[Xerte] Re: Multilanguage support

[Tom Reijnders]

In the end... yes. And I think I can manage (changing XMLEngine.swf), 
just was curious what is the best (most appropriate) way to do it, so 
that I can give it back to you guys.

Op 17-2-2011 13:43, Patrick Lockley schreef:
> Do you need to do both - as 2 sounds simple / currently possible.
>
> -----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 11:46
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: Multilanguage support
>
> 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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