[FIXED] What to use for localization (php/smarty/pear application)?

Issue

I have a php/smarty/pear app that has it's own localization implementation that involves using ids for strings and the strings are stored in a db. currently the app is only in English but I will start adding other languages. The current implementation is very poor and basically I'm not a big fan of re-inventing the wheel.

Can anybody recommend what to use for localization? I had used gettext years ago, is that still used or is there something newer and better ?

thanks in advance.

Solution

I would use gettext, since it's a mature system and provides features like singular/plural versions of translations. To be not dependant on the availability of the php extension, you should fall back to http://launchpad.net/php-gettext which provides a pure php implementation of gettext.

gettext has also the big advantage that dozens of tools exist that make it easy to translate those files.

Answered By - cweiske

Answer Checked By - David Marino (PHPFixing Volunteer)