changing url, and locale on the fly with laravel - laravel

Question

My code in laravel to handle multiple language is:
$languages = array('it-IT','en-GB','fr-FR');
$lingua = Request::segment(1);
if(in_array($lingua, $languages)){
\App::setLocale($lingua);
}else{
$lingua = 'it-IT';
}
Route::group(array('prefix' => $lingua), function()
{
Route::get('/', array('as' => 'home', 'uses' => 'ItemController#menu'));
Route::get('/{idcampo}','ItemController#show');
});
How can i:
1)Make the page start always with it-IT as default. (i need it because I use $lingua to fetch from a database) so i can't have that null. Should I use a redirect::to / to /it-IT?
2) change url and language(app:locale) on he fly with a link in the upper section of every pages. withouth returning to the home.
3) to link pages I learn to use:
URL::route('home')
but how to do it when the link change with the entry of a database (for example my link is {{ URL::to($lingua. '/'. $campo[1].'/') }}) I need to use
URL::action('ItemController#show', ($lingua. '/'. $campo[1].'/'))
EDIT:
OK at the top of my pages there is a link to change language on the fly.
Italian //
English //
French
I create a controller clled LanguageController
<?php
class LanguageController extends BaseController {
public function select($lingua)
{
// Store the current language in the session
Session::put('lingua', $lingua);
return Redirect::back(); // redirect to the same page, nothing changes, just the language
}
}
I create a route:
Route::get('lingua/{lingua}', 'LanguageController#select');
Route::get('/', array('as' => 'home', 'uses' => 'ItemController#menu'));
Route::get('/mondo/','ItemController#mondo');
Route::get('/{idcampo}','ItemController#show');
I have my ItemController#menu
public function menu()
{ $linguadefault='it-IT';
$lingua = Session::get('lingua',$linguadefault);
$data = DB::table('campo')->lists('id');
return View::make('index')->with('campo',$data)->with('lingua',$lingua);
}
1) I don't understand why i need to route at lingua/{lingua} if i never route there but i use a url:action to a controller directly.
2) now i need to add
$linguadefault='it-IT';
$lingua = Session::get('lingua',$linguadefault);
at the beginning of every function to have a lingua variable in my page right?
3) now my language seems stucked to french and i can't change it anymore.

Answer 1

I would not use the language in the URL all the time, you can just switch languages when you need and persist it:
1) Use Session to persist the language chosen:
// Set the default language to the current user language
// If user is not logged, defaults to Italian
$linguaDefault = Auth::check()
? Auth::user()->lingua
: 'it-IT';
/// If not stored in Session, current language will be the default one
\App::setLocale(Session::get('lingua', $linguaDefault));
To have the language always set in your application, you can put this code in your file
app/start/global.php
And you don't need to add this anywhere else. So it will use it in this order:
a) Language stored in Session (selected online)
b) Language user has in database
c) Italian
2) To change the language you create a route:
Route::get('lingua/{lang}', 'LanguageController#select');
Your links
URL::action('LanguageController#select', 'it-IT')
URL::action('LanguageController#select', 'en-GB')
URL::action('LanguageController#select', 'fr-FR');
And in your controller you just have to do:
public function select($lang)
{
// Store the current language in the session
Session::put('lingua', $lang);
return Redirect::back(); // redirect to the same page, nothing changes, just the language
}
3) This way you don't need your language in all your URLs, you don't have to deal with it in all your routes. If your user changes the language in database, you just:
$user->save();
Session::put('lingua', $user->lingua);
return Redirect::route('home'); // or anything else