Better support for RTL/Right-to-left languages (Arabic, Persian, Hebrew) on drupal.org and groups.drupal.org

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People in many countries speak in variations of these three languages (Arabic, Persian, Hebrew). groups.drupal.org also currently hosts local groups from these countries and they all have trouble using their local language in order to support local Drupal users.


More info : What languages are read from right to left And also some backgrounds better support for Arabic & Persian languages on drupal.org and groups.drupal.org

Local Groups

Issues

According to the previous comments here , we need several changes for getting these languages to work properly

List of the issues which need to be fixed for full support (Sorted by priority).

A new option for selecting these languages as primary language of the group

There are currently a very limited number of languages are supported

Direction

Whole page or just key HTML elements

Solution

Groups layout is well designed but need to properly detect the language and select the appropriate override styles to change the direction of important HTML elements

Workarounds

Firefox :  View->"Switch Page Direction"

Font/Font-Face

We need a generic well supported fonts on various platforms for these languages
Note : some Mac users have trouble with font's , i'm not a Mac user so if your are please provide more information

Solutions

For Persian Tahoma is the best looking default Windows font
Note : Mention the generic fonts for you language here.

Workarounds

Firefox : Using Firefox extension to override the default styles

Mixed content (Display , Writing)

Supporting it is very important for code snippets to appear properly. Although currently Drupal's default input formats allow
style="direction:rtl/ltr" However an special tag might be more appropriate for setting text language or direction than using style attribute

Buy supporting RTL languages since the default direction becomes Right to left , writing English texts for codes or other purposes becomes difficult , so providing an easy way for changing the text box direction is important.

Solutions

A simple button for switching direction in text-areas is a nice feature to have. so users won't have to open another (RTL/LTR) compatible editor for writing text in different direction than the page
A module is required.

Workarounds

Firefox : Right-click on text box and select "Switch Page Direction"

Translation

Not all local users understand English well, for supporting these users it's require to have a translated interface.
It would be good to be able to translate Menus, Helps, Buttons, etc

Solutions

Completing translating the modules used on groups.drupal.org on localize.drupal.org.
More info about these module is available here http://groups.drupal.org/about

Workarounds

There is no workaround

People and Groups willing to help

If you're willing to help add yourself to this list and also mention how you can help

  • @sinasalek from Persian Group. I can help with providing information , facilitating joining forces, customizing require module. But i'm currently waiting for this wiki to become complete
  • @esmailzadeh from Persian Group. I can help with providing information, helping in analyzing and design, developing require modules, searching for best ready to use solutions

Groups.drupal.org

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