Generating Web Pages in Multiple Languages with a PHP IP-to-Country Mapping Application

Before I proceed to explain how to build dynamic web pages in different languages using the lookup MySQL table created in the previous article of the series, I will quickly review the two practical examples developed in that tutorial. They demonstrated how to utilize the table to map IP addresses of users to their respective countries.

Having said that, here's how the examples originally looked:


(procedural approach)


try{

// connect to MySQL server

if(!$db=mysql_connect('host','user','password')){

throw new Exception ('Error connecting to the server.');

}

// select database

if(!mysql_select_db('alejandro',$db)){

throw new Exception ('Error selecting database.');

}

// get user IP address

$ip=sprintf('%u',ip2long($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']));

// Map IP Address to country using 'iptocountry' database

if(!$result=mysql_query("SELECT country FROM iptocountry WHERE lower_bound <=$ip AND upper_bound >= $ip LIMIT 1")){

throw new Exception ('Unable to map IP Address to country.');

}

// get row from database table

$row=mysql_fetch_array($result);

// display country which user is accessing from

echo 'Welcome dear visitor, you are accessing our web site from : '.$row['country'];

}

catch(Exception $e){

echo $e->getMessage();

exit();


}



(object-oriented approach)


// define 'MySQL' class

class MySQL{

private $mysqli;

private $result;

public function __construct($host='host',$user='user',$password='password',$database='database'){

// connect to MySQL and select database

$this->mysqli=new mysqli($host,$user,$password,$database);

if(mysqli_connect_errno()){

throw new Exception('Error connecting to MySQL: '.$this->mysqli->error);

}

}

// run SQL query

public function query($query){

if(!$this->result=$this->mysqli->query($query)){

throw new Exception('Error running SQL query: '.$this->mysqli->error);

}

}

// fetch one row

public function fetchRow(){

while($row=$this->result->fetch_assoc()){

return $row;

}

return false;

}

}


try{

// connect to MySQL and select database

$db=new MySQL('host','user','password','database');

// get user IP address

$ip=sprintf('%u',ip2long($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']));

// Map IP Address to country using 'iptocountry' database

$db->query("SELECT country FROM iptocountry WHERE lower_bound <=$ip AND upper_bound >= $ip LIMIT 1");

// get row from database table

$row=$db->fetchRow();

// display country which user is accessing from

echo 'Welcome dear visitor, you are accessing our web site from : '.$row['country'];

}

catch(Exception $e){

echo $e->getMessage();

exit();

}


As depicted above, it's really simple to develop an IP-to-country mapping program with PHP, since this procedure only requires querying the "iptocountry" MySQL table based on the IP address collected from the user's machine. In the first case, the mapping process is performed via a procedural script, while the second example utilizes a rudimentary MySQL abstraction class.

So far, so good. At this point, you've grasped the logic that drives the hands-on examples. It's time to see how this MySQL lookup table can be utilized for generating web pages in different languages.

This topic will be discussed in depth in the following section. So click on the link that appears below and keep reading.

http://www.vubook.net