Multilingual forum messages

[Geraint]

I am developing bilingual community websites (English and Welsh).  For those who don't know, Welsh is a minority language in the UK and everyone who speaks Welsh is fluent (or close to) in English too.  Within Wales though, there are many adults learning Welsh and many institutions that provide bilingual information to the public.  For example teachers at Welsh language schools often translate communications into English for the benefit of non-welsh speaking parents although their primary communication language would be Welsh.

I therefore had a need for a fully bilingual forum.  In other words where those who are inclined to, can translate their postings for the benefit of learners, or to allow readers to read the message in the language of their choice.

I have been able to achieve this in 4.5.2 with mambelfish and simpleboard by eliminating entirely the assumption that the primary key in a relevant DB table is called "id" and trivial changes to simpleboard. 

This type of functionality may be enabled naturally by the next generations of joomlafish/simpleboard.  If not, and there is interest in this type of functionality then I'll post the required patches in the appropriate forum (assuming it is still possible to implement).

Geraint

p.s. Once Joomlaforge is up and running and I'll see if my generic primary key name fix is needed or is compatible with the CVS version of joomlafish.

[cmhwebster]

Hi Geraint,

I am a complete Mambo newbie, but I am trying to find out how to build a site with bilingual content in English and Welsh (fairly simple i.e. only need to switch content language initially, not so bothered about Mambo labels etc).  Can you offer any advice e.g.

How do I "install" Welsh as a language in Mambo?
Any particular issues with Mambelfish and Welsh?
Any other tips?

Thanks for any information you can provide!

Chris

[Geraint]

Y ffordd hawddaf i gychwyn ydi

• copio language/english.* i language/cymraeg.* ac yna dechrau cyfieithu y termau i'r raddau sydd ei wirioneddol angen.
• yn mambelfish mae'n rhaid ychwanegu'r gymraeg trwy'r "language configuration" - bydd angen baner y ddraig goch

Mae âêîôûŵy yn medru bod yn broblem - mae'r rhaid defnyddio'r côd ascii ar adegau.

Pob hwyl

Geraint

[cmhwebster]

Diolch, Geraint!

Chris

[cmhwebster]

P.S.  Mae rhywun arall yn chwillio help gyda safle Cymraeg:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,5962.0.html

Efallai bydd angen creu grwp-defnyddwyr Cymraeg i Joomla?

Chris

[cmhwebster]

Just in case anybody else is looking for Welsh language files, here's a project somebody told me about: 

http://mamboforge.net/projects/welsh/

Haven't tried it out yet though.

Chris

[Geraint]

I just realised I should have kept to English in this forum  .

Geraint

p.s. I've requested a Welsh forum in the International Zone.  It may be quiet but at least we can post in Welsh to cover complexities like how to deal with mutations!