Unfortunately, I am sad to admit that it is very hard to get the extension, which completely and easily can be translated into another language. As you know, not everyone speaks English. Anyone who has ever tried to translate component or module between two different languages will understand the problems associated with language translation.
Of course now is much better, also thanks to the automatic translators like Google Translator or others commercial products. However, the output generated by such software is still far from decent. Unfortunately, most translation software in the market today still cannot accurately obtain the semantic meaning of a sentence. We still have to make smart guesses just to make out what the translated text is trying to say. Then there are mistakes made by developers when creating the language files. In a word, it is still not easy to translate to someone extension, not only for the CMS Joomla.
Do not change the fact, despite the availability of tools, explaining that developers often make it difficult for us translators life. As if completely forgetting about the use of the following code:
<?php echo JText::_('NAME OF PHRASE');?>
…in every place where they use English (or other) equivalent.
As if this were not enough, some programmers use various ways to create a language file, so in addition to the popular and recommended plików.ini are created. php files, or other inventions. Sometimes a large part of the linguistic phrase is placed in a database upon installation of the component, which, unfortunately, generally precludes the ability to translate these sentences.
I also wonder why not every company in the same way webdevelopers describes changes in the language files, because some new words / sentences writes below, the other pasting them in the previous phrase, not writing about it, so that with each new version, I have to start over again searching, like in cartoon.
Of course, sometimes the problem of translation may also arise from:
- Dialect terms and neologisms
- Unexplained acronyms and abbreviations
- Unreasonably jargon
- Certain abbreviations
- Limited space in the layout for certain word (labels words like: edit, copy, insert etc.).
Show me what you can and what can not be done
Fortunately, there are methods to make your life easier and show the customer what you can, and will be very difficult to translate the fault of the programmer or web developer of the foreign company. Thus, it suffices to use a simple trick: temporarily rename: /language folder – to another, thus, instead of phrases in Polish, English and others see a BIG LETTERS, now you’re able to assess what elements are in the language files, and to be search elsewhere such as in the control panel component / module or Unfortunately, in the database.
Differences in Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6 language files
# $Id: en-GB.mod_search.ini 11391 2009-01-04 13:35:50Z ian $
# Joomla! 1.5 Project
# Note : All ini files need to be saved as UTF-8 - No BOM
BOX WIDTH=Box Width
BUTTON POSITION=Button Position
BUTTON TEXT=Button Text
DISPLAY A SEARCH BUTTON=Display a Search Button
Joomla! 1.6 :
; $Id: en-GB.mod_search.ini 20196 2011-01-09 02:40:25Z ian $
; Joomla! 1.6 Project
; Note : All ini files need to be saved as UTF-8 - No BOM
MOD_SEARCH="Search"
MOD_SEARCH_FIELD_BOXWIDTH_DESC="Size of the search text box in characters"
MOD_SEARCH_FIELD_BOXWIDTH_LABEL="Box Width"
MOD_SEARCH_FIELD_BUTTON_DESC="Display a Search Button"
MOD_SEARCH_FIELD_BUTTON_LABEL="Search Button"
As you can see, he changed the sign denoting the comments (from # to ;), and JC added quotes to translated phrases. This change applies to all language files, including third-party extensions.