Modules: xlanguage 2.0 - eXtensible Xoops Language Management

Posted by: phpppOn 2005/6/27 12:49:54 13993 reads
xlangauge 2.0

Download: xlanguage @ XOOPS CHINA
Status: stable, has been used on XOOPS CHINA for a long time and is being implemented to a commercial site with further experimental techniques.

About xlanguage:
An eXtensible Multi-language content and character encoding Management Module+Hack

Multilanguage management handles displaying contents of different languages, like English, French and Chinese

Character encoding management handles contents of different encoding sets for one language, like GB2312 (Chinese Simplified) and BIG5 (Chinese Traditional) for Chinese.


What xlanguage CAN do:
1 displaying content of specified language based on user's dynamic choice
2 converting content from one character encoding set to another


What xlanguage canNOT do:
1 xlanguage does NOT have the ability of translating content from one language to another one. You have to input contents of various languages by yourself
2 xlanguage does NOT work without adding one line to XOOPS/include/common.php (see guide below)
3 xlanguage does NOT have the ability of converting content from one character encoding to another if none of "iconv", "mb_string" or "xconv" is available.


Features:
1 auto-detection of visitor's language on his first visitor
2 memorizing users' langauge preferences
3 switching contents of different languges/encoding sets on-fly
4 supporting M-S-M mode for character encoding handler
5 multilanguage contents can be set anywhere on your site, through XOOPS modules, blocks or even themes
6 painless configuration with only one line change to your existing XOOPS scripts

Note:
M-S-M: Multiple encoding input, Single encoding storage, Multiple encoding output.
M-S-M allows one site to fit various users with different language character encoding usages.
For example, a site having xlanguage implemented porperly allows users to input content either with GB2312, with BIG5 or UTF-8 encoding and to store the content into DB with specified encoding, for say GB2312, and to display the content either with GB2312, with BIG5 or with UTF-8 encoding.

User guide:
1 upload "xlanguage" folder to XOOPS/modules/

2 insert one line
include_once XOOPS_ROOT_PATH.'/modules/xlanguage/api.php';

into XOOPS/include/common.php
RIGHT BEFORE
// #################### Include site-wide lang file ##################
    if ( file_exists(XOOPS_ROOT_PATH."/language/".$xoopsConfig['language']."/global.php") ) {
        include_once XOOPS_ROOT_PATH."/language/".$xoopsConfig['language']."/global.php";
    } else {
        include_once XOOPS_ROOT_PATH."/language/english/global.php";
    }


3 add basic langauges and extended languages from xlanguage's module preference page

4 make the block "langauge selection" visible through system=>block

5 if you use the encoding conversion management only, for instance, switching Schinese and Tchinese, congratulations, you have made it!

6 if you use multi-language contents management, add content with corresponding tags to your content management modules:
[languagecode]Content of the language[/languagecode]
languagecode should be the "language code" of each ___base___ language configured in module admin area, can be for one single language or multiple languages, example:
[english]Thank you, XOOPS[/english][french]Merci, XOOPS[/french][schinese]谢谢你, XOOPS[/schinese]

OR:
[english|french]Thank you, Merci[/english|french][schinese]谢谢你[/schinese]

You should not use the tag of a base language, for say "schinese", and its extended language, for instantce, "tchinese" together since the content will be converted from one to the other automatically using iconv, mbsting or xconv according to your system configure.

7 xconv module is suggested to Chinese users (module available athttps://xoops.org.cn)


Credits:
1 Adi Chiributa - webmaster@artistic.ro, language handler
2 wjue -http://www.wjue.org, ziling BIG5-GB2312 conversion
3 GIJOE -http://www.peak.ne.jp, easiest multilanguage hack