Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

Hi

I need to make at multilanguage language site, and for that I need to
identify the users, and register there choice off language. For that i
imagine using cookies, since this is the only way to identify the
users. But from what I read search engines ignore cookies, and at the
same time I would like the users to be able to send links in there
choice of language to there friends, so I would like this sort of url
scheme.

www.site.com/en/
www.site.com/de/
www.site.com/fr/
.....

But I don´t like the idea of having a lot of duplicate files, with the
only difference being a reference to a specific column in my sql
database. What to do? How do others solve these problems?

Thanks for any advice
CAH
PS There is no reason to set up some sort of login, it would be to big
a burden on the user for this kind of site.)
www.winches.dk

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

CAH wrote:
With mod_rewrite.

With that you can setup Apache to do this:
1) incoming URL:
www.site.com/en/page1.php
to
www.site.com/page1.php?lang=en

You can set up your own rules (using regular expression).

In that way you do not have to really create all these pages, but they
become virtual.
You only have to make page1.php pick up the $_GET["lang"] and make decisions
for your query based on that.


Regards,
Erwin Moller

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

With mod_rewrite.Excellent advice, can Google register that one uses mod_rewrite, or is
it none the wiser? Can search engines have something agains this
solution?

Best regards
Cah

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

CAH wrote:
Hi,

Searchengine don't know about any url-rewriting taking place.
From a searchengine's point of view:
1) Ask some URL (www.example.com)
2) read all the hyperlinks
3) follow a hyperlink, eg: www.example.com/en/page1.php
4) Server responds with the HTML.
etc

The fact that the server in step 3 using URL rewriting (and actually uses
www.example.com/page1.php?lang=en) is completely unknown to the searchbot.
It is completely unknown to ANY client.
It is just something between you and your friend Apache. ;-)

Regards,
Erwin Moller

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

CAH wrote:
I urge you to also inspect the user's "Accept-Language" HTTP header to
determine the default language to show them if they haven't already chosen
a preferred language.

This HTTP header is sent by virtually all web browsers and more often than
not, indicates the user's preferred language.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
Geek of ~ HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python*/Apache/Linux

* = I'm getting there!

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

On Apr 10, 2:16 pm, Erwin Moller
<since_humans_read_this_I_am_spammed_too_m...@spam yourself.comwrote:Hi Erwin

It is indeed excellent, I am trying to figure this mod_rewrite out,
and I have gotten it to work with simple request. But I guess it most
be possible with just three lines in the htacces file. I would like
anything in the /en/ directory to just be moved to the above level and
have the everything after the /en/ moved up a level.

RewriteRule /subdic/en/() /subdic.php/$1?lang=en
RewriteRule /subdic/de/() /subdic.php/$1?lang=de
RewriteRule /subdic/dk/() /subdic.php/$1?lang=dk

I am trying to figure it out, can I make it work with sessions id -
PHPSESSID and all the rest?

Best regards
Cah

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

On Apr 10, 5:00 pm, Toby A Inkster <usenet200...@tobyinkster.co.uk>
wrote:Hi Toby

Thanks for the advice.
Best regards
Cah

re: Multi language site with PHP, mysql and cookies - how about search engines?

CAH wrote:
Hi,

RewriteRule /subdic/en/() /subdic.php/$1?lang=en

What is the () excactly matching?
I am no REGEX wizard myself, but you can write that better, and in 1 rule.

I could be wrong, but what about:

RewriteRule /subdic/(en|de|dk)/(.*)$ /subdic.php/$2?lang=$1

(en|de|dk) <-- in $1
(.*)$ <-- The $ matches end-of-line. So $2 will contain the original
scriptname.

If you are passing more information in the URL, you need to adjust the
regexp to catch that too and make a good URL (with ? and &)

eg:
incoming URL:
http://www.example.com/subdic/en/page1.php?name=CAH

you want that translated into:
http://www.example.com/subdic/page1....me=CAH&lang=en

And:
http://www.example.com/subdic/en/page1.php
should be:
http://www.example.com/subdic/page1.php?lang=en

So you need to add more logic for the ? and &.

But as I stated before: I am no regexp wizard, so ask somebody else for help
on them. ;-)

Good luck.

Regards,
Erwin Moller