dateType, // Optional, default: NONE
    $timeType, // Optional, default: NONE
    $locale    // Optional
); ?>
      

• Date may be a unix timestamp (an integer), a \DateTime object or an array
• Both the date and time format may be one of the following constants:
  • \IntlDateFormatter::NONE: Do not include this element
  • \IntlDateFormatter::FULL: Completely specified style (Tuesday, April 12, 1952 AD or 3:30:42pm PST)
  • \IntlDateFormatter::LONG: Long style (January 12, 1952 or 3:30:32pm)
  • \IntlDateFormatter::MEDIUM: Medium style (Jan 12, 1952)
  • \IntlDateFormatter::SHORT: Most abbreviated style, only essential data (12/13/52 or 3:30pm)

$formatter = new \IntlDateFormatter(
    $locale,
    $dateType,
    $timeType
    /*, $timezone*/
);

$formattedDate = $formatter->format($date);
      

• Parsing is always done via intl extension
• Parse method returns a unix timestamp

$formatter = new \IntlDateFormatter(/* … */);
$timestamp = $formatter->parse($formattedDate);
$date      = new \DateTime('@' . $timestamp);
      

• Date handling via \DateTime
• Formatting and parsing through \NumberFormatter
• View helpers and filters wrapping around \NumberFormatter

• By default, the standard Locale in \Locale is used
• Alternatively, a specific locale can be passed as last parameter to the number and currency format view helpers.

$view->plugin('numberFormat')->setLocale('en-US');
$view->plugin('currencyFormat')->setLocale('en-US');
      

<?php echo $this->numberFormat(
    $number,
    $formatStyle, // Optional, default: DECIMAL
    $formatType,  // Optional, default: TYPE_DEFAULT
    $locale       // Optional
); ?>
      

<?php echo $this->currencyFormat(
    $number,
    $currencyCode, // Optional, default: not set
    $showDecimals, // Optional, default: true
    $locale        // Optional
); ?>
      

• Types define how the output looks like (default, decimal, int64, …)
• Styles define how the output is styled (decimal, currency, percent, …)
• More information about these: http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.numberformatter.php

$view->plugin('numberFormat')->setFormatStyle($formatStyle);
$view->plugin('numberFormat')->setFormatType($formatType);
      

$view->plugin('currencyFormat')->setCurrencyCode($currencyCode);
$view->plugin('currencyFormat')->setShouldShowDecimals($boolean);
      

$formatter = new \NumberFormatter(
    $locale,
    $style
);

$formattedNumber = $formatter->format($number);
      

• Parsing is either done via intl extension or filter

$formatter = new \NumberFormatter(/* … */);
$number    = $formatter->parse($formattedNumber);
      

$filter = new \Zend\I18n\Filter\NumberFormat($locale, $type, $style);
$number = $filter->filter($formattedNumber);
      

• Provides locale dependent comparision methods
• Allows sorting strings based on collation

• Normalizes strings to a specific base form

• Formats data into messages
• Similar to printf, but locale based

• Retrieves CLDR information about a locale

• Checks if a string containts confusable or suspicious characters

• Transliterates stings from one encoding to another