bilingual courses...

bilingual courses...

by Sebastien M. -
Number of replies: 14

Hi all !

I'm starting to use Moodle and I plan to build a bilingual site (with bilingual courses).  I already have all my didactic content available in both languages for three courses (actually three in english and the equivalent in french).

It appears that the start page of Moodle display all the courses whithout checking the language of the courses (so in my case the start page would display 6 courses).  The language utility is systemic with no apparent relation with the language of the courses per se.

QUESTION: Is it possible to configure the initial display so it will only list the courses of the users language ? (Note that I've forced the courses with the appropriate language but it does not change the problem with the mixted start page - Couldn't Moodle look for that setting in order to display the appropriate courses ?)

Thanks in advance !

seb

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by Hans de Zwart -
Are you aware of Moodle's multilanguage filter? That way you could just set up one course that would appear in the language that the user has chosen. Or is that too easy?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by Sebastien M. -

I was not aware of this existence of this Filter yet as I've been working with Moodle for only two or three days...  I activated the Multi-language filter but I obviously don't know what to do next.  Is there a Howto about this on the forum ?

Thanks for the help.

seb

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by Hans de Zwart -
I think you can tell Moodle what language you are typing by enclosing it in special tags. So if you put <lang lang="en">around a piece of text</lang> it would show in english, whereas <lang lang="nl">dit is nederlands</lang> would only show in Dutch.

Anybody correct me if I am wrong...also you would probably need to disable the HTML editor or work in the source code view.

Does anybody use this filter often?

Edit: I have just tested it on my test site and it does work as I have written above. You have to take the HTML editor out of WYSIWYG-mode to type in the tags (you can switch back from source if you want to tough, and will so both languages, without the tags).

It does not appear to work with forum post titles. I guess you would have to make those bilangual.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: bilingual courses...

by Sebastien M. -

Thanks Hans,

I'm getting the idea.  Not that easy to use though.... I've tested it and it appears that the text editor, is somehow messing with the lang tag (ending ">" of the lang tag is transformed with " />"...) so whenever I edit text with language definition (lang tag) I actually loose the ability to filter properly...  Further more, titles of content unit (e.g. lessons) do not allow for text filtering...

Bug?

seb

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by koen roggemans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Translators
I also did some testing with bilangual texts (some time ago) One thing I do remember is that the HTML must be VERY well written (respecting ALL opening/closing tags)

You might want to contact Gaëtan Frenoy (gaetan@frenoy.net) -> he wrote the filter, or read the readme.txt-file in moodle/filter/multilang       
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: bilingual courses...

by Sebastien M. -

Unless you have a perfectly mirrored/integral bilingual site, the language filter won't do it.  What if some courses/activities are offered in one language but not in the other?

I think an approach like the one used by PostNuke allow for somewhat "asymetrical" content units...In PostNuke there is an option to define in what language a box/module/news/whatever should be displayed.

I would of hoped that "forcing" a language for a course would display the content according to the users language...not!

seb

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
> I would of hoped that "forcing" a language for a course would display the content according to the users language...not!

Err, no.  Forcing a language to something overrides user choices.


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by Nicolas Martignoni -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
> In PostNuke there is an option to define in what
> language a box/module/news/whatever should be displayed.

I thing such an extension of the multilang filter could be very helpful in multilanguage institutions.

Martin, any chance that something goes in this direction?

Bye
Nicolas
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: bilingual courses...

by Nicolas Martignoni -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
I use this filter rather often. And as you say, I think it's better not to use the HTML Editor, just to have well formatted HTML (the editor sometimes put it all in a mess!)

It actually works in activity title, as well as in forum posts, but for this to work, you have to activate in your config.php file the variable filterall. I quote from config-dist.php:

// Turning this on will make Moodle filter more than usual, including

// forum subjects, activity names and so on (in ADDITION to the normal 

// texts like forum postings, journals etc).  This is mostly only useful 

// when using the multilang filter.   This feature may not be complete.

//      $CFG->filterall = true;


Hope this helps!
Nicolas
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Nicolas Martignoni

Re: bilingual courses...

by Nicolas Martignoni -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
I forgot to tell that this works for the activity names displayed in the course page, but unfortunately NOT for the activity names

1) in the breadcrumb (see http://moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=1286)
2) in the list of the activities (eg. the list of the forums of the course, etc.)
3) in the title of the page (browser window)

I have to open a bug for the 2 latter problems yet.

Cheers
Nicolas
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Nicolas Martignoni

Re: bilingual courses...

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
No-one is working on the multilang filter - I haven't heard from Gaetan in a long time. It was very nice of him to write that first version, but this code still needs some more love.

Currently it's far too strict about the formatting it requires, and it is not yet being applied in a few places around Moodle.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: bilingual courses...

by Fabrizio Balliano -
Hi to all, I found the problem and put a small quick and dirty patch for my moodle site...

I would tell you that I offert myself as becoming the new maintainer of the multilang filter if you agree.

I can send you my moodle site and works if you want a curriculum smile

bye bye
Fabrizio
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Sebastien M.

Re: bilingual courses...

by Gonzalo Fontecha -

Ojalá quien escriba, tenga la amabilidad de hacerlo también para quienes no manejamos el inglés por ahora, eso resultaría muy interesante y muy práctico.   Así que no nos olviden!

Que Dios multiplique la sabiduría en cada uno de nosotros, así tendremos una humanidad con mejor sentido de hermandad.  La paz esté con ustedes queridos hermanos.

Hasta una nueva oportunidad, que la pasen muy bien.      gonzalo

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gonzalo Fontecha

Re: bilingual courses...

by Ian Semey -
Estimado Gonzalo, si necesita traducción de páginas de web de inglés al español, puede usar el servicio babelfish.altavista.com, que produce una traducción tolerable. Con este servicio, su texto se traduce a:

Hopefully who writes, has the amiability to do it also for those who we did not handle the English so far, that would be very interesting and very practitioner. So they do not forget to us!

That God multiplies the wisdom in each one of us, thus we will have a humanity with better sense of brotherhood. La Paz is with you dear brothers. Until a new opportunity, that passes it very well. Gonzalo
Average of ratings: -