How do I define a lookup table that will work across all PHP elements of the template?

Question

I'm using a lookup table to define a few things for the qTranslate plugin

Table

$trans_home = array('en' => 'Home','it' => 'Home','de' => 'Home','zh' => '首页','es' => 'Página de inicio','fr' => 'Page d\'accueil');
$trans_company = array('en' => 'Company','it' => 'L\'azienda','de' => 'Firma','zh' => '公司','es' => 'Empresa','fr' => 'Société');

Code calling up lookup table

echo $trans_home[qtrans_getLanguage()];
echo $trans_company[qtrans_getLanguage()];

I thought that if I put the lookup table in the header file I would be able to call on the table throughout the template, but it seems I need to define the lookup table in each part of the template I need it in, so for example I would have to define the table in both in the header and footer for it to work.

So the question is how do I define a lookup table that will work across all PHP elements of the template?

Answer 1

Loading it in the header should work, or on the init hook. You will need to declare it global as well. So...

// define
global $trans_home;
$trans_home = array('en' => 'Home','it' => 'Home','de' => 'Home','zh' => '首页','es' => 'Página de inicio','fr' => 'Page d\'accueil');

// and use in your templates
global $trans_home;
echo $trans_home[qtrans_getLanguage()];

Answer 2

I would use some sort of function or object to wrap things up, rather than a global variable. WordPress has plenty of those already, no need to add more.

Eg.

<?php
function wpse71942_home($l)
{
    // only set it once
    static $langs = null;

    // Using filters makes your theme more extensible later
    if(is_null($langs))
        $langs = apply_filters('wpse71942_home_trans', array('en' => 'Home','it' => 'Home','de' => 'Home','zh' => '首页','es' => 'Página de inicio','fr' => 'Page d\'accueil'));

    return isset($langs[$l]) ? $langs[$l] : '';
}

Usage:

<?php
echo wpse71942_home(qtrans_getLanguage());

Note that the current language is passed in -- it's a bit more "loosely coupled" with qTranslate.