Help files in localised language pack

Help files in localised language pack

by Terry Wade -
Number of replies: 6

I am customising version 1.6.3+ and have created a localised version of en_utf8 in my moodledata/lang/en_utf8_local folder. This all works fine so far with locally customised strings being used where they are defined in the local pack.

But - I can't find a way to get localised help files working. If I put them in my local moodledata/lang/en_utf8_local/help they are not found. The problem seems to be that help.php is looking up the current language and getting 'en_utf8'  - as that is what is loaded, and goes looking in the 'moodle/lang/en_utf8' folder. Should the system be checking first to see if there is an 'en_utf8_local' folder and setting the operating language to that instead of 'en_utf8'? 

Also been looking at the problem with editing the help files through the admin/language interface (local or normal moodle/lang/en_utf8/help). I get the message that in order to edit these files I need to have the lang pack in my moodledata/lang folder. On looking at the code I see that in langdoc.php around line 51 it says:

$langdir = "CFG->dataroot/lang/$currentlang";

where $currentlang is 'en_utf8'. As the help files are under either 'moodle/lang/en_utf8' or 'moodledata/lang/en_utf8_local' the system has no chance of finding them for editing??

I've had a good look around these forums but can't find much on localised help files - so am in need of some help on this one.

Thanks

Terry Wade

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In reply to Terry Wade

Re: Help files in localised language pack

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
Hi Terry.

Unfortunately, you are right sad. Current (1.7) help.php does not use _local lang packs and admin/langdoc.php tool is missing "switch to _local" feature. Thus you are not able to display or create local modifications of help files.

I have reported this as improvement requests MDL-8089 and MDL-8090 and assigned them to myself. I will look at it during next week.

Thank you for your post.
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In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Help files in localised language pack

by David Mudrák -
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MDL-8089 should be quite easy to implement. Please, edit your help.php according to the patch published in the bug tracker. Then copy modified help files into lang/en_utf8_local/help in your datadir. Please, let me know how it works.
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Re: Help files in localised language pack

by David Mudrák -
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The patch implementing MDL-8089 is now commited in HEAD (rev 1.36)
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In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Help files in localised language pack

by Terry Wade -

Hi David,

Thanks for taking this one on - I'm still working in 1.6.3+ (very localised version so we won't be moving to a later base for a while). I'll have a go at patching my version and see what happens.

I ended up with a workaround by creating a 'new' language pack rather than a localised version of en_utf8 - worked fine except that I was caught out at first by the 10 char limit on the language pack name when recorded in the database table.

Might take a little while before I can test it out though - I'll let you know

Thanks again

Terry

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In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Help files in localised language pack

by Gisela Hillenbrand -
Picture of Documentation writers
Hi David,

I had the same problem as Terry.
So I implemented your patch MDL-8089. It works fine if in the course settings no language is forced. It doesn't work if a language is selected in the course settings. So it seems that your patch must also be added in the else branch. I tried the following code and it worked:

// Get the list of parent languages.
if (empty($forcelang)) {
$langs = array(current_language(),
get_string('parentlanguage'), 'en_utf8'); // Fallback
+ // _local language packs take precedence
+ $xlangs = array();
+ foreach ($langs as $lang) {
+ $xlangs[] = $lang . '_local';
+ $xlangs[] = $lang;
+ }
+ $langs = $xlangs;
+ unset($xlangs);
} else {
$langs = array($forcelang);
+ $xlangs = array();
+ foreach ($langs as $lang) {
+ $xlangs[] = $lang . '_local';
+ $xlangs[] = $lang;
+ }
+ $langs = $xlangs;
+ unset($xlangs);
}

Sorry, I don't get the code formatted better.

Could you please check this.

Gisela

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In reply to Gisela Hillenbrand

Re: Help files in localised language pack

by David Mudrák -
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Thank you, Gisela. I have modified your patch a bit in order not to use the same code in both branches. So the "_local" additions are made just after the "if forcelang" statement. Committed in 1.38
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