How can i use 2 different languages

[marky9378]

Hi

This is a problem for a lot of actinic users having 2 or more languages this could be easily sorted if actinic made the buttons etc etc in css.

Actinic should be working on XHTML to have sites validate this is a must as the software is not cheap so the sites should validate even some free opensource scripts validate.

Come on actinic we need sites to validate through W3C standards.

Anyway theres me going on and on has anyone found a fix for this or as any plugins been made.

Thanks
Mark

[NormanRouxel]

lot, should (x2), must, need

What a lot of imperatives!

I think the majority of Actinic users would rather have features that help their customers buy things, rather than fulfil some quasi-religious need for 100% W3C validation.

Actinic uses some proprietary tags (used mainly by the Perl scripts) and these are unlikely to go away in v10 as it still uses Perl. Remember that a core capability of HTML is that browsers should simply ignore tags they don't recognise. Apart from these foibles it's pretty much valid.

As for multi lingual capabilities. Actinic isn't strong there. Changing the text on a handful of easy to see buttons is trivial. However there are over a thousand messages in Design / Text and translating that lot would be a huge job. Perhaps a more necessary one than a few easy to understand buttons as customers will typically see these messages when checking out or when errors occur. Definitely a time not to confuse or stress them.

I'm not aware of any plugins that help with multi lingual sites.

One way to go about this would be for someone to take the Demo site and completely re-do it into another language. Quite a big job but when saved as full Snapshot it could be used as the basis for building a fresh non-English site. A business opportunity, perhaps, if that "lot", really are out there.

[leehack]

This is a problem for a lot of actinic users having 2 or more languages this could be easily sorted if actinic made the buttons etc etc in css.

"A lot" = very few in reality.

Actinic should be working on XHTML to have sites validate this is a must as the software is not cheap so the sites should validate even some free opensource scripts validate.

I certainly hope they don't work on xhtml, it's being dropped from what i've read!

Come on actinic we need sites to validate through W3C standards.

Why do we? have sites been suffering for 10 years that don't pass then?

Did someone set you a challenge to pick 3 subjects that hardly anyone cares about and make a thread about them? You win hands down, i can't think of anything less important than these 3 items.

[Duncan Rounding]

...However there are over a thousand messages in Design / Text and translating that lot would be a huge job...

Indeed, in fact there are 1667 entries in the Checkout Prompt table alone, most of which contain some text in English that would need translating. Not to mention all the standard text within Actinic and of course all the perl script text that is not accessible except by directly ammending the scripts themselves.

Not a mean feat to do initially or to maintain in a number of languages.

The only way this could probably be done is with a rewrite of the perl scripts (perhaps to php?) and at the same time make all text available in the database. This would the open up the possibity of someone offering a translation service.

[PeterThake]

Multi Language

I think the number of Actinic users out there who would like a multi language version might surprise you. I make more sales to the EU than I do to the UK, and customers are continually asking me for a version of my web site in their own language. The UK is a small market compared to the EU. It would certainly near the top of my wish list!

[chris ashdown]

It is easy to assume that oversea's customers would prefer to see their own language and for some that most likely is the case, but with English the most used language to the educated world, then it probably makes little or no difference to sales except possibly France; and with some languages the interpretation from English to their language may be more confusing than having to use english

[Sean Williams]

I agree Peter - sorry Lee

It's a prime requirement for us too - a good 30% of our sales are to the EU.

One of the forum members has done this translation in French and German and offers the database for sale.

Is it bad netiquette to post his link here? Not sure ...

Anyway - pm me if you'd like his contact details.

[leehack]

People who need/want this will think the world do too. People who don't or designers who have seen 2 in 120 mention it, will assume it's a very low amount wanting it. I have one client with a multi-lingual site in 6 years.

The only real way to find out is to create a wish list and see the votes received, even if it received 150 votes, it would still bare into insignificance against user numbers, it's just not practical to develop for such small numbers and create such a beast to maintain.

Actinic is not the right product for multi lingual either, never has been and never will be as far as i am concerned. The whole architecture is wrong, multi lingual sites need to be online SQL database driven applications, not access desktop databases. A subaru impreza will never race in an F1 race, however much you will it on or want it to.

[PeterThake]

I would completely agree with you Chris, if it was not for the many requests I get for a French/German/Italian/Dutch version of my web site. It is the actual text of the product descriptions which they want, as well as the various Actinic prompts etc.

Maybe there are not many current Actinic users asking for multi language capability because anyone wanting this would not chose Actinic in the first place. With hindsight I wish it had been on my list of requirements. I think perhaps it is something you need more as your overseas sales grow.

Sean, it is interesting about the translation. But wouldn't this create new problems? If you had separate actinic instances of your web site in different languages, presumably hosted on different web servers using different domains appropriate to the target country, wouldn't keeping stock levels and site content across all the sites be a bit of a nightmare?. ie how could you run them in parallel?

[leehack]

Maybe there are not many current Actinic users asking for multi language capability because anyone wanting this would not chose Actinic in the first place. With hindsight I wish it had been on my list of requirements. I think perhaps it is something you need more as your overseas sales grow.

Sean, it is interesting about the translation. But wouldn't this create new problems? If you had separate actinic instances of your web site in different languages, presumably hosted on different web servers using different domains appropriate to the target country, wouldn't keeping stock levels and site content across all the sites be a bit of a nightmare?. ie how could you run them in parallel?

The above 2 paragraphs sum it up pretty much perfectly. It's not that people don't want multi-lingual, cos they do, but actinic site owners generally do not. It's a different kettle of fish and type of user. When you start to look at and need this type of function on an actinic site, you can be pretty sure you are nearing the capacity of what you are doing with what you currently have.

No unified order consolidation screen would be enough to make me feel sick, if all being run from the same office. 10 languages = 10 sites, 10 snapshots, 10 uploads, 10 download orders to name a few of the problems. Not realistic, practical or achieveable in the real world from one office, certainly achieveable from localised offices, although central stock control would be a nightmare and would have to be localised i fear (my client does this).

[Sean Williams]

I agree with you this time Lee - it IS a logistical nightmare and I think it just has to be database driven, so Actinic isn't the way to go.

Which brings the question - what is?

Please pm me if anyone has any ideas.

[PeterThake]

PM me too please!

[leehack]

I agree with you this time Lee

You turncoat you, .

[Sean Williams]

Rumbled

[Jan]

Don't know of a solution but do often get asked about multi lingual sites, it's definitely a requirement but I would say that less that 10% of Actinic sites would use it.