[Phpgroupware-developers] to all devel's and translators: Format of the lang-phrases in phpgw

[Ralf Becker]

Hi devels and translators,

some talks with gugux and skwashd have been starting the discussion 
which forms the lang-phrases (textual string send to the lang function 
in the phpgw sources) should have:

The actual sources show two forms:
a) 'User x wants x from you!!!' and in phpgw_en.lang: User x wants x from you!!!	app	en 
User %1 wants %2 from you!!!
b) 'User %1 wants %2 from you!!!' and in phpgw_en.lang: User %1 wants %2 
from you!!!	app	en	User %1 wants %2 from you!!!

Both forms work in most cases, but there are a few problems with a) 
(using the x's):
1) if there is no translation in a selected language for a phrase like 
the example in a) you will get the message: 'User x wants x from 
you!!!*' and not just the correct english version with a '*'. That can 
make a uncomplete translation (which unfortunally most are) unusable.
2) the developer_tools app, which gather the phrases automaticaly from 
the code, generate a lang-file with %'s (same is true for the eTemplates)

Specialy because of 1) I would strongly suggest to use only the form b) 
(the %'s) in the source.

If we going to change the existing code to only one form it should be 
form b). I think that is a good think, but it is an enormous task, as it 
requires to change all lang-files to not run in to probs like 1). 
Because of that, I think, it should not be done in the stable branch, 
but in HEAD. This has to do with the fact, that changed or added phrases 
are not automaticaly put into effect after a cvs update (you have to 
manually run setup/language management and for changed phrases even with 
the setting 'delete all and insert new ones').

Please comment on this (even if you just want to agree).

Ralf

PS.: For the translators not familiar with the developer_tools, the 
easiesed way to make the translations, a few points how to uses them:
- yes they work again in HEAD since yesterday
- after selecting 'Language file management' and the app, you might want 
to first complete the phrases of the english lang-file (if the devel 
forgots to put the new ones in): this is done with the 'Search for 
missing phrases' (dont bother with the error messages, they are normal), 
if there are new ones (after going 'Back') use 'Write to lang table' to 
get them to youre db without going through setup
- select your target languages now (and click submit)
- you will see all the missing phrases of your language and can enter 
them now
- to save your changes you have to click 'Update' (!), (evtl. 'Write to 
lang table' see above) and at the end download the new target language file

Hope that makes the appreciated job of you translators a bit easier :-)

--
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Ralf Becker
OUTDOOR UNLIMITED Training GmbH                Telefon 0631 / 31657-0
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