How can PHP developers implement multilingual support using include files for storing and accessing text translations in their applications?

To implement multilingual support using include files for storing and accessing text translations in PHP applications, developers can create separate include files for each language containing key-value pairs of text translations. By including the appropriate language file based on user preferences or browser settings, developers can easily switch between languages without changing the core application code.

// Function to load language file based on user's language preference
function loadLanguageFile($lang) {
    $langFile = "languages/{$lang}.php";
    if(file_exists($langFile)) {
        include $langFile;
    } else {
        include "languages/english.php"; // Fallback to English if specified language file doesn't exist
    }
}

// Usage example
$lang = isset($_GET['lang']) ? $_GET['lang'] : 'english'; // Get language preference from query parameter
loadLanguageFile($lang);

// Access translated text using defined constants in language files
echo LANGUAGE_KEY_WELCOME_MESSAGE;