Multilingual Content

Multilingual Content

by Chris Mavrogiorgos -
Number of replies: 20

Hi everyone,

i am new in using Moodle. Is it possible to add multilingual content iin Moodle.

If i need a site in Greek, English and French is there a way to add the categories, courses description, tiles etc in the above 3 languages

If there is a thread that explains that please reply

Thanks in advance

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In reply to Chris Mavrogiorgos

Re: Multilingual Content

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
Hi Chris,

Yes it is indeed possible. Have a look at the Documentation, here: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Multi_language_content

Good luck with Moodle
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In reply to Nicolas Martignoni

Re: Multilingual Content

by Paul Trouw -

Hi,

I have read your thread and the New multilang syntax. But I don't understand how you can add different resources into a course depending on the language. So for instance if you log on in English you will get a resource link to an English powerpoint, but if you log on in French you should get a description and link to a French tranlated powerpoint.

How to solve this?

Another related question is, I have to do this for 23 languages (yes!), any idea what performance would be like, using a this multilang filter and analyzing those span tags?

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In reply to Paul Trouw

Re: Multilingual Content

by Joseph Rézeau -
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Paul > So for instance if you log on in English you will get a resource link to an English powerpoint, but if you log on in French you should get a description and link to a French tranlated powerpoint.

I'm afraid you are setting your level of expectation much too high...wink

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In reply to Paul Trouw

Re: Multilingual Content

by Séverin TERRIER -
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Hi,

i really think that having a single course translated to so much different languages wont be practical (for you to make up and update) at all sad

You should better consider making one course per language, and think at the best solution to move users to the good one (perhaps with a multilang link)...

Hope this helps
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In reply to Paul Trouw

Re: Multilingual Content

by Nicolas Martignoni -
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As Joseph implied it, this functionality is not (yet?) implemented in Moodle.

For a simpler solution, see Séverin's answer.

I've no experience about the performance of the multilang filter with so much languages. With three languages, I can't feel any slowness added.
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In reply to Paul Trouw

Re: Multilingual Content

by Gordon Bateson -
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> How to solve this?

As others have pointed out, you cannot currently do what you want to do as elegantly as you want to do it.

However, I think it is can be done if the link from the course page takes the students to a html-resource page which offers the students a link to the powerpoint demonstration in ther preferred language.

More precise instructions follow:
  1. add a "webpage" resource to the course
  2. use a multilingual content in the "name":

    <span lang="en" class="multilang">The title</span><span lang="fr" class="multilang">Le titre</span>

  3. you can also multi-lingual content in the summary (if necessary, click the ed_html.gif icon to switch the HTML editor into source-code mode):

    <span lang="en" class="multilang">The summary</span>
    <span lang="fr" class="multilang">Le résumé</span>

  4. in the main text of the resource, use multilingual content to offer the student a link to the powerpoint document in their preferred language (if necessary, click the ed_html.gif icon to switch the HTML editor into source-code mode):

    <span lang="en" class="multilang"><a href="english.ppt">Click here to view the powerpoint file</a></span>
    <span lang="fr" class="multilang"><a href="francais.ppt">Cliquez ici pour voir le fichier</a>/span>

Notes:
  • you may have to specify the links to the powerpoint files as absolute URLs: e.g. http://myserver.com/moodle/files.php/99/english.ppt

  • having added the links to the content of the resource, you could add some javascript to redirect the students automatically to the presentation:

    <script type="text/javascript">
    <![CDATA[
    window.location='<span lang="en" class="multilang">english.ppt</span><span lang="fr" class="multilang">francais.ppt</span>';
    //]]>
    </script>
all the best
Gordon

P.S. Please excuse errors in my schoolboy French.
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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Multilingual Content

by Gordon Bateson -
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Sorry the editor timed out before I was able to add the greek, but hopefully you can see what you would need to do. The language code for greek is "el". If you need more information, don't hesiate to ask.
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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Multilingual Content

by Paul Trouw -

Hi Gordon,

Thx, this was also the direction I was thinking of. One more question, how would I do this for a quiz?

In the same manner, develop first the different quiz language versions and then figure out the right url and put this on the specfic country webpage?

regards Paul

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In reply to Paul Trouw

Re: Multilingual Content

by Gordon Bateson -
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> how would I do this for a quiz ...
> develop first the different quiz language versions and then
> figure out the right url and put this on the specfic country webpage?

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. There is an important difference between a PowerPoint presentation sitting in the Files area, and a Moodle Quiz. The difference is that the PowerPoint file may be accessible via a direct link to the Files area, but have no link to it from the course page. On the other hand a Quiz must exist and be visible on the course page for students to be able to access it.

Therefore, to do what you are proposing, you would have to first create all the quizzes and make them available from somewhere on the course page, and then you would create a resource with links to the quizzes. I don't think you would like all those unnecessary links to quizzes on your course page, and they would probably confuse your students - especially if you are aiming to do this in 23 languages and have several quizzes surprise

Perhaps it is possible to use multi-language content within quiz questions? If so, that would probably be your best approach.

cheers
Gordon
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In reply to Gordon Bateson

Re: Multilingual Content

by Anthony Helm -
We are running a new installation of 1.9.2 but have encountered a problem with the multi-language filter. Specifically, we tag the content as described above and in the documentation[<span lang="XX" class="multilang">], and indeed, when the page loads, content tagged with a language other than "en" is hidden. However, when we click a link to display the "es" or "fr" text, nothing changes. The English span text continues to be the only one displayed.

Moreover, clicking the "es" or "fr" link, subsequently changes the environment language into the target language! Shouldn't the behavior be page specific?

Any suggestions? Thank you.

Cheers,
Anthony


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In reply to Paul Trouw

Re: Multilingual Content

by Michael Penney -
We're working on a custom module for this, for the Cisco Institute of Entrepreneurship project - it displays content based on the user's language settings and lets you manage translations centrally. We'll be talking about it at the San Francisco Moodle Moot. We use a filter for displaying translated content in quizzes, etc. (anywhere where filters can be entered).
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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Multilingual Content

by Big Faced Boy -
This would be a very welcome addition and something that could really make my life easier and create a seamless, integrated experience for all of my European users. I look forward to seeing it implemented!
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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Multilingual Content

by Wonton Sopabuena -

Hello everyone!

After the Moodle Moot, is there any new about this multilingual module? is there any beta version?is there any date for a 1.0 version?

I would be very interested in this module, as a lot of people, I guess.

Thank you very much.

Potter

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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Multilingual Content

by Rebecca Cuevas -

Hi Michael (and anyone else that can address this):
I've tried the code snippet for multi-language entry for English and Arabic.. it works fine when I first input the Arabic, but the Arabic text either fails to show up at all, or reverts to question marks, once I update the resource or view it in another window.

Is there any way to get Arabic text to remain Arabic text, directly in Moodle? It would be so helpful (I'm creating a language course) to be able to input vocabulary words directly AS text, etc. So far my only workaround is to create all Arabic text as graphics, which a) is time consuming and b) is not very accessible.

If you can help me do this you will really make my day.

Many thanks in advance for your support and guidance,

Rebecca Cuevas

Instructional Technology Masters Degree Program

California State University, San  Bernardino

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In reply to Rebecca Cuevas

Re: Multilingual Content

by Daren Afshar -
Rebecca,

Did you ever find a fix for the issue you raised?
We're trying to input Japanese directly into the WYSIWYG editor and get ???? just like you did.
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In reply to Rebecca Cuevas

Re: Multilingual Content

by arturo dominguez -

Hi Rebeca

I wonder if you solved your problem, because I have the same one but with spanish anf japanese.

regards

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In reply to Chris Mavrogiorgos

Multilingual Content for a Resource name?

by Andy Lieberman -

Hi,

I am using Moodle 1.9 and was able to create a multilingual resource page using the <span> tags as described here (thanks!)

I have a few resources that display on the front page main menu that I want to be multilingual.  So, I can make the web pages themselves multilingual, but, it appears that there is no way to make the resource "name" field multilingual. 

The problem, then, is that the main menu remains in English, although the content changes.  Can anyone tell me if there is an easy fix that I have missed?

If not, could someone give some general pointers as to the feasibility and steps of doing this as part of a custom menu block that we may want to write anyway?

Thanks in advance!  Andy

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In reply to Andy Lieberman

Re: Multilingual Content for a Resource name?

by Jacques Monnard -
Hi Andy,

I just tested it on our Moodle 1.9 installation, and multilingual resource names do work. Assuming your resource names use the correct multilang syntax (<span...), you must also enable filtering for all strings under "Administration/Modules/Filters/Manage Filters/Filter all strings".

Jacques


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In reply to Jacques Monnard

Re: Multilingual Content for a Resource name?

by Andy Lieberman -

Thanks Jacques!  I hadn't seen that option.  It works now.

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