Changing Interface Language

Changing Interface Language

by Jayne Abrate -
Number of replies: 13

I recently installed Moodle 2.5 and have begun to create a course with activities in/for French.  I would like to have the interface be in French, but I haven't gotten that to happen.  I have downloaded the French language pack and manually installed it.   It appears in the as English (fr) rather than Français.   English (en) and English (fr) appear on the language menu.   It doesn't matter what I select, the interface is always in English.   On my colleague's older version moodle site, the languages appear as English and Français.   

I've looked at the FAQ and have unchecked the autodetect language from browser option.  I don't know what to try next.  All my course content is in French.  Should I have set the language before creating any content?   Any direction you can give would be appreciated.  For now, I'll live with it like it is.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jayne Abrate

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Robert Brenstein -
You should not install languages manually. There is an interface to do it in Moodle (in site administration).
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Robert Brenstein

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Jayne Abrate -

I had no choice but to install them manually.   The Language Import Utility page has this message at the top: "Because Moodle can not connect to "site", we are unable to do language pack installation automatically. Please download the appropriate zip file(s) from "site", copy them to your "lang" directory and unzip them manually."

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jayne Abrate

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Robert Brenstein -
That message indicates that your Moodle has no Internet access. If that is by design, that is, for example, you are inside a corporate firewall which allows no traffic to open Internet, you must indeed install manually. Otherwise, you should check into fixing the Internet access problem. Future updates will be easier if you run directly.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Robert Brenstein

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Jayne Abrate -

Moodle is loaded directly to my host site server.  There is no firewall.   There is no proxy.

In exploring in the various settings I found something highlighted in yellow.   "The xmlrpc extension is needed for hub communication, and useful for web services and Moodle networking"

In exploring this with the host server, this was listed in their moodle installation instructions as a problem that might appear during installation but which could be ignore and would not impede Moodle's functioning.  

Is the problem, and should I look into resolving it on the server.

Thanks.

PS.  I am not a programmer and am figuring this out as I go along.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jayne Abrate

Re: Changing Interface Language

by David Mudrák -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Have you purged all caches after installing the new language? See Settings > Site administration > Development > Purge all caches

If you use the in-built language pack installator mentioned by Robert above, the relevant caches are purged automatically.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Jayne Abrate -

As I posted above, the Language Import Utility page will not let me install any language packs automatically.  That option is not there.  There is a message that says I must do it manually.  

This morning, I uninstalled the French language pack, deleted it from the directory, and cleared the cache.  I verified that it had been removed from the list(s) in moodle.   I deleted all the downloads and started everything from scratch.   I downloaded the new French language pack, uploaded it to the right directory and unzipped it, then started my moodle page.  It appeared again as "English (fr)" rather than "Français" which I think is what should appear.   It shows in the selection menu, and despite the fact that I have picked it everywhere possible (even in my own profile), the interface is still in English.   I cleared the cache several times, before, during, and after this process, to no avail.  

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jayne Abrate

Re: Changing Interface Language

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
The label "English (fr)" instead of "Français" suggest you didn't download the correct package.

Could you describe where you've downloaded the lang pack?

Here's a direct link to the correct package: http://download.moodle.org/download.php/langpack/2.5/fr.zip.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Nicolas Martignoni

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Jayne Abrate -

I uninstalled the fr.zip pack that I had previously installed, although I think it was the right one, and installed one from the link above.  No change.

My server permissions are set at 775.  I saw in the config.php file 777 so I changed that to 775.   Still no difference.

Can anyone give me suggestion of where to look for what might be causing (1) the message in the Language Utility "unable to connect to moodle..." which requires me to install the language pack manually and (2) why the language pack does not appear to install correctly when I do it manually.

 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jayne Abrate

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Éva Rácz -

Hi,

My problem is not the same as Jayne's, but I think it might belong under this heading.

Our Moodle page was originally only in Hungarian and recently we added some material in English, as well as the choice to choose between English and Hungarian at the front page.

Everything works fine except that in Navigation block > Site pages, I have not been able to revert the Hungarian text "Portálhírek" to English "Site news". I have checked that /moodle/lang/en/moodle.php still contains 

 

 

$string['sitenews'] = 'Site news';

and I don't know where to look for the source of this behavior. We have been tinkering around with the PHP code when customizing the site a year ago, so my guess is that the problem is probably caused by that. But now I don't know what file to look for.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Eva

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Éva Rácz

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Éva Rácz -

Resolved: I only had to change the forum title to use the multilang filter.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Éva Rácz

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Gyorgy Szentgyorgyi -

Hi Éva,

A week ago I installed a new 2.6 and I experience the same problem on thee front page. The "Site news" label  is stuck there in English no matter which language is selected. What's more I changed the "Site news" string in the English language pack and nothing happened. So I do not think it is caused by tampering the code because I have a brand new site. (I've been running Moddle sites for 10 years or so) That may be some problem with the core theme because it stubbornly stays. So I have just started playing with this and I found  your post.

I am a very keen member of LPA (Lazy Programmers Association) smile so I'd like to know whether you have found any solution to this problem before immersing in it too deep.

 

Thanks:

Gyuri

 

 

 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Gyorgy Szentgyorgyi

Re: Changing Interface Language

by David Mudrák -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
I guess the reason here is that the string's value is used only when the forum is actually created during the site installation. Once that is done, it behaves as an ordinary forum with the name "Site news". So, as said above, you have to use the multilang filter.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Changing Interface Language

by Gyorgy Szentgyorgyi -

Hi David,

Thanks for the answer. I got the idea now and I have never needed  this multilang filter before.  And it works like a charm!!

Gyorgy

Average of ratings: -