[Using Sakai] Multi-language site title

Thu Sep 27 04:03:42 PDT 2012

Hi,

I originally asked this question having in mind the idea of multilanguage content introduced in the database for the desired languages. Sakai would load the appropriate contents according to the settings just as Diego described and exemplified in Joomla and others.
As I understand, currently the only solution is to have independent sites to each language. I guess that besides making the content update a difficult task, it could have other implications in user management? And what happens if we want to have 3 languages = 3 independent sites?

Chrs,

João

-----Original Message-----
From: sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org on behalf of Diego del Blanco Orobitg
Sent: Thu 9/27/2012 8:30 AM
To: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: Re: [Using Sakai] Multi-language site title

I imagine that Julian idea is be able to introduce several versions (one for
each language) of the same content or field in the same site. Not automated
translation. 

I've seen this in Joomla and other multilanguages CMS.  Samoo's web (based
in Joomla) has this system to have the English and the Spanish version.
(Yes, I know, we have to improve the web ;).   

To do this implies a lot of deep changes in Sakai, because it must change or
add a lot of things in the database and generate a lot of processing and
searching work each time you get a text so maybe it's not a good idea to
implement this.

They are several ways to do this: 

One of them is to use a key instead the string and to hava another table
that has the internationalized messages for this code (as the properties
files) so instead the site Title you store something as
"938DE909AB33C32300E" and in other new table you have this:

String_ID                              Language            Text

938DE909AB33C32300E |  default            | La reproducción del escarabajo
pelotero

938DE909AB33C32300E |  es_ES               | La reproducción del escarabajo
pelotero

938DE909AB33C32300E |  en_UK             | The reproduction of the dung
beetle

The other option is to store an xml instead a string (then you have to
change the length and type in the database field) with a version of the text
for each language

In both cases, when you call to getTitle() you process the xml or search in
the database to find your correct message based on your preferences.

For resources instead a text you have a different url for each language.

In the UI you need to be able to select the language to introduce the
strings in the form fields or to upload different files. 

Surely there are other options more complex and with better performance but
these are the more obvious ones.

I thing to change all sakai to allow this can be a nightmare, but maybe we
can change some really important fields (as site title or site description)
if someone feels that it is important.

Diego del Blanco Orobitg

Director de operaciones

diego.delblanco at samoo.es

Tlf Móvil: +34 653 683 489

www.samoo.es

De: Steve Swinsburg [mailto:steve.swinsburg at gmail.com] 
Enviado el: jueves, 27 de septiembre de 2012 3:50
Para: Julian Brown
CC: Diego del Blanco Orobitg; sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
Asunto: Re: [Using Sakai] Multi-language site title

Yep I was talking about the structure of site being multi language based on
the user's preferences. I haven't seen any system that translates user
generated content into multiple languages at runtime. I can see *how* it
might be done, but the translation would be based on some automatic process.
Unless you want to enter multiple versions of the content in which case you
could just use two different sites perhaps (but that might mean a lot more
work).

Also in my quote 'soak' == Sakai, interesting typo.

cheers,

Steve

On 26/09/2012, at 10:56 PM, Julian Brown <brownjulian27 at gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks a lot for your extensive answer Diego.

I was however hoping that according to Steve's answer on the topic that this
task would be easier: 

"Everything else can be translated, tool and page names and of course the
content of tools. Soak is able to load the correct language pack based on
the user preferences. I don't see it being too difficult to have multiple
site titles for different languages, there is no UI for it though. "

I have seen that changing the user's preferences will indeed translate tools
but have not found how to introduce the multi-language content.
I guess this is quite a common requirement for any non-single-language
deployment, I wonder how others are achieving this.

Regards,

Julian

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Diego del Blanco Orobitg
<diego.delblanco at samoo.es> wrote:

Hi Julian:

I have to tell you bad news. 

At this moment Sakai don't have support for Multilanguage (talking about
contents, title of the site, description, etc. ). Yes, you can change the
site language and then the name of the tools (if you have not changed
manually before) and the standard messages will change, but nothing more.
Everything created by users is not multilanguage L

This feature has been a desired requirement for a long time for the spanish
universities because in some regions here we have 2 official languages but
develop something like this can be a Titans task.

You can bypass this (in some way.) using your "imagination", maybe using
groups you can create and publish  folders in resources or many other sakai
elements (assessments, assignments, announcements. )  for each language
group and assign people in the "language" groups. In that case you surely
will have problems with gradebook to calculate the final score because each
group will have a different assignment or assessment, but if that is not a
problem for you, then you can work on this way. And this solution don't use
the language preference of the user because it uses groups.

About the title of the site, you can't do nothing except to use a code. if
you call the course "CD9948" you don't have problems with language ;). it's
a total stupid solution, I know. but. the only one if you don't want to
touch the code (and the solution is not simple).We have thought about this
some time before, thinking into store in database, instead a simple string,
a xml with all the language versions. and then the site.getTitle returns the
user language preference version. but this finally was not developed.

Resume: This is not an easy question to solve.

Saludos

Diego del Blanco Orobitg

Director de operaciones

diego.delblanco at samoo.es

Tlf Oficina: 673 80 32 69

Tlf Móvil: 653 683 489

www.samoo.es <http://www.samoo.es/> 

De: sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
[mailto:sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] En nombre de Julian
Brown
Enviado el: miércoles, 26 de septiembre de 2012 11:55
Para: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
Asunto: [Using Sakai] Multi-language site title

Hi all,
I just started with sakai. I am developing a portal where multilanguage is a
requirement.
Could someone please elaborate a bit more or point me in the right
directions?

I saw these site properties can be specified in the site administration gui
but how do I use them afterwards as site content? Are there already some
site properties for the title (couldn't find in the documentation)?

Thanks in advance,

Julian

Hi Joao,
Everything else can be translated, tool and page names and of course the
content of tools. Soak is able to load the correct language pack based on
the user preferences. I don't see it being too difficult to have multiple
site titles for different languages, there is no UI for it though.

Cheers,
Steve

Sent from my iPad

On 16/08/2012, at 23:45, "Joao Carneiro" <jcarneiro at netcabo.pt
<http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user> > wrote:

> Thanks Steve,
>  
> I somehow expected this to be something everyone was using.
> Does the same apply to page and tool titles or is there some multilanguage
support at that level?
> What are current approaches to fully multilingual portals using sakai?
> Chrs,
>  
> Joao
>  
> From: Steve Swinsburg
> Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2012 12:47 AM
> To: Joao Carneiro
> Cc: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
<http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-user> 
> Subject: Re: [Using Sakai] Multi-language site title
>  
> Hi Joao,
>  
> Sites have a fixed title that are not translated at runtime. What would be
interesting is if when creating a site it could be set with multiple titles,
one for each language you want to support, then the portal uses the correct
one. These could just be site properties.
>  
> cheers,
> Steve
>  
>  
> On 31/07/2012, at 11:08 PM, Joao Carneiro wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>>  
>> This is a rather basic question but I cannot seem to find.
>> Can someone tell me how to configure site titles such that shown title
matches user language preference?
>> Thanks in advance,
>>  
>> Joao
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