How to have more than one languages in phpnuke

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:35 pm

Hi all,

i am relatively new to the phpnuke concept and i would like to ask something crucial for me,because it will affect how i will proceed with my further site development.
I would be very much obliged if i could see some notes/thoughts from expirienced phpnukers.Though let me warn you that this maybe a long post and my english are not so good.

So here is the idea.
I want to make a site which will support more than one languages (lets say two but it could be more).In fact depending to the visitor's choice the site will change the language. From what i 've read -from the phpnuke manual though not sure if i understood right- the multilingual option changes the language of the block/modules to the selected one.Yet ,i have not make clear in my mind if it will change the content too assuming that i enter it in both languages.

Now the solutions i have thought about this question could be:

1.Two identical phpnuke sites with the multilingual feature off,one for each language.Depending the link selection at the first page (which will be a simple html index page) it will throw visitor to the relevant language phpnuke site.
Disadvantages are obvious...to name one:
Double work to do maintaining and updating 2 phpnuke sites.

2.In case multilingual option is enough to cover my demands i do it this way.As i already said, i am not sure if multilingual option will be enough.Though ,i have the feeling that this is the option i should follow.

3.Whatever i write in the site to be written in both languages (separated by a space line or similar) in order to distinguish the language difference.
Obvious disadvantage:I wont be able to add a third or more languages in the future.Almost impossible cause i will have to edit and add it in all the stuff which will be there already.

That is all i have thought.Open to any other apart the above 3 suggestions.

Anyway, i dont seek for specific details, on how i will do ,what/if you'll suggest to me.Just want to "borrow" your expirience by asking you to point me which direction is the best to follow in your opinion and why....

Thank you in advance.

Subject Matter Expert Joined: Feb 23, 2004 Posts: 358

Solution #1 would defeat the entire point of having all these language packs... this is all built into Nuke, and although it will require quite a bit of work on your part to make 100% seamless, it's still a ton less work than trying to manage 2 seperate sites.

All you need to do is:

1. Choose another language besides English. Start loading pages and examining every part of your site. See something in English anywhere? Then that's hard-coded into the script or theme and will require a language addition. This should take you no time at all to make this happen. Many of the language packs are incomplete, so you will see a lot of _SOMELANGVAR scattered around the site. You will need to fix those too.

2. Any custom content that you have put in yourself will need to be translated, obviously.

3. By far your toughest challenge is graphics with lettering on them. There is nothing more annoying than going to a Nuke site, changing the language to your own, and then everything is still in dutch or whatever, because they use graphics for navigation in their theme, etc... A little creativity will get you to a point of where you can also have 2 sets of graphics. This was never implemented into Nuke, because the author envisioned "100's" of different langauges supported, and it would be impossible to make all those diff images. If your site is going to have 2 distinct languages, this is something you can do fairly easily. 2 is manageable, 100s is not.

Bottomline is, with a little work and creativity, a Nuke site can handle what you are asking for here. Most of it is built right in and ready to go, the other stiff will require some labor from you.

Best of luck!

PHrEEk

Hangin' Around Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 31

Quote:

i have not make clear in my mind if it will change the content too

It wont change the content, but it will show the content particular to the languange chosen (I am thinking of the News Module as an example]

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:51 pm

antinportugal wrote:

Quote:

i have not make clear in my mind if it will change the content too

It wont change the content, but it will show the content particular to the languange chosen (I am thinking of the News Module as an example]

This is not correct. The News module correctly loads its own language file. If instead of just typing the news into the input boxes in the ACP, you inserted it into the lang file (you can use an article number or whatever you choose to keep references tidy.), then insert the lang variable name into the actual News content, your news will in fact change depending on the language chosen by the user.

This will definitely work... like I said above, you just need to be creative.

PHrEEk

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:10 pm

Quote:

3. By far your toughest challenge is graphics with lettering on them

Usually for multilingual sites I do this:

1) Give the name of the image graphic_$currentlang.jpg in the code

2) Make sure that $currentlang is defined in the globals of that function

3) Then create the graphics , and giving them a different name such as graphic_english.jpg, graphic_portuguese .jpg, graphic_russian.jpg

no doulbtt I havn't explained it very well so here is an example of what i am working on at the moment Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login!

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:31 am

Thank you very much mates for your replies.
It would be great to hear more opinions so i will make up my mind.

One other think is that i dont know php Sad

so i wont be able to do serious modifications if needed....
Though from what i understand from your sayings i will have to do some changes ,not hard core programming though.... could be possible

Thx...

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 3:48 am

That is it.

The site of Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! is exactly what i would like to do.
(Crowd's voice--> yes an my dog would like to be a millionaire Mr. Green

)

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 7:26 am

If you havnt already, you want to take a look at the Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! which has multilanguage facilities.

nota: I have no idea if it works with 7.6

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:22 am

Yes i ve heard of it....,I will check it as well
Though it seems what phreekie suggested it s the best solution....

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 9:41 am

nikits72 wrote:

That is it.

The site of Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! is exactly what i would like to do.
(Crowd's voice--> yes an my dog would like to be a millionaire Mr. Green

)

I have the same need, but the example given does not satisfy that need. I have content that is translated in both English and Spanish and now have to maintain two separate static content sites, redirecting folks based on their language selection.

Has anyone seen or heard of any hacks for allowing news, content, etc. to be posted in a particular language and then having phpNuke smart enough to only show the content respective of the chosen language? Sure would be an incredibly useful tool! I get that module names and header links can be presented in different languages, but content is always the big problem.

What are the thoughts of this community on the above mentioned needs.

montego

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 3:51 am

@ montego

Quote:

Has anyone seen or heard of any hacks for allowing news, content, etc.

hi,
from what i have read in phpnuke manual the news section is already backing up what you ask.You enter a new and assuming you have multilingual feature on it asks in which language you want it to be post.I have not tested though.

Thx...

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:46 pm

Well, I'll be.... you are correct. Never had the multi-language setting set. I have looked at most of the usual modules and have noticed that downloads and web links do not appear to have this multi-language capability. Does anyone know of a hack that someone has done to these in order to make them multi-language.