i18n

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Gábor Hojtsy's picture

String translation: why using t() for user specified text is evil?

There is a strong stream of support for using the Drupal built in t() function to translate taxonomy terms, vocabulary names, menu items, profile field titles and options, poll titles and options and similar user specified content. This is a very bad practice, and should be changed. It should be pointed out that this system is reused, because it is ready and seems to be easy and fitting for the problem. Unfortunately it is neither easy, nor fitting. Let me explain why, and where should we look for a solution.

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Gábor Hojtsy's picture

Addressing languages by URIs

If you look at the existing implementations I reviewed, you see different methods used to allow you address content on your site with a URI. The most requested feature (which was implemented in tr.module and is somewhat implemented in localizer) is to be able to use different hostnames for different languages. Let's see the good and bad of all the options used.

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Gábor Hojtsy's picture

A controversial(?) point: store translations as nodes

A striking similarity of all examined content translation modules is that they store translated content as separate nodes. Some of the vocal members of the community expressed their concern about this solution, refering to 'content duplication' as a problem. I suggest that we should store translations as their own nodes, but it does not mean we would not be able to solve any of the problems raised. Let's see what are the disadvantages of storing translations as nodes, and what do we get as an advantage.

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Gábor Hojtsy's picture

Content translation report: what are your options?

Let's see what options do you have, if you intend to set up a website with content translation using Drupal. Clearly the i18n module comes into mind, but if you start to look deeper, you will see more approaches tried in the past and in progress, some of which might have very good ideas to carry on. I have actively tested and code reviewed some modules to see what are the options, so we have something to build from, when thinking about i18n support for Drupal 5.0.

To sum it up, all of the modules tested have weaknesses, and there are some striking common approaches (some of which are clearly not desired by some community members). We should discuss some basic approaches, so we can build on them forward. Discussion points will follow in different nodes in the internationalization group.

In case you find any errors or omissions in the comparision table, feel free to point them out.

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druvision's picture

Internationalization Use-Cases, Actors and Feature Requests

I am a web architect and a system analyst. Now, I've translated Drupal To Hebrew and initiated the creation of a drupal community in Israel. Following Gábor Hojtsy's request, Here is a use-case analysis of my expernece from the Hebrew Translation of Drupal, and with it's implementation on tens of sites, with indexation for search engine relevancy.

Recently, I've tried the Internationalization module on two of my sites, but gave it up and decided to wait for a later time. Problem is that i18n is not yet compatible with many other modules. I am a heavy user of taxonomy / category modules. The i18n module is a big step forward, but more work is needed. I need language specific taxonomy with menu integration. On one site, I have tried to use the taxonomy module, but found that the vocabulary names are not translated (nither in the node entery screens nor in the menu). On the other site, I tried to use the new category module but discovered that the node input form (and the menu) displayed all categories without language distinction.

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Gábor Hojtsy's picture

What we mean by internationalization?

The goal of this group is something that we should define up front. When I write this text, Drupal 4.7.x is stable, and we are going to release Drupal 5.0 in a few weeks. Still Drupal 5.0 is only going to have interface translation services, supporting the display of the built in interface strings in different languages. There is an i18n module addon however, which is badly needed.

The goals of a truly international site are actually much wider then just interface translation. One needs to translate user defined items like menus, the site slogan, titles of custom blocks, even the site logo image. Whenever you start adding content to the site, you might want to add it in different languages. Sometimes you might need attachments from one post in the translated one, sometimes not. You might even need calendars to adapt to monday or sunday starting a week with different languages. All these issues need to be solved, and new issues will come up along the way. The goal of this group is to come up with questions, and ensure that we find adequate answers for them.

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