How to make clean links if I do no know the url

Question

I try to design a web in different languages.

How can make the link that gives a clean url? Some pages are dynamic so, I do not know the url, I am searching for a way to make that links work in any page.

I know I can do this because it works in any page:

<a href='?lang=en'>en</a>
<a href='?lang=fr'>fr</a>

But, how to do that and be able to get a clean url like this?:

myDomain/someFolder/file.php // the default in English
myDomain/fr/someFolder/file.php // fr for French

(Beware that it is not just change fr to en. In English there is no /en/)

I have found that I have tu use a rewrite rule in the htaccess to change from myDomain/someFolder/file.php to myDomain/Folder/file.php?lang=en But this is not the point, my question is different, I ask: how to make clean links in the html if I do not know the url?

You would write your link in your `` as per you want them to be. And then write the rule in your `.htaccess` file. — D4V1D, Mar 30 '15 at 14:42
You don't need a rewrite rule in htaccess. That is just one way to do it. Another way is a little php script that sends a new location in the header. Another way is a scripted choice of a meta refresh tag. Another way is a JavaScript that has a language variable and reloads to the correct page. — kainaw, Mar 30 '15 at 14:44
@kainaw: I am confused. I have been hours searching for tutorials in the web. What is the best option to begin? — Nrc, Mar 30 '15 at 14:47
possible duplicate of [Reference: mod\_rewrite, URL rewriting and "pretty links" explained](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20563772/reference-mod-rewrite-url-rewriting-and-pretty-links-explained) — HamZa, Mar 30 '15 at 14:59
@HamZa: my question is different. My question is how to make the link if I do not know the url. (I do not ask how to redirect later) — Nrc, Mar 30 '15 at 15:24
why not using a cookie to save users language selection? links won't get affected by this — Sharky, Mar 30 '15 at 15:32
@sharky: sounds interesting can you put a very basic example? — Nrc, Mar 30 '15 at 15:57
@D4V1D: that is the point, how can I write the link in the if I do not know the url? — Nrc, Mar 30 '15 at 15:58

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 30 '15 at 15:00

What I would do, which is not anywhere as fancy as an .htaccess rewrite tool...

First, I would do something to get the current page name. This can be as simple as:

$pagename = "contactme.html";

Now, I have an array of available languages:

$languages = array('en'=>'English','fr'=>'French','es'=>'Spanish');

With that, I can slap this on the top of every page:

Select your language: <?php
foreach($languages as $ln=>$language)
    print " <a href='mysite.com/$ln/$pagename'>$ln</a> ";

That will spit out a list of abbreviations. Can they be little flags (a lot of people like those). Sure. Change $ln in the anchor to <img src='$ln.png' border='0'> and make sure you have all the images. Can they be in a form with a select list? Sure. Make a select list. Add an 'onchange' trigger to the form to reload to the correct URL. Can they be is a super-fancy rotating flash animation? Yes - if you really want to do something that silly.

this is interesting but it does not answer my question. I do not ask how to choose language. I ask how to make links if I do not know the url. — Nrc, Apr 01 '15 at 07:55

How to make clean links if I do no know the url

1 Answers1