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Multilingual support in geeklog 1.4.1b1


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eg0master

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Registered: 07/21/05
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Location:Stockholm
I know a lot of people have been glad to see the multilingual support since it was one thing geeklog did not have before, but I would like to be a bit negative here. I do not like the way it is implemented.

The problem as I see them after testing it is that it does not only enable ny site to be multilingual but it forces me to create one article for each language. I would have been much more confortable with a solution where the defrault language version was shown if my prefered language was not available. I think this is how the multifaq plugin worked nefore the latest version (I have not checked the latest version so it might still work this way).

The solution also feels to "hacky" and the fact that it is a hack merged into the core shines through when for example the news list "3 new articles" if I have 3 languages supported on my site and I translate one new article to each supported language.

I think the current solution is acceptable for those that desperatly need multilingual support but it does not feel professional. I think good multilingual support requires a little more than just a hack. I'm not familiar with the GL2 development but I think multilingual support should be part of GL2 and better integrated into GL2 than it has been into GL141.
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Dirk

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hopeful
Oh, sure it's a hack, not doubt about that. And it has its share of problems (the featured article can't be multilingual, neither can blocks, ...).

Expect some refinements over the next couple of releases, but there are limits as to what you can do with the given code base without breaking backward compatibility. I'd say the hack we have now is a good basis to work on. It covers the most basic needs and will probably get better over time. But it will never reach what could have been done if multi-language support had been part of the original design.

bye, Dirk
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eg0master

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Location:Stockholm
My point exactly dirk. I just wanted to write somethinhg since many of the comments on the beta are very enthusiastic and I'm not. From reading the comments on the beta release I almost start to wonder if they have even tried the multilingual support. Rolling Eyes

I felt there was need for a little more critical comment on this topic. And if you change the core for this support I wonder if there maybe is a less "hacky" way to do it. I will think about it and see if I can come up with an alternative solution that more fits my own needs.
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mystral-kk

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Location:Japan
Quote by eg0master:
The problem as I see them after testing it is that it does not only enable ny site to be multilingual but it forces me to create one article for each language. I would have been much more confortable with a solution where the defrault language version was shown if my prefered language was not available. I think this is how the multifaq plugin worked nefore the latest version (I have not checked the latest version so it might still work this way).


I strongly agree in this respect. I don't mind if this trick is 'hacky' or not, but older articles without language suffixes in their story IDs should be displayed in ** any ** language you select (whether utf-8 or not). In order to avoid rewriting older stories with different language suffixes added, we Geeklog.jp members fervently wish this inconvenience to be solved.

-- mystral-kk, "Every cloud has a silver lining."
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LWC

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You seem to forget that exactly because of what you said, this hack (at least when I released it) made sure it's only optional to translate articles. The only thing you had to translate was topics (that's what Geeklog actually checks if you're not reading a full article)..

Actually, by definition you should not add a language ID to an article that has only one translation. The very action of adding a language ID tells Geeklog this article has "versions" (i.e. translations). This means that if you switch a language while reading the full article, Geeklog would try to find an alternative version which will result in a 404 error. But if there's no language ID, Geeklog would show the same article in any language.
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mystral-kk

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Location:Japan
Quote by LWC: You seem to forget that exactly because of what you said, this hack (at least when I released it) made sure it's only optional to translate articles. The only thing you had to translate was topics (that's what Geeklog actually checks if you're not reading a full article)..
Actually, by definition you should not add a language ID to an article that has only one translation. The very action of adding a language ID tells Geeklog this article has "versions" (i.e. translations). This means that if you switch a language while reading the full article, Geeklog would try to find an alternative version which will result in a 404 error.


Thanks for detailed explanation, LWC.

Quote by LWC:
But if there's no language ID, Geeklog would show the same article in any language.


This is not the case, though. When I select a topic with a langugae ID, say, topic_ja, articles with _ja ID are displayed, but no articles without language IDs will be shown.

-- mystral-kk, "Every cloud has a silver lining."
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kemal

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Registered: 04/05/05
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Location:Turkey
looking good idea Idea
if there is no language ID pages showing with default lang. or may be geeklog says : "There is no page to your selected lang."
_KEMAL_
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