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MultiLanguage

Question

Answer

Features

• Every wiki page can hold different translations in the form:
  (:if userlang en:)
  english text
  (:if userlang it:)
  italian text
  ...
  (:if:)
  common text
• User selected language is stored in a cookie, can be selected with a "?userlang=xx" in the URL, if no language is selected and no cookie present the current language is detected from the browser.
• If the selected language is not available/defined in the current page then a default language is displayed (from a cascade of preferred languages, the first available).
• Different page titles can be defined inside each (:if userlang xx:) branch and the correct title will be available as {$Title} page variable. Also titled links [[Page|+]] will work correctly.
• A (:selectlang:) directive will automatically display links (with the "?userlang=xx") for the languages that are defined on the page.

Notes

Installation:

Configuration:

Use:

Notes:

Examples:

• This recipe was last tested on PmWiki version: 2.1.beta25
• This recipe requires at least PmWiki version: 2.1.beta??

Releases

• 0.0 - 07.11.2004
  • First multilanguage concept by KAL.
• 0.1 - 22.01.2006
  • First implementation.
• 0.2 - 23.01.2006
  • Added parsing of the page to automatically find available languages.
  • Added (:selectlang:) directive to display selection links with current available languages.
• 0.3 - 25.01.2006
  • Added possibility to configure (:selectlang:) output.
  • Available languages are now parsed on edit and saved as attributes, so page load is faster (uses PCache).
  • Added parameter to (:selectlang:) directive to display links to a specific page.
• 1.0 - 10.02.2006
  • Added cascade of default languages in order of importance.
  • Added parameter to (:selectlang:) to display links to a default page when a language is not available.
  • Added support to multilanguage titles for [[Page|+]] titled links (saved as page attributes).
  • Public release.
• 1.0b - 03.04.2006
  • Fixed a problem when $pagename is not set.
• 1.1 - 05.07.2007
  • Added new langinpage conditional.
  • Added {$userlang} page variable (suggested by noskule).
  • Fixed a problem with setting userlang cookie (fixed by SteP).
  • Added version information (see Cookbook.RecipeCheck).

Comments

Anyone a idea how to add a active-language page variable to this script? The following seams not to work:

 $FmtPV['$userlang'] = "'$userlang'";

Oky I got one, don't no if it's best practice:

 $userlang = $_COOKIE['userlang'];
 $FmtPV['$userlang'] = "'$userlang'";

noskule July 02, 2007, at 06:59 AM

I can't get the DefaultLanguage to show. Language pages are only shown after a cookie was set. The text after the (:if:) tag is shown to in all languages. Debugging a bit: it has something to do with $PCache[$pagename]['languages']. It is not loading the languages key from the wiki file. I couldn't find the way to load those keys, here on pmwiki.org. Renato

Very nice script. I'm just wondering how I change XLPage definitions. I tried with

    if ($userlang == 'de') {
        XLPage('de','Site.NetstreamsTranslation');
        XLPage('de','PmWikiDe.XLPageCookbook');
        XLPage('de','PmWikiDe.XLPage');
    }

This seams only to work if userlang is spezified in the url with ?userlang=XX, or if there is a (if userlang XX) statement is in the page. How do I change this that it keeps the language also if there is no (:if userlang . .. staement?noskule April 15, 2006, at 03:58 PM

Blues April 17, 2006, at 03:11 AM

yep thats great. I did update the Configuration Section, I hope thats ok. grz nos

Please note, though, that using this in the configuration may lead to pages displaying contents in two different languages (one from the XL page based on user selection, and one from the markup based on languages defined). Which might be not desirable.

Blues April 17, 2006, at 06:27 AM

I have a problem: my Site.SideBar contains English and Italian versions, however only some of my main pages contain Italian versions. On a page with no Italian version the English version of the SideBar is used instead of the Italian version. Is there a way to fix this? Also, if the page doesn't contain any (:if userlang en:) then my SideBar is empty because none of the translations are displayed.

Chris Morison? August 08, 2006, at 05:39 AM

I have the same problem as above. I love this recipe but I would like to have more flexibility. Let me try to describe my view about this.
1. A parameter should define the default language, whatever is the cookie or the choice of the user.
2. The marker (:if userlang xx:) .... (:if:) could be called as many times as wished in the same page, including the SideBar.
3. Inside the marker if userlang doesn't fit any, use the default language instead if exists. If nothing fits, blank text.
4. Outside the marker leave the text as it is.

Philippe? August 19, 2006, at 05:39 PM

I'm also wondering about the above sidebar problem. I really don't want to have to go through all my files and add (:if userlang en:) when I don't have or need a different language version. I tried to put something like that in the group header file but expressions don't seem to bridge the gap from header to text body. Actually all we really need to fix this is an (:else:) command, but I guess I'm just too used to more robust programming languages to think of a simple solution (without infrastructure changes). If anyone has figured out a good way to solve this issue please reply. Thanks.

Kale Stutzman? September 11, 2006, at 10:19 AM

Chris Morison? September 21, 2006, at 10:07 AM

Luigi November 27, 2006

I can't find out how to specify a different page title for each language ("multilanguage titles support"). Might this be a misunterstanding, is there no possibility to translate the page titles? Martin Zbinden, November 26, 2006

Please try:

(:if userlang tr:)
(:title Turkish Title:)
Turkish text
(:if userlang de:)
(:title German Title:)
German text
(:if userlang it:)
(:title Italian Title:)
Italian text
(:if:) 

Luigi November 27, 2006

Very useful script. I have two problems though. First, when PageNotFound is loaded, the language links become edit links ?action=edit and are lacking ?userlang=XX. This is a problem because the page creation reverts to the default language instead of the current userlang.

Second, I have to click on the language switch link twice before it "takes" on headers/footers. I can see that the cookie does change to the new language - and the page text too - on the first click, but the headers/footers don't. SteP 7 February, 2007

	} else {
		$userlang = $DefaultLanguages[0];
		setcookie('userlang',$userlang,0,'/');
	}
	$_COOKIE['userlang']=$userlang; // add this line

Somebody know if is possible that with this recipe the links generated to another language goes to a different site that also is using PMWiki. Example:

I have http://www.reinashinohara.com/index.php?n=PmWiki.Hiragana I want to put the english option on the left for this page but going not in the same domain.. if somebody clicks in english then will be sent to http://learnjapanesepod.com/wiki/index.php?n=Main.Hiragana.

Is this possible?

Thanks in advance Pablo

Ventolin? April 12, 2007

Version 1.1 works better with the Category group than the previous versions, however there's still a problem. In Category.GroupFooter included by Category pages, userlang is set to the default language, instead of the language set in the cookie. This ends up displaying the skin in the cookie language, and page contents in the default language. I tried this fix which seems to be working OK here, though it needs more testing on sites where multilanguage.php is in use.
After line 85 add the two lines marked 'SteP added'.

85		} else {
86			$userlang = $_COOKIE['userlang']; // SteP added
87			if($userlang=='')                 // SteP added
88			$userlang = $DefaultLanguages[0];

Good luck! SteP August 19, 2007, at 08:53 PM

I had this problem not with GroupFooter(s), but with the whole site. If your wiki is only displaying the default language translation, use this fix. Renato

There's a problem when used with the IncludePage function: if there is e.g. a specification to include a specific number of lines into the current page, enclosed in multiple if statements, this works correctly in the first language, but in the second one it hides the entire section, where the page was supposed to be placed. JanBrejcha

Caution: # 1.0b - 03.04.2006 fix (Fixed a problem when $pagename is not set)
If somebody change - $DefaultGroup = "Anygroup"; - in config.php it must be bevor the inclusion of multilanguge.php, which seem's to be normal.

Buz if you use famconfig.php mulitlangange.php must be after execution of config.php. But I'm wondering, wether this fix is correct all, as it's IMHO the task of pmwiki to assemble the pages. My application find's the correct entries again when commenting out this fix.
PatrickOgay Oct 15, 2007, at 01:00 PM

See Also

• Translatelink, a recipe using google translation feature.

Contributors

• Blues, implementation
• KAL, first concept

Old comments

Default language doesn't work. So if i have two languages in a page, 'de' and 'en', no one is displayed. But I set $DefaultLanguages = array('de','en');

flox (19.03.2006)

Blues March 30, 2006, at 06:32 AM

Yes. Before including the script. You can test it here. I have to use for example?userlang=en, before the variable userlang is avaiable. flox March 31, 2006, at 02:41 PM

Blues April 03, 2006, at 05:38 AM

It seems to be solved. Thank you very much!

flox