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Multi-language country combobox

Written by David Domingues
Created on 2008-06-28 00:00:00	Nb. of Hits: 396	Rating:		(over 7 votes).

Get the Excel file for countries

Download Excel Country list - xx Kb

Introduction

Based on the excellent article written by Tane Piper, I decided to take the base code and complete it with multi-language capability based on XML contents build with Excel. The version created contains an ISO 3166 list of country in 6 languages and you can add more languages or correct country names without having to change the Helper code.

Building the Excel File

Excel was chosen to ease data handling. The first column corresponds to the ISO 3166 code of the country and columns B to G correspond to the diferent languages I chose to integrate (respectively English, Portuguese, French, German, Russian and Spanish). The first line will identify the language parameter to be called by the Helper and also the name of the XML file created after clicking the button "Build XML" (EN.xml, PT.xml, FR.xml, DE.xml. RU.xml, ES.xml). At this point a simple macro is triggered to generate as much xml files as languages available in columns. Obviouly you can add your own languages. Also, since i don't know every translations in every languages, some gaps are remaining. The macro will jump over those gaps and won't generate any XML for them. Feel free to complete and supply me with a more complete file, so that everybody can benefit. The Excel file will soon be available: http://www.webrickco.com/download/listofcountries.zip

Sample xml file

Xml is generate by the excel macro and should look like this: EN.xml in app/views/helpers/

Helper code

An UTF-8 file should be created at app/views/helpers/country_list.php

<?php 
class CountryListHelper extends FormHelper 
{ 
    var $helpers = array('Form');

function select($fieldname, $label, $lang, $featured, $default="  ", $attributes) 
    { 
      $all = array();
      $country = array();
      $ar_featured = array();
      
      $ar_featured = split(";",$featured);
      if (is_file(HELPERS.$lang.'.xml'))
            {
                $dom = new DOMDocument();
                $dom->load(HELPERS.$lang.'.xml');

//get headers
                $elements = $dom->getElementsByTagname('select');
                for ($i = 0; $i < $elements->length; $i++) 
                    $all[$elements->item($i)->getAttribute('id')] = $elements->item($i)->nodeValue;

$elements = $dom->getElementsByTagname('nothing');
                for ($i = 0; $i < $elements->length; $i++) 
                    $all[$elements->item($i)->getAttribute('id')] = $elements->item($i)->nodeValue;
                    
                if (is_array($ar_featured))
                    $all['sep1'] = "___________________________________";

//list of countries
                $elements = $dom->getElementsByTagname('country');
                for ($i = 0; $i < $elements->length; $i++) 
                {
                    if (is_array($ar_featured) && in_array($elements->item($i)->getAttribute('id'),$ar_featured))
                        $all[$elements->item($i)->getAttribute('id')] = $elements->item($i)->nodeValue;
                    else
                        $country[$elements->item($i)->getAttribute('id')] = $elements->item($i)->nodeValue;
                }
                if (is_array($country))
                    asort($country);
                
                if (is_array($ar_featured))
                    $all['sep2'] = "___________________________________";
                    
                foreach ($country as $key => $value)
                    $all[$key] = $value;    
            
            }

$list = '<div class="input">'; 
      $list .= $this->Form->label($label); 
      $list .= $this->Form->select($fieldname , $all, $default, $attributes, false); 
      $list .= '</div>'; 
      return $this->output($list); 
    } 
} 
?>

Calling the Helper

Parameters to call the helper are as follow: Param1: Name of the field, Param2: Label of the field, Param3: Xml language file to be loaded, Param4: Featured list of countries (they will appear first), Param5: Selected default country, Param6: array of paramaters for the field. Sample:

echo $countryList->select('/Menu/pais', ' ', 'FR', 'FR;IT;PT;GE;BG', 'PT', array('class'=>'inputbox'));

That's all!

History

2008-06-25: First version

Last Updated on

David Domingues - David Domingues is a professional IT analyst.

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