[Vtigercrm-developers] A translation question (i18n)

[Prasad]

Hi Kristof,

This issues has been brought up earlier as well. To make the translation
clean up all-over the product it could
take more effort both in terms of development and validation. Currently we
are focusing on getting in new features
as we go along we can better plan for language cleanup's as well. This give
us more focused work items.

We would appreciate community help in identifying such language or
translation issues.

Regards,
Prasad

On 11/24/08, Kristóf KOVÁCS <kristof.kovacs at onlineprojects.hu> wrote:
>
> Hello Tigers,
> I was talking with Dávid of CafeOpen about vTiger translations, and there
> is one issue which my team often faces with, and this is word order. Let me
> illustrate it with an example (using German instead of Hungarian to make it
> more clear, but the concept is the same).
>
> For example, in ActivityEditView.tpl there is the following code:
>
> <input title="{$APP.LBL_ADD_NEW} {$APP.Contact}" .....
>
> And this shows a button called "Add Contact". It seems all well since
> "$APP.LBL_ADD_NEW" is "Add" and "$APP.Contact" is "Contact".
>
> But "Add Contact" in German is "Kontakt hinzufügen" (notice that the words
> are in a different order). Now we have a problem since "{$APP.LBL_ADD_NEW}
> {$APP.Contact}" can not be forced to display this, and saying "hinzufügen
> Kontakt" does not sound quite right (it sounds very bad indeed).
>
> Translation quirks can circumvent some of such problems (one could write
> "Neue Contact"), but often these strings are reused at other parts of the
> code, and fixing it in one place often destroys grammar at other places.
>
> One idea would be to use printf()-like format strings to correct such
> issues, even if it may require an introduction of a now Smarty function. I'm
> thinking along the lines of something like this:
>
> {a_smarty_printf_function
> $APP.ADD_NEW_SOMETHING_FORMATSTRING, $APP.LBL_ADD_NEW, $APP.Contact}
>
> Then, in english, the .lang file would read:
> [...]
> 'LBL_ADD_NEW' = 'Add',
> 'Contact' => 'Contact',
> 'ADD_NEW_SOMETHING_FORMATSTRING' => "'%s %s", // Very simple format string,
> no surprise here
> [...]
>
> And in german, it would be:
> [...]
> 'LBL_ADD_NEW' = 'Hinzufügen',
> 'Contact' => 'Kontakt',
> 'ADD_NEW_SOMETHING_FORMATSTRING' => "'%2$s %1$s", // Notice how I used "1$"
> and "2$" to access arguments in different order
> [...]
>
> I don't feel it elegant enough (but more elegant than the original), so
> comments, suggestions, ideas, better solutions are very much welcome. Please
> all brainstorm this ever the next coffee. :o)
>
> Kristóf
>
> _______________________________________________
> Reach hundreds of potential candidates - http://jobs.vtiger.com
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vtigercrm.com/pipermail/vtigercrm-developers/attachments/20081124/734cffa3/attachment-0003.html