Summary

In this chapter, you were introduced to the basics of internationalization and localization. You learned the two keys to creating an internationalized site: All strings, text, and graphics are externalized, as is number, currency, and date formatting. You also learned that neither internationalization nor localization is equivalent to translating text; translation is just one part of localization.

You also learned a little bit about character sets: They can be single-byte or multibyte. You also learned the importance of sending the appropriate language-related headers so that your web browser can interpret and display your text properly.

Finally, you created a practical example of how to store a locale-related session variable, to determine and send the localized strings to a preexisting template. This template can be used by all locales because each element was externalized.