Re: [Koha-devel] Templates internationalisation

[paul POULAIN]

Jerome Vizcaino wrote:

> Hi
>
> This mail contains a modification we made to make Koha template
> translation a lot more easier.
> Here is the idea :
> We created a table in Koha named opac_text containing three field 
> 	- id : the identifier of the text
>         - lang : corresponding language
>         - label : the text to be used
>
> Using the Label.pm, we use a gettexttemplate to get the label
> corresponding to the requested id. This way, with only one .tmpl file,
> unlimited languages are available without any changes in the .tmpl file.
>
> To prove this trick is usable and not so hard to implement we've
> attached 4 files : Label.pm, opac-detail.pl, opac-detail.tmpl and
> opac_text.sql.
>
> Here is how to test it :
>
> 1 - Create the table containing the labels : 
> 	mysql -u root -p < opac_text.sql
>
> 2 - Copy the Label.pm in the C4 module directory
>
> 3 - Copy opac-detail.pl to the opac/ cgi-bin directory
>
> 4 - Copy opac-detail.tmpl to the opac/htdocs/opac-tmpl/default/en
> directory. Make a link to this file in the
> opac/htdocs/opac-tmpl/default/fr so that no physical duplication is
> needed. This way changing the opaclanguages preference will still use
> the generic template.
>
> Now try and search a book and click on one of the result to show the
> details. If you're using either 'en' or 'fr' opaclanguages option.
> Changing the preference will change the language in the display.
>
> For sure, it requires a little more cpu to display the page but with a
> PII 350 (our test machine) no noticable slow down was reported.
>
> Using a system like the authorised value builder, creation of new
> languages would be made easier.
>
> We need some feedback on this please :)
>  
2 coders remarks :
* the replace should be done IN the gettemplate_and_user sub.
* the replace should use a loop and not a loonnggg list of 
tmpl->param("TEXT_*" => somevalue)

What i think nice :
* 100% compatible with present templates. If the table is empty, no 
diff, and no perf problem.

What i don't find nice :
* the idea of generic template only is to risky, imho. For many reasons. 
But what is nice is that the gettemplate_and_user auto selects the en 
template if the prefered language does not exists. So, for templates 
that can stay 100% language independant, no need for a link => just 
don't create a fr copy of the template.

Questions :
* does the table be theme independant ? I think yes. This reinforce my 
opinion to use this trick only for generic texts, like "logged in as" or 
"subtitle".

conclusion : this is a nice proposal, if we keep it only for "standard" 
words/expressions. Otherwise, the table will be too hard to maintain, 
and the problem with templates will be splitted in 1 pl script, 1 tmpl 
file, 1 DB table. Too much imho to be maintainable.

PS : in label.pm, it's better to return "unknown label id $id" than 
"unknown label id".

--
Paul POULAIN
Consultant indépendant en logiciels libres
responsable francophone de koha (SIGB libre http://www.koha-fr.org)