Rails - Jan 2009 - Multiple versions of a site (different languages)

I''ve got a nice little site running which I rather like. All''s
running
tickety boo (the site is English language). It has a rudimentary CMS
with it, basically I have a page model such that Page.name and Page.body
exist. I simply allow the user to enter the page name and body and I
throw the content onto various pages around the site. As I say works
well.

Next feature - I''d like to do the site in French, German and Spanish as
well.

So.. my plan is this...

Just update the page model to include Page.name Page.body AND
Page.bodyFrench, Page.bodyGerman, Page.bodySpanish.

I''d then update my admin views to show text areas for all the new
languages and allow the user to update them all, that''d work fine I
think.

How do I implement this though from a browser perspective?

I''d like to put a challenge on the front page of the asking for which
language the user wants the site. Maybe flags int he time honoured sense
or whatever.

Thing is though, How do I store this information so that my app knows
which page to display for this user. I;ve heard of Sessions? but
haven''t
used them yet, is that how to do it, any tips or code fragment to get me
started would be grately apprecaited. wer wer

cheers,

bb
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On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 6:24 AM, bingo bob
<rails-mailing-list-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> So.. my plan is this...
>
> Just update the page model to include Page.name Page.body AND
> Page.bodyFrench, Page.bodyGerman, Page.bodySpanish.
I think most people who''ve done something like this would agree that
it''s preferable to add a ''language'' or
''locale'' field to the DB, and keep a
single Page.body column.
> I''d like to put a challenge on the front page of the asking for
which
> language the user wants the site. Maybe flags int he time honoured sense
> or whatever.
No, not flags -- what flag would you use for English? Spanish?
What language would you be referring to with the Swiss flag?

There isn''t remotely a mapping of languages <--> countries. Use
the language name directly.
> Thing is though, How do I store this information so that my app knows
> which page to display for this user. I;ve heard of Sessions? but
haven''t
> used them yet, is that how to do it, any tips or code fragment to get me
> started would be grately apprecaited. wer wer
Yes, you would want to store the user preference in the session.  I''m
sure a quick google on "rails session" will turn up lots of examples.

And of course reading the ActionController::SessionManagement
doc is a good idea :-)

HTH,
-- 
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------
hassan.schroeder-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org

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If you''re going to have mulitple languages for a page then
you''d best
do a little bit of database normalisation otherwise you''ll end up with
pageBodyFrench, pageBodyItalian, pageBodyGreek, pageBodySwahili etc

You have a model called Language

iso_language_code (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes)
language_name

Then you have your Page
page_name_etc

Then you have a many to many model PageLanguageBodyText

language_id
page_id
body_text

Then

Class Language << ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :page_language_body_texts
has_and_belongs_to_many :pages, :through=>:page_language_body_text
end

Class Page << ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :page_language_body_texts
has_and_belongs_to_many :languages, :through=>:page_language_body_text
end

If the linking table had only the foreign keys required for joining
the other two tables then there would be no need for a model, you''d
just create the migration. But in this case you do have extra
information so you have to have a model to access that information
hence

Class PageLanguageBodyText << ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :page
belongs_to :language
end

You''d need to tidy up the names a bit.

You''d then have to modify your CMS to allow you to edit the page body
text inside the form for your page, even though it''s now been split
out to its own model.

Cheers


John Small


On Jan 2, 2:24 pm, bingo bob
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> I''ve got a nice little site running which I rather like.
All''s running
> tickety boo (the site is English language). It has a rudimentary CMS
> with it, basically I have a page model such that Page.name and Page.body
> exist. I simply allow the user to enter the page name and body and I
> throw the content onto various pages around the site. As I say works
> well.
>
> Next feature - I''d like to do the site in French, German and
Spanish as
> well.
>
> So.. my plan is this...
>
> Just update the page model to include Page.name Page.body AND
> Page.bodyFrench, Page.bodyGerman, Page.bodySpanish.
>
> I''d then update my admin views to show text areas for all the new
> languages and allow the user to update them all, that''d work fine
I
> think.
>
> How do I implement this though from a browser perspective?
>
> I''d like to put a challenge on the front page of the asking for
which
> language the user wants the site. Maybe flags int he time honoured sense
> or whatever.
>
> Thing is though, How do I store this information so that my app knows
> which page to display for this user. I;ve heard of Sessions? but
haven''t
> used them yet, is that how to do it, any tips or code fragment to get me
> started would be grately apprecaited. wer wer
>
> cheers,
>
> bb
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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You might want to have a look at the data model we use in zena (http://
zenadmin.org/en/documentation/list333.html), the translated texts are
stored in the "versions" table. The table also stores current
publications along with redactions and old texts.

We do not store language preferences in a session but use a prefix on
urls "/en/..." or "/fr/..." so that cached content is served
correctly
for each language choice.

Gaspard

On 2 jan, 21:42, JDS no spam
<jds...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> If you''re going to have mulitple languages for a page then
you''d best
> do a little bit of database normalisation otherwise you''ll end up
with
> pageBodyFrench, pageBodyItalian, pageBodyGreek, pageBodySwahili etc
>
> You have a model called Language
>
> iso_language_code (seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes)
> language_name
>
> Then you have your Page
> page_name_etc
>
> Then you have a many to many model PageLanguageBodyText
>
> language_id
> page_id
> body_text
>
> Then
>
> Class Language << ActiveRecord::Base
> has_many :page_language_body_texts
> has_and_belongs_to_many :pages, :through=>:page_language_body_text
> end
>
> Class Page << ActiveRecord::Base
> has_many :page_language_body_texts
> has_and_belongs_to_many :languages, :through=>:page_language_body_text
> end
>
> If the linking table had only the foreign keys required for joining
> the other two tables then there would be no need for a model,
you''d
> just create the migration. But in this case you do have extra
> information so you have to have a model to access that information
> hence
>
> Class PageLanguageBodyText << ActiveRecord::Base
> belongs_to :page
> belongs_to :language
> end
>
> You''d need to tidy up the names a bit.
>
> You''d then have to modify your CMS to allow you to edit the page
body
> text inside the form for your page, even though it''s now been
split
> out to its own model.
>
> Cheers
>
> John Small
>
> On Jan 2, 2:24 pm, bingo bob
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> > I''ve got a nice little site running which I rather like.
All''s running
> > tickety boo (the site is English language). It has a rudimentary CMS
> > with it, basically I have a page model such that Page.name and
Page.body
> > exist. I simply allow the user to enter the page name and body and I
> > throw the content onto various pages around the site. As I say works
> > well.
>
> > Next feature - I''d like to do the site in French, German and
Spanish as
> > well.
>
> > So.. my plan is this...
>
> > Just update the page model to include Page.name Page.body AND
> > Page.bodyFrench, Page.bodyGerman, Page.bodySpanish.
>
> > I''d then update my admin views to show text areas for all the
new
> > languages and allow the user to update them all, that''d work
fine I
> > think.
>
> > How do I implement this though from a browser perspective?
>
> > I''d like to put a challenge on the front page of the asking
for which
> > language the user wants the site. Maybe flags int he time honoured
sense
> > or whatever.
>
> > Thing is though, How do I store this information so that my app knows
> > which page to display for this user. I;ve heard of Sessions? but
haven''t
> > used them yet, is that how to do it, any tips or code fragment to get
me
> > started would be grately apprecaited. wer wer
>
> > cheers,
>
> > bb
> > --
> > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 12:53 PM, Gaspard Bucher
<gaspard-BovxrB3DcW8@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> We do not store language preferences in a session but use a prefix on
> urls "/en/..." or "/fr/..." so that cached content is
served correctly
> for each language choice.
Was caching the only reason for taking that approach, or were there
other considerations?

Just curious :-)
-- 
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------
hassan.schroeder-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org

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Hi Bingo Bob,

from a browsers perspective you''Re better off not showing a page where
people pick the language... they made that decision a while ago when
they bought their machine, OS and webbrowser.

what you want to do it use the HTTP Headers you can get which language
the users perfer to have their content in.... in case of doubt present
a default version in the language you want to serve by default and let
them change language easily (that''s called content negociation).

Here''s a link to the small language selector controller I use when I
need that (it uses Gloc to determine if the sites accepts such
language):
http://demo.m2i3.com/source/ror/locale_selector_controller.rb

then I make my routes to include the language at its soo and localize
the who url (so different pages with different langauges are indexed
properly).

Hope this helps

Jean-Marc
http://m2i3.com/


On Jan 2, 9:24 am, bingo bob
<rails-mailing-l...-ARtvInVfO7ksV2N9l4h3zg@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> I''ve got a nice little site running which I rather like.
All''s running
> tickety boo (the site is English language). It has a rudimentary CMS
> with it, basically I have a page model such that Page.name and Page.body
> exist. I simply allow the user to enter the page name and body and I
> throw the content onto various pages around the site. As I say works
> well.
>
> Next feature - I''d like to do the site in French, German and
Spanish as
> well.
>
> So.. my plan is this...
>
> Just update the page model to include Page.name Page.body AND
> Page.bodyFrench, Page.bodyGerman, Page.bodySpanish.
>
> I''d then update my admin views to show text areas for all the new
> languages and allow the user to update them all, that''d work fine
I
> think.
>
> How do I implement this though from a browser perspective?
>
> I''d like to put a challenge on the front page of the asking for
which
> language the user wants the site. Maybe flags int he time honoured sense
> or whatever.
>
> Thing is though, How do I store this information so that my app knows
> which page to display for this user. I;ve heard of Sessions? but
haven''t
> used them yet, is that how to do it, any tips or code fragment to get me
> started would be grately apprecaited. wer wer
>
> cheers,
>
> bb
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.
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