Request for input: multilingual support and OJS/OCS

[Charles.Vincent]

Hi,
We've just started the Abstracts submission process usisn the latest version of OCS.

The main language of the Conference is currently set to English, but we also accept submissions in Spanish and Portuguese.

However, there is a setting in the system that forces a Portuguese or Spanish user to submit an english version.

Is there any way of not forcing a submission to be made in English, also ?

This is pretty urgent, since we're receiving many complaints from worldwide users !

Thanks,

Charles C Vincent
SIGraDi 2009 - http://www.mackenzie.br/sigradi.html

[jmacgreg]

Hi Charles,

We've had a few requests for this kind of functionality, and just a couple of days ago I posted a bug report for it: http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4144. Please feel free to CC yourself to that report for future updates. I don't know if this issue will receive attention in the very near future or not -- but If you are in an especially dire situation and are able to work on the problem yourself for the time being, we can certainly provide assistance.

Cheers,
James

[Charles.Vincent]

OK, Thank you.

Charles

[Charles.Vincent]

Oh! I just read the Bug report, and I guess I've got an alternative and paliative idea.

Can the page be redesigned to ressemble the equivalent page in Open Journal System ?

In OJS, author/submit, the user is presented to n languages abstract submission fields,
making it a more straightforward process.

I tried editing the OCS Abstracts submission page myself, to no avail.

Can it be done ?

Thanks again,

Charles

[jmacgreg]

Hi Charles,

Which version of OJS are you using? More recent versions of OJS work exactly the same as OCS, and the behaviour which you point out in viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4113&p=15909#p15909 has been fazed out. (Err, and apologies for missing that previous thread -- it slipped through somehow.) The graceful handling of multiple locales has been an ongoing discussion in our group, and we're happy to hear any ideas from the community. Our main concern about the way we used to do things (ie. all locale fields displayed by default) is that some pages can quickly become unweildy and somewhat confusing for users, especially with large text fields present. I wonder if the solution might be some simple AJAX -- if multi-locale fields could be 'collapsed' by default to show the default locale to fill in, but expandable to show all possible locales by the click of a button/link. This would be a separate issue from Bug 4144, but related. What do you think?

Cheers,
James

[Charles.Vincent]

Hi, James.

I did't know that this behaviour had changed, because we're still using the previous release (not sure which one, maybe 2.1 ? ? ).
The Ajax alternative, i.e. collapsing fields might be a pretty good solution indeed.

Meanwhile, do you think there would be any way to revert this specific page to the former behaviour, i.e. multiple language fields displayed concurrently ?



Let me bring up another subject.
A fellow of mine who's running OCS for a Conference in Mexico has had the same problems I had with the spanish locales.

He's probably a better option for translating the locales and correcting my own translations, so I'm copying our communications.
You can contact him directly, perhaps.
His name is Fernando Maldonado, and his email is
fernando@pumas.iingen.unam.mx

Best regards,

Charles

Quote:
Dear Fernando,

first of all, I'm really sorry for answering your message in English.
In fact, my spanish is pretty bad, as you can see from some of the translations I've done for our site !

Well, I solved some of the translations problems in two different ways:

1. I opened the locale files in our OCS installation, and made some of the translations directly on the files.
2. I asked for help at the PKP (Public Knowledge Project) Forum, and James McGregor allowed me to use their site to complete some of the translations.

I'm copying this message for him, so perhaps you can have the same access I had, complete the translations and maybe correct some of my own translations.

I just hoe all goes well with your conference.
Just let me know if I can help you any further.

Best regards,

Charles C Vincent
SIGraDi 2009 - Local Organizing Committee
http://www.mackenzie.br/sigradi.html

[jmacgreg]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the email, and your related commentary. I don't believe there is any way to easily revert to the way things were -- the change to the current methodology was extensive and far-reaching -- although I will ask the developers if there may be a display workaround. One warning: the workaround would involve editing all templates that include multilingual support, which wouldn't be trivial.

I will also send off an email to Fernando -- many thanks for his contact info! I'll CC you.

On a further note: I've renamed and stickied the thread so that it will serve as a request for input. As I said previously, this issue has come up before, and we'd like to provide a solution that works for as many people as possible. We would like to solicit as much commentary as possible before reimplementing multilingual form support, as the work will be extensive and we'd rather not refactor again if possible.

Right now the idea that seems to be gaining the most traction is to reimplement the form switcher as an AJAX-enabled toggle per field, while also expanding the check that ensures mandatory data is filled in across all locales (ie., so that no one locale will be a 'default' locale). Commentary on these proposed solutions, and other possible solutions, are most welcome.

Cheers,
James

[Charles.Vincent]

Well, I guess the solution you're seeking might be wise.

I'd add an administrator control which would permit the manual setting of which languages are mandatory or not; such a control would ideally allow a 'no mandatory language'

I've been trying to reconstruct the submission step2 template, using as a base the 2.0 version of OJS step2 template, but the variables are rather different and I coudn't find their equivalents in OCS (title + locale, title + 2nd locale, etc. )

Charles

[rufusbecker]

Hello all,

I appreciate the complexities of this issue - mandatory title and abstract fields in the language of the locale. We are having a number of French authors submitting who are running up against this issue. Perhaps the language/instructions on the forms could be clarified so those submitting could be instructed to switch the form language to the prime language, fill in mandatory fields in English (or whichever), and then proceed.

[jmacgreg]

Hi rufusbecker,

That's not a bad idea, and one I've contemplated on and off again. We've recently begun implementing a new multilingual spec, which will include ways for users to see which fields are multilingual, and will include, I believe, more clear indications on how to switch between input locales. I'm not sure when this will be fully implemented -- parts of the spec will be implemented in the upcoming release of OJS, while other parts may wait for the next version. In the meantime, you can always edit the locale files and/or template files to add the text you want.

Cheers,
James

[mendesrocha]

Hi,

I have an issue related to multilingual conference in OCS.

The Director of my conference wants to change something in the submission process. He doesn't like the way authors have to submit the metadata in different language. Last conference lots of authors didn't see the pull-down box to change the form language.

He is asking me if it is possible to the author fill language in a different page. For instance, first the author fills in Portuguese, than he is moved to a different page where the author fillls in another language (In our case Spanish or English).

Do you have any suggestions?

[mendesrocha]

Is it possible to turn multilingual metadata (in two or more languages) requeried fields?

[asmecher]

Hi Renato,

This would be a code modification. The metadata form is implemented in classes/submission/form/MetadataForm.inc.php; similarly, the author's submission form for the metadata page is in classes/author/form/submit/AuthorSubmitStep3Form.inc.php. You'll see several calls to the "addCheck" function; this is used to add requirements to the form that it must pass before it can be submitted. You'll probably need to use a FormValidatorCustom; search the code for other examples of this.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team