Translation problems

[philoo +]

DISCLAIMER
+++++++++
This story is not to complain, but to explain the difficulties of foreign customers and, of course, to explore the ways to make things better
+++++++++

I purchased 68C in April and I am working to launch it at the beginning of september.

I am a little bit disapointed, because when I bought the software, I was told that 68C was "Completely multi-lingual". ... It is not the truth.

First, provided language files are incomplete. If you download a 4.08 version, you have complete english language, but incomplete foreign language. They are based on an old version.

I saw some software that had in their language files chapter for each version :

- Added in 1.1
...
...

- Added in 1.2
...
...

- Added in 1.3
...
...

With 68C, you don't have. You cannot easily find and add lines from father english language to others and translate them, because lang files are not built with versionning structure but within chapters like "registering", "checkout", "private messaging" etc ...

Of course, we can re-translate approx. 400 lines of english father lang file, but in this case, do not provide wrong foreign lang files and do not say that lang files are available...

An other way is to run the script and add lines in lang file when you see things like :

- LANG_MAKE_PAYMENT
- LANG_CONTACT_US_SUCCESS_BODY
- LANG_LISTING_UPGRADE
- LANG_LISTING_PREVIEW
- LANG_LISTING_PREVIEW_TXT
- etc....

of course, you always forget one and it is customers that say you "what does this mean".

But it is not the end.

All language tags are NOT in lang files.

Some (many) are in templates. Not a problem, just need the time to check/translate around 100 templates.

May be some lost lang tags are script coded...

There is also the Charset issue (UTF-8 vs. ISO...) that need to be manually updated to authorize correct foreign languages to run correctely ...

And all these things about languages (lang file, templates, scripts ...) need to be checked when a new version of 68C comes (actually 2 per month)

All these things to make 68C developpers see the _real_ impact for foreign customers of all theses issues.

I would suggest things like :
- removing all lang terms from templates
- minimize the number of versions per year, when there is no critical bug
- re-organize lang files including versionning
- introduce charset settings in admin panel (locale settings section, by example)
- ...

many thanks for reading this _long_ post

[Eric Barnes +]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments. We have started adding versioning to the English language file.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//added v4.0.5
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
define("LANG_PRIVATE_NOT_FOUND", "Username not found");
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//added v4.0.4
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
define("LANG_LOADING", "Loading...");

As far as any other language besides the English file we can't guarantee they are translated correctly or accurately. English is our only language and we do include language files that people have sent.

As for the template files we do try and keep any strings out of it but sometimes we miss them. If you do find any please just open a new bug report and we get them added. Right now I believe the only major portion that isn't translated is the email templates.

[philoo +]

Originally Posted by suzkaw

Right now I believe the only major portion that isn't translated is the email templates.

Just worked on the email templates translation. Good job for body translation, header and footer.

Just got problem for the "from" and "title" field ... can't find them anywhere