Interface improvements for the multilanguage interface

[michgagnon]

I'm not sure if it is feasible for this version or if it should be pushed to 1.7 or 2.0
Dialogs are generally sized OK for a single-language interface. However, when one uses a dual-language interface, there are two aspects that could be improved.

1. Define a primary language.
   If I create a bilingual gallery (French-English) that is used mostly by French speaking people, it would be nice to define the primary language as "French" and have title-links (and other automatically-created data) in French rather than in English.
2. Enlarge dialog boxes if there are more than one language (ideally according to the number of languages).
   For instance, in a bilingual Title Box, I see only 3 lines:
   – English (United States)
   – The English Title
   – French (France)
   It would be nice if the area were larger so I could see the second language too.
   Likewise, in a multi-line dialog such as "Contents", I see only one language at a time.

Alternatively, if the zone was a resizable area, I could enlarge it as necessary. Apart from visualizing quickly what's missing, it would help develop the content by seeing the source language and its translation at once.

[acrylian]

1.4.6 is closed for features already so this is for sometime later.

1. If you have multilingual enabled I think Zenphoto would use the language that is active for the user creating the item. As each user can have its own setting for that that would already be a primary language, wouldn't it?
2. There is cleary room for improvement. My idea was once to have individual tabs for each language content. While more space for one line like titles makes sense it requires really a lot of space. As the mobile web is becoming more important and the screen probably not that bigger that is probably not convenient. This is something to discuss when the planned reworking of the backend html etc starts hopefully sometime this year. I would prefer a simpler solution that more or less works for all sizes responsively (less maintainance…)

Resizable content would be nice, too. With tinymce3 that was a problem as it "takes over" the field but maybe with v4 it is easier.

[sbillard]

Database keys like "title-link" must be singular. They are not particularly language sensitive and are normally created from your title, so if you create the page in French it should use the French title to make the title-link. Unfortunately there is no way to provide an English version of that link.

In general Links to a unique point can have only one representation.

[acrylian]

The question was not about multilingual titlelinks but a definition of a default language to create it from. Which I think is actually already the language the user is currently using. Wouldn't it be confusing otherwise? I mean you set the admin to English and then get titlelinks based on French?

[michgagnon]

Acrylian nailed down the issue. For instance, I created a bilingual page with the following header "Committee members – Membres du comité" and I would have preferred to have a title "membres-du-comite", i.e. based on the language used by the majority of the readers. My gallery and user interface are in French and my browser is in French, yet the title-link was created in English. I am aware that in some circles it would create "sensitivity issues" where our readers would say that we haven't designed the interface in their language. It's a bit over the top, I know, but there is a certain historical base for that kind of paranoia, if I may use that word.

Right now, I am not totally sure, but I think that if one creates a page with a multi-lingual title, the title-link is created by the first language (s=1) that appears, which might mean alphabetical order (English, French, Spanish) or the order they were integrated in Zenphoto.

I discovered a workaround, which is to first create the page with only a French title, then click on Save, then add the rest of the information (English title, complete descriptions, etc.). It may not be elegant, but it works.

---

Regarding the size of dialog boxes to make it easier to create multi-lingual content, I'm not sure what is even the best strategy or if we even should optimize the back end for portable media. One idea I had was to open the second language in another window (not a fake popup that appears through Colorbox and prevents working on anything else, but a real window that could sit beside the main one, on a second screen, etc.).
The main window would have a button "Open this_language in a new window", and clearly all text fields would be displayed in the chosen language. When one would "close window and update contents", the text would fill in the blanks of the main window. From a user POV, I think it would be great. And it would also work well with 3 or 4 languages (create content in German, then have one person translate it in English, another one in French, etc.).
I think there should be a discussion on what are the ideal ways to input multilingual content

Finally, I am far from a programming expert (I know almost zero Javascript), but I see numerous programming challenges here. Which makes it important to take the time to find an approach that works for the users and the developers.

[acrylian]

To your workaround, you hopefully do know that you can edit the titlelink manually after you saved the first time?

I still think we should either use tabs or maybe an accordion (http://jqueryui.com/accordion/) for multilingual content so each language is separate and not so cluttered like it can be now. That would be mobile friendly as well, more than several pages opening.

In any case this is something for post 1.4.6. and best to be discussed with the reworking of the backend. If then it should be done then. Major task anyway.

The backend should be more mobile usable and the way for that is responsiveness. Unless someone has the time and motivation to maintain/create an extra solution like an app for that. That is where it goes and people do their photos with smartphones so they should be able to use it with those. (Sidenote; I am one of the rare people without any mobile phone :-))

[sbillard]

The default language is the one selected in the language drop-down. Unless HTTP_Accept _language is chosen, in which case it is the browser's choice of language.

The titlelink should be taken from the "locale" option which would normally be the current language. I will do some testing later today on this.

[sbillard]

Ok, I have just made the test and things work as expected:

Select French for the language on the general options page

Make a new page and set its title with both a French and an English title.

Save the page.

The titlelink is the French title.

You can also, of course, edit the titlelink or create a permalink of your choosing.

[edit]

With further testing: The selected language is always the first language shown in the list. I presume that is not the case for you.

[michgagnon]

@sbillard
I have changed the language from "HTTP-accept" to "French" (with allowed languages French, English, HTTP-accept) and will see what happens.

@acrylian

The accordion is clean, but has the following drawback: it would be impossible to read the description in two languages at the same time and make sure the contents is the same in 2 or 3 languages. To me, seeing two languages at once would be a major improvement.
Anyway, I had tagged it as an "enhancement" to foster some long-term discussion because I'm aware that we have to find something that feels intuitive and practical for most... and because there will be a significant amount of development behind it.

As for phone access, I admit I have a phone... for telephone uses only. But even my friends and colleagues who seem to use their phone 24 hours a day will send quick photo links to Instagram and Facebook while on the road, but will add a more complete description once they sit in front of a real computer with a real keyboard. One of them likes photography and I noticed that she uses Instagram, Twitter and to a lesser extent Facebook while on the road, but she only adds contents to her Flickr gallery when she sits at home (usually after cropping and improving her photos).

If I take this usage model, would people add photos to a gallery while on the road? Most likely especially if a special application sends them automatically to the gallery.
Would they add a basic comment? Maybe, and if so most likely in one language only.
Would they do major fine-tuning, including adding a second language, creating pages, etc. while on the road? I don't expect so that much; maybe on a tablet.

[acrylian]

The accordion is clean, but has the following drawback: it would be impossible to read the description in two languages at the same time and make sure the contents is the same in 2 or 3 languages. To me, seeing two languages at once would be a major improvement."

But given limited space even on desktop how would that work for text contents longer than a few lines? Take some of our tutorials. No way to get them all on one page conveniently.

I don't expect so that much; maybe on a tablet.

True but even tablets vary in size. But I agree that you can't have all on too small screens. Of course each uses those tools differently, I could not imagine to do that on a tiny screen, too. I mean now we are glad we have the big ones (Remember the 15 inch one with 256 colors ;-)) and now it gets even smaller :-)

[sbillard]

You can also set the define for DEBUG_LOCALE to true to see what is being selected and why.

[reine-k]

Hi, just my 2 cents about the dialog boxes / input elements for multilingual content:
I understand that it may be difficult to present 2 languages side by side (especially on mobiles) but I think that is something I would like to have, mostly for longer texts (picture comments, and even more Pages or News articles), because I would like to have the reference text + the translation I'm working on side by side (for reference, copy-paste of images or links, ...). Maybe on mobile it could degrade to reference below or above in-work-translation; or somehow you would be able to easily/quickly swipe to and fro between both versions.
For short elements like title, the chosen interface (in rows like now, in tabs, side-by-side, ...) is less critical. However the current interface is indeed rather impractical, as you see the different language versions like through a narrow "window" / "slit" (that you cannot re-dimension)...
As for the accordion, it's neat but from my point of view not adapted, if I understand correctly that only one section can be open at a time. It could be OK (especially for short texts, and for narrow screens) if you could choose to open several sections.

[acrylian]

This will be reworked on that bigger release I mentioned on the forum. However it will still not be possible to view two languages at the same time.

[reine-k]

OK, I'll wait and see then :)