Country or language selection with Flag icons

This gem can be used with Rails 3. It includes css files for size 16 and 32 pixels and have all the worlds' flags. See http://spritegen.website-performance.org/

Configuration

In you asset application.css manifest file:

*/
 *= require_self
 *= require_tree .
 *= require flags/basic
 *= require flags/flags32
 *= require flags/flags32_semi
*/

The flags/basic stylesheet sets up a basic css for use with borders around the 32 and 64 pixel flag images (to mark selected language). Use this css as inspiration and customize by overriding styles as needed.

There is also support for semi-transparent flags. This can be used to fade certain flags while having the selected flag (or hovered over flag) in full brightness.

Simply add or remove the "semi" class for the flag to adjust the brightness level (fx for selection/mouse over).

$("li.flag['data-cc'=dk).addClass('semi');
$("li.flag['data-cc'=dk).removeClass('semi');

CSS configuration in application.css manifest.

*/
 *= require_self
 *= require_tree .
 *= require flags/flags32
 *= require flags/flags62
*/

Alternative config

Note that the ruby examples uses HAML syntax

In the head of your view or layout file:

= stylesheet_link_tag 'flags16'

or using a helper

= use_flags(16)

Alternatively for the 32 width flags

= use_flags 32

Configuring localization

You can run the Rails generator world_flags:init in order to create a basic initializer file for world flags with an overview of the different options available.

You can setup WorldFlags to use a localization map for the labels of the flag icons

WorldFlags.language_map = some_language_hash # fx loaded from a yaml file
WorldFlags.countries = some_country_hash # fx loaded from a yaml file

Notice that it is a locale code pointing to a map of ISO_3166-1_alpha-2 codes to labels for that locale.

{
    :en => {:gb => 'English', :dk => 'Danish'}
    :da => {:gb => 'Engelsk', :dk => 'Dansk'}
}

You can use countries_and_languages in order to generate the locale translation files needed for each locale.

Locale mapping files

The engine/gem includes English translation mapping files for countries and languages. They are not complete, so please edit them if you find errors or find your favorite country or language missing or misplaced somehow.

Country mappings

A country code to country name (in json format) can be found in app/config/countries.

def countries locale = :en
  path = File.join(Rails.root, "app/config/countries/locale_countries.#{locale}.json")
  JSON.parse File.read(path)
end

WorldFlags.countries = Hashie::Mash.new countries

PS: See the json specs for examples.

Languages mappings

A country code to languages mappping file (also in json), can be found in app/config/languages.

def languages locale = :en
  path = File.join(Rails.root, "app/config/languages/locale_languages.#{locale}.json")
  JSON.parse File.read(path)
end

WorldFlags.languages = Hashie::Mash.new languages

PS: See the json specs for examples.

Another approach more suited to adding single files is the following. Note that both countries and languages are instances of classes that inherit from the Hashie::Mash class (hash access via method missing).

WorldFlags.countries.en = countries_en
WorldFlags.languages.en = languages_en

You can set the available locales. By default they are the same as I18n.available_locales.

WorldFlags.available_locales = [:en, :da]

Locale to country code

You can customize the locale to flag code map, using:

WorldFlags.locale_flag_map = some_hash

The gem also comes with a json file at config/locale_map/locale_to_country_code.json that you can load in as a hash. WorldFlags will treat any locale of the form xx_YY as the YY downcased (yy).

Please feel free to suggest or improve this locale/translation infrastructure!

Rendering

Flags will be rendered in HTML as:

<pre>
<ul class="f32">
  <li class="flag ar" data-cc="ar" data-country="Argentina">Argentina</li>
  <li class="flag gb" data-cc="gb" data-country="England">England</li>
...
</ul>
</pre>

The countries corresponding to the codes can be found at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2

Use

WorldFlags supports flag sizes in 16, 32 and 64 pixels (size).

You can also use built in helper methods:

= flag_list 16 do
    = flags :ar, :gb, :selected => :gb

Alternatively

= flag_list 32 do
    = flag(:ar)
    = flag(:gb, :selected => true)

Or using the #flag_code helper

    = flag(:ar) + flag(:gb, :selected => flag_code(I18n.locale)

You can also include the :with_semi => true option in order to have flags not selected displayed with the 'semi' class (semi-bright image)

For use with tooltips or similar js plguins, it can be useful to set the

title attribute:

= flag_list 32 do
    = flags :ar, :br, :gb, :title => true

The flag_title will render the following list item:

<li class="flag ar" lang="ar" title="Argentina">&nbsp;</li>

Note: The `  is needed in order for the background (flag icon) to have something to be displayed against.

The :title and :content can also be set to a string which is then displayed

= flag :ar, :title => 'Argentina is the best', :content => 'Argh!'

To also get content rendered for the

    = flags :ar, :br, :gb, :content => true

Note: There is also a #flag_selected? helper, which is (and/or can be) used to determine if the flag to be drawn should have the "selected" class set)

Automatic flag selection

The auto-select feature is by default turned off, but can be turned on/off using:

WorldFlags.auto_select = true # or WorldFlags.auto_select!

With this feature turned on, WorlfFlags will attempt to set the selected CSS class on whatever flag drawn that matches the current I18n.localecode. If this doesn't work out for you, try to add a WorldFlags flag-to-locale code mapping for the locale.

Using localization

You can specify whether to look up labels for the flags for either language or country and for which locale to look up the labels (see Configuring localization)

Use danish (da) country labels

= flag_list 32 do
    = flags :ar, :br, :gb, :country => :da

Use danish (da) language labels

= flag_list 32 do
    = flags :ar, :br, :gb, :language => I18n.locale

Note: In the config folder there is now a json file with all the english ISO-3166-2 code translations ready for use. You can make similar locale files for other locales/languages.

h## Get client country code (browser and geo)

A small helper module is provided that can be inserted into a Controller or wherever you see fit

• ip_country_code
• browser_locale

class MainController < ApplicationController
  def home
    @country_code = WorldFlags::Helper::Geo.ip_country_code
  end
end

Alternatively you can include the modules directly into the controller:

class MainController < ApplicationController
    include WorldFlags::Helper::Geo
    include WorldFlags::Helper::Browser

  def home
    @country_code = ip_country_code
    @locale = browser_locale
  end
end

If you include the WorldFlags::Helper::Locale module, you can simply do:

before_filter :set_locale

And it should set the I18n.locale appropriately, trying params[locale], browser, ip address in succession, defaulting to I18n.default_locale.

Under the covers, the set_locale filter uses the locale_sourcesmethod to get the locale:

def locale_sources
  [params[:locale], extract_locale_from_tld, 
  browser_locale, ip_country_code, I18n.default_locale]
end

Note: You can override this method in your controller to set the priority order for getting the user locale. Each code will be mapped to a locale code using the WorldFlags#locale mapping helper method.

For each locale it will check if it is a valid locale. By default it will call valid_locales in the controller, which will first try I18n.available_locales and then fall-back to WorldFlags#valid_locales. You can override this behavior by defining you custom valid_locales method in the controller.

For convenience you can include WorldFlags::Helper::All to include all these helper modules.

Note that if you include the WorldFlags::Helper::Geo you need thehttparty` gem as well.

Example:

class MainController < ApplicationController
    include WorldFlags::Helper::All

    before_filter :set_locale   
end

You can define the available locales for your app in your application.rb file:

class Application < Rails::Application
  # ...
  config.i18n.available_locales = [:da, :sv, :no]
``

The perhaps sync i18n `I18n.available_locales = MyCool::Application.i18n.available_locales`

Note: This approach in turn works well with the `i18n-docs` gem ;)

## Post flag selection

Here an example of setting up a flag click handler in order to call the server with the country/locale/language selection of the flag.

```javascript
$("li.flag").click(function() {
    country = $(this).data('locale');

    // full page reload
    // window.location.href = "/locale/select/" + country;

    // window.location.href = window.location.href + '?locale=' + country;

    // async post
    $.post("/locale/select", { "country": country }, function(data) {
        console.log(data);
    }); 
});

This gem now comes with a simple javascript object WorldFlagsUrlHelper baked in. To use it, add the following to your ``application.js manifest.

//= require world_flags/url_helper

And use it something like this:

$("li.flag").click(function() {
    country = $(this).data('locale');

    // full page reload with locale=xx param added to url :)
    WorldFlagsUrlHelper.reloadWithLocaleParam('da');
});

TODO for version 1.0

Suggestions welcome ;)

Enjoy

Copyright (2012) Kristian Mandrup