[Xerte] Re: Multilanguage support

[Tom Reijnders]

There are two different situations:
1. Using the LO
Preferably, choice of language.... So you would have to do something to 
choose the initial language, and probably fiddle with/change the player 
to add the possibility to change the language. Correct?
2. Create the LO
I think you have to decide upfront which language you are going to work 
on. Different languages are in fact completely different LO's (only 
related by file names).

Tom

Op 17-2-2011 12:24, Patrick Lockley schreef:
> As for toolkits - the issue would be choosing which version - do you need to give people a choice of language. Or could you just have distinct learning objects?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Tom Reijnders
> Sent: 17 February 2011 11:10
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: [Xerte] Multilanguage support
>
> I guess this is more of an architectural question than a how to. I send
> it to the list because perhaps more people are interested in the subject.
>
> I have a request to be able to make multi language learning objects,
> i.e. preferably by specifying a locale in the URL to choose the initial
> language, and a drop down list to select one of the available languages.
> At the moment I am looking at the standalone Xerte 2. environment. As
> far as I can tell, there are four different parts of the Xerte system
> that are involved:
>
> 1. The player (either custom, or the default player)
> 2. The templates
> 3. The content (of the templates)
> 4. Xerte itself (the authoring environment)
>
> First thoughts:
> 1. The default player
>    - Create a resource file per language that contains all the names of
> the text items in the user interface, like the labels in the drop down
> lists and the texts of the TTS system.
>    - Another solution would be to load a different player per language.
> The most flexible solution, but a maintenance nightmare.
>    So lets look at the first solution:
>    * Questions
>    Q1. What format to make the 'resource' file?
>    A1. Probably XML.
>    Q2. What to do about texts within buttons?
>    A2.a. Remove them and replace them with text strings as much as
> possible (Don't know how).
>    A2.b Add buttons for each language in the library
>
> 2. The templates
>    - Just create a template for each language and encode the language in
> the template file name.
>    - Create template 'resource' files.
>    I think I would prefer the first solution, because it would give you
> more flexibility (at the cost of maintainability). But, primarily, it
> doesn't require any changes on the authoring tools (for the time being).
>
> 3. The content.
> If you select a different template file per language, you can make sure
> that the content of each template is written to a different XML file.
> Drawback is that you have to fill in the template a number of times in
> disjunct sessions. (No quick switching of languages)
>
> 4. Also given the choice of a separate template file per language,
> nothing has to change on the Xerte side of things. As an author, you
> will be responsible of the correct naming of the files.
>
> How will this fit in with Xerte Toolkits? (I would suspect that it will
> be nice fit, because the only thing that has to be adapted is the
> player, but I have not enough of a clear picture of the authoring side
> of things). And last but not least, how will this fit in with Xerte 3
> (or the Xerte 3 plans).
>
> Any comments, any thoughts?
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom
>
>    

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Tom Reijnders
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