how do I generate po file from php array? - localization

Question

I've a php language file, that lists values in an array.
I want to transform this into .po file.
php file looks like this:
<?php
$LANG_ = array(
// advanced search buttons
"_search1" => "Start Search",
"_search2" => "Hide Search Box",
"_search3" => "Search",
// page numbering
"_pn1" => "Page %CURRENT_PAGE% of %TOTAL_PAGES%",
"_pn2" => "<< First",
"_pn3" => "Last >>",
// _tpl_article-add.php
"_tpl_article-add1" => "Article Submission Form",
"_tpl_article-add2" => "Submit Article",
"_tpl_article-add3" => "Article Submitted Successfully",
// errors
"_err14" => "Delete",
"_err144" => "Display Image",
"_err15" => "Edit",
"_err16" => "View",
);
?>
This is just an example, file itself is huge, over 3000 lines. It would kill me to insert every single one of these into a po catalog manually. Is there something that can automate this for me?
I'm using poedit.
Thanks, I'm new to this, so any insight will be useful...

Answer 1

Try php2po which will convert a PHP array into PO files and will also make sure that all of your escaping is correct. The PO file can then be edited in a tool like Poedit or Virtaal.

Answer 2

The first entry is the file header, look into an existing gettext file (-po) what is needed. The escaping I did with addslashes; maybe you need to do more.
$fh = fopen("en.po", 'w');
fwrite($fh, "#\n");
fwrite($fh, "msgid \"\"\n");
fwrite($fh, "msgstr \"\"\n");
foreach ($LANG_ as $key => $value) {
$key = addslashes($key);
$value = addslashes($value);
fwrite($fh, "\n");
fwrite($fh, "msgid \"$key\"\n");
fwrite($fh, "msgstr \"$value\"\n");
}
fclose($fh);