|
Serving Documents Based on Language Preference
The Apache Web Server has the ability to look at the language preference
specified by a web browser client (such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer)
and return the content of different files
depending on that preference. This ability, termed
Content Negotiation,
is a simple yet very powerful Apache feature.
Configuration
Make the following additions and modifications to your Virtual Server
web server configuration file (~/www/conf/httpd.conf).
-
Add the following line to the top of your web server configuration file
to dynamically load the content negotiation dynamic module.
LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so
-
Add language directive using the AddLanguage
directive, like this:
AddLanguage en .en
AddLanguage es .es
AddLanguage fr .fr
AddLanguage de .de
AddLanguage it .it
AddLanguage jp .jp
The AddLanguage directive associates file extensions
(.en .es .fr .de .it .jp) with corresponding language abbreviations
(en es fr de it jp). The abbreviations are predefined and can be
located in any of the latest generation web browser clients.
Netscape Navigator 5.x
Edit->Preferences->Navigator->Languages->Add(button)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x
Tools->Internet Options->General(tab)->Languages(button)->Add(button)
-
Add a language priority directive using the LanguagePriority
directive, like this:
LanguagePriority en es fr de
The LanguagePriority directive allows you to give precedence to some
languages in case of a "tie" during content negotiation or if the
browser client does not specify a language priority (older web browsers).
Just list the languages in decreasing order of preference.
-
Add the MultiViews option to the Options directive
that is part of your <Directory /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs> definition.
For example, your web server configuration file probably is set up
this way currently:
<Directory /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs>
# This may also be "None", "All", or any combination of "Indexes",
# "Includes", "FollowSymLinks", "ExecCGI", or "MultiViews".
# Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
# doesn't give it to you (or at least, not yet).
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
Add the MultiViews option like this:
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
The MultiViews option can also be added to the Options definition
in .htaccess files.
Serving Language-Specific Content
That's it! Create and upload language-specific content to your
Virtual Server using the appropriate extensions. For example,
create index.html.en, index.html.es, and index.html.fr files in addition to
an index.html file. When a web browser client requests index.html, the web server
will analyze the language preference of the web browser client and serve
the appropriate index.html.* file seamlessly and transparently.
|
NOTE:
If the language preference submitted by the web
browser does not match any of the type definitions configured in your web server
and documents you have authored, then
the web server will return a "406" error (i.e. the resource was found, but
could not be delivered because the type of the resource is incompatible
with the acceptable types indicated by the accept or
accept-encoding headers sent to the web server by the web browser client).
For example, if a client will only accept Greek content (el) and
nothing else, and you have only authored content in English, Spanish,
and German, then the web browser client will report a "406" error. It may be wise to
capture "406" errors with a custom ErrorDocument script.
|
More Information
See the following.
|
|
