{"id":58,"date":"2009-10-19T17:34:40","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T17:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jobshuk.com\/yirmi\/2009\/10\/19\/developing-multilingual-websites-using-php-part-3-right-to-left-vs-left-to-right\/"},"modified":"2009-10-19T17:34:40","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T17:34:40","slug":"developing-multilingual-websites-using-php-part-3-right-to-left-vs-left-to-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobshuk.com\/yirmi\/2009\/10\/19\/developing-multilingual-websites-using-php-part-3-right-to-left-vs-left-to-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing multilingual websites using PHP, part 3 \u2013 Right-to-Left vs. Left-to-Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When developing a website for Hebrew and other languages, there is an additional issue to deal with.  <\/span>If all the languages are left-to-right, then it is straightforward to use the same template or design with all languages.  <\/span>All that needs to be switched when the site is viewed in a different language is the text.  <\/span>However, with Hebrew, people are reading the website in the opposite direction.  <\/span>Many website designs have something displayed on the right or left side of the page.  <\/span>When the page is read in the opposite direction, it is usually advised to put the displays on the opposite sides of the page.  <\/span>To do this, one may just change the entire direction of the page from left-to-right to right-to-left by inserting this piece of CSS in the “body” tag:<\/font><\/p>\n

style=”direction:rtl” <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alternatively, one may put in the CSS file:<\/font><\/p>\n

body { direction:rtl } <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Still, even after changing the direction of the entire document, there remains an issue – the border definitions in CSS are also in the opposite direction.<\/font><\/p>\n

For example, if I want to have a blue, solid border separating the left area and the main area, I can assign a class “left_area<\/i>” to the left area and define the following in CSS:<\/font><\/p>\n

left_area { border-right: solid blue 1px }<\/font><\/p>\n

However, if I change the direction of the document to right-to-left, and the “left_area<\/i>” is now on the right side of the page, instead of having a border in between the “left_area<\/i>” and the main page, the CSS definition above will cause the line to be displayed on the right side of the page, and not in between the sections.<\/font><\/p>\n

Solutions <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One possible solution is to make a separate template or CSS file for right-to-left languages.  <\/span>The disadvantage is that this causes duplicate code, and if the design is changed, it needs to be changed in twice as many places.<\/font><\/p>\n

My suggestion is to dynamically generate the CSS file using PHP.  <\/span>Instead of calling the CSS file style.css<\/i>, I would call it style.css.php<\/i>.  <\/span>In the link, one can add a parameter dir<\/i> to indicate the direction of the document.<\/font><\/p>\n

Hence, instead of this link in the HTML header:<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One can use the following link instead, where the PHP variable $page_dir<\/i> indicates the direction of the document.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the CSS document itself, one would then assign variables the appropriate values for the directions.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>$page_dir=isset($_REQUEST[‘dir’])? $_REQUEST[‘dir’]:’ltr’; <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/span>$left=($page_dir==’ltr’)?’left’:’right’; <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/span>$right=($page_dir==’ltr’)?’right’:’left’; <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

?> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

In the CSS document itself, instead of hard-coded right and left directions, like this:<\/font><\/p>\n

left_area { border-right: solid blue 1px; } <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One can use the variables to define the directions, like this<\/font><\/p>\n

left_area { border-: solid blue 1px; } <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Doing this, one can design the website for one language and seamlessly have it displayed in a different language in the opposite direction.<\/font><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The problem     When developing a website for Hebrew and other languages, there is an additional issue to deal with.  If all the languages are left-to-right, then it is straightforward to use the same template or design with all languages.  All that needs to be switched when the site is viewed in a different … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Developing multilingual websites using PHP, part 3 \u2013 Right-to-Left vs. Left-to-Right”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,14,5,13,15,6,16,17,8],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-css","tag-direction","tag-fischer","tag-hebrew","tag-left-to-right","tag-php","tag-right-to-left","tag-website","tag-yirmiyahu","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nDeveloping multilingual websites using PHP, part 3 \u2013 Right-to-Left vs. Left-to-Right - Yirmi's World of Web Widgets by Yirmiyahu Fischer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jobshuk.com\/yirmi\/2009\/10\/19\/developing-multilingual-websites-using-php-part-3-right-to-left-vs-left-to-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Developing multilingual websites using PHP, part 3 \u2013 Right-to-Left vs. Left-to-Right - 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