1
Shujakku
Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/2/9 14:29

  • Shujakku

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 10

  • Since: 2004/11/30


Greetings,

I'm faced with the problem of creating a bilingual site.
Any suggestions on the best way of going about this?

I would like to be able to share users across both the english and french versions.


I see my options as:

1) Creating two separate XOOPS sites and having a splash screen that allows the user to select French and English.

2) Using the language files but I'm not sure how these work in relation to having the site bilingual as compared to just one language.


Any suggestions, tips or examples of sites that have done this would be most appreciated.


Shujakku
shujakku@hotmail.com

2
sadistiko
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/2/10 7:18

  • sadistiko

  • Friend of XOOPS

  • Posts: 477

  • Since: 2004/12/13


You could use XOOPS Multilinguage hack for xoops. Drawback of this is that you must hack all modules you use. In this packet there are allready some hacked modules.

Link to info:
XOOPS : XOOPS Multilanguages 1.4.4 for XOOPS 2.0.9.2

3
pfaulkne
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/2/10 8:00

  • pfaulkne

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 32

  • Since: 2004/2/14


I did this the hardway, but it does work perfectly. In my case, I did a standard install. The I downloaded the Japanese version and expanded onto disk, Then I opened the language files for every module,
e.g. \html\modules\system\language\english\modinfo.php.
I then added the second langauge translation immediately after the English in the constant definition. So it looks like this
define("_MI_SYSTEM_BNAME2","User Menu :ウサ メニウ");

Did that for almost everthing. It took a while but works perfectly. You have to make sure your theme has enough width to handle this and there are some other minor issues of look and feel of the site, but it does work.
Have a quick look here.

This way users don't have to choose one or the other. Both are there. Just takes a little design planning. I'm still working on this so some of it is still in English only and some is both.

Hint: If you want to admin the site in English, then don't change the admin language files. Or just over right them with the other language files.

Upgrades are going to be a nightmare if they add next entries, but hey, I knew that when I started.

4
Shujakku
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/2/10 13:04

  • Shujakku

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 10

  • Since: 2004/11/30


Thank you both.

5
DonXoop
Re: Creating a bilingual site

That sounds like a lot of work.

We need something in between the ML language hack and nothing. There is a very old module floating around that simply allows on the fly language switching. I suggest that function be in the core as it doesn't involve any hacks.

The content isn't translated but just switches the language being used and handles all navigation etc. You just have alternative language content where appropriate. The language variable is then available for some clever theme and block tricks if needed.

One of the sites I use has the simple langauge switching module and then allow the users to post in whatever language they want to. The bilingual users will post in more than one lang.

Another site I run has the full ML hack and works great but I hesitate using it on a busy site since it has caching drawbacks.

edit-> the simple language module I use involves a one line hack to the common.php file.

6
ocean
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/2/16 6:14

  • ocean

  • Friend of XOOPS

  • Posts: 15

  • Since: 2004/2/18


Hi,

Could you please point us at that old module that allows on-the-fly language change...

I am still very much hesitating on going for the ML module because I do have neither the skills nor the willingness to hack modules and worry about updates of my system in the future...

but i HAVE to build a second language for my site
any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
best
servet

7
Shujakku
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/3/3 18:51

  • Shujakku

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 10

  • Since: 2004/11/30


I've used the multi-language tool from Smart Factory and it seems to work great. I would definately recommend it. I downloaded it from www.smartfactory.com

8
ocean
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/3/23 2:45

  • ocean

  • Friend of XOOPS

  • Posts: 15

  • Since: 2004/2/18


Well I am sure it works great for now... But how about in the near future where there will be new version of xoops?

I would like to know if the ML module will be officially maintained to support the XOOPS updates...

If I use the ML module, will I have to do same module hacks each time I upgrade my Xoops?

Will the ML module be upgraded at each XOOPS upgrade?

I think this is something essantial to know before deciding to whether or not to rebuild the whole site with the ML module.

My fear is that at one point in the future the ML module ceases to support upcoming XOOPS versions.... You see, I have been trying to connect to the smartfactory page for 2 days and the site is down...

eagerly awaiting comments/suggestions

greetings
servet

9
marcan
Re: Creating a bilingual site
  • 2005/3/28 15:53

  • marcan

  • Just can't stay away

  • Posts: 824

  • Since: 2003/10/8


Weird, because I did not see any problem on the site nor anyone as reported it... And we usually have at least 1 or 2 posts each days. Can you access it today ?

Quote:
My fear is that at one point in the future the ML module ceases to support upcoming XOOPS versions.... You see, I have been trying to connect to the smartfactory page for 2 days and the site is down...


The SmartFactory has been supporting XOOPS ML for over a year now and we release a new version of the hack usually hours after the official XOOPS release

We are also working on an improved version of this hack, to make it more easy to configure. Moreover, we are planning an implementation of a real ML feature without any language tags ) and with a real tranlsation workflow.

So I would say ML is still on the top of our priorities and we will still be developing it in the futur

Hope this helps !

Cheers !

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