xLanguage (Wordpress Plugin)
Monday, January 21st, 2008
同類比較
Compare to qTranslate v2.0.2 (Jan 2009)
The logic behind qTranslate is similar to that of xLanguage - both using HTML tag to differentiate the contents of languages and requires no database modification. qTranslate uses HTML comment tag while xLanguage uses the lang=”..” attribute.
The major differences lie within the admin interface, qTranslate provides strong Admin UI integration such that user enters the title, the category name and so on in independent textbox. The post is also to be post to an independent editor. While xLanguage, user enters the data in the same input box. For authoring in language that are very similar (like Cantonese and Written Chinese), and that cross-authoring is common, the method that xLanguage use will reduce much duplication work.
Due to the above restriction, qTranslate supports only one-to-one mapping between authoring and viewable lanugage. while xLanguage does not have this restriction. And hence, xLanguage allows all texts to be presented under one single URL for search engine to crawl with. (Think of SEO)
Feature-wise, xLanguage currently lacks of Pre-domain URL Permalinks mode, as well as automatic MO file download. (Note: MO does work in xLanguage but just have to be downloaded manually). Contribution would certainly help in accelerate these getting done :).
Compare to Gengo v2.5.3 (Jan 2009)
Gengo v2.5.3 is not tested with Wordpress 2.7 according to the published plugin info.
In Gengo, each translations is a standalone post, linked to the original post. It enables you to create maps between different content. Think of different language version of Wikipedia, basically Gengo is the same - and it helps you to maintain such link table.
In xLanguage, everything is in the same post. The xLanguage approaches make no structural changes to the WordPress itself, and hence should be easier maintain. No extra magic in xLanguage is needed to keep the commenting, searching, popularity counter works.
Compare to Language Switcher v1.11 (Jan 2008)
This is actually the plugin that inspired me to build the xLanguage. The Language Switcher and the xLanguage is working in a very similar way — Both enable multilingual post by tagging the it. The Language Switcher uses square bracket instead of HTML tag, but have no assisting tools when composing the post. The language code is limited to the length of 2, and offer no overlapping possibility. Same as xLanguage, it allows user to enable multilingual functionality on single line content like tag, title and such.
Compare to jLanguage v1.4 (Jan 2008)
Almost the same as Language Switcher, both functionality and working principle. However, jLanguage v1.4 does not have widget for user to select their favorite language. In addition, It currently offer almost no customization, plus it does not work for single line content. The language selection could not affect the MO file selection.
It enables the language tagging by using square brakets instead of standard tag, similar to that of Language Switcher.
Compare to Multilingual post v0.2 (Jan 2008)
Please be aware that Multilingual post v0.2 does not belong to this category at all. It does not enable poster to published mixed language in a post. The user also cannot selectively view the post in a particular language.
It only does insert the lang=”..” tag at the HEAD such that browser can render the page better. xLanguage also does this.
Compare to Bunny’s Language Linker v0.2 (Jan 2008)
Bunny’s Language Linker’s way to enable multilanguage blog is minimal and simple, yet the integration is very loose. It works like Gengo, the pros and cons compare to xLanguage is very similar.
Compare to Basic Bilingual v0.31 (Jan 2008)
Basic Bilingual v0.31 allows you to insert a summaries in a different language. It is yet another very simple plugin.
中文
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January 8th, 2009 at 1:35
Hi Raúl. No there is no way to remove /lang/ yet, but this is surely one of the most popular requests and I am listening.
Category and tag: use the single line mode, like how you write post title. that is, separated by |. Use single line mode on the “Name”, while keeping using simple english for the “Slug”. For posting under new tag, please tag your post with a correct slug first then go back to the management interface to modify the name into multilanguages.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:27
Hi Sam!
First off all, regards for the plugin.
I’m trying to get rid easily from that ugly “/lang/” in the permalinks. Can you help?
Also I’ve found nothing in the usage guide refering to categories or tags. How can i define the language for those?
Many thanks in advance and best regards.
PS.: Don’t you have a forum or something where to support?
January 7th, 2009 at 7:20
Hello Dear Sam,
Please don’t forget about me… I’m still struggling with the _ES -es thing (see comment #348 above). Is there something I can do to help solving this? I’ve seen some people having the same problem.
THANKS A MILLION!
January 7th, 2009 at 5:57
Hi Sam,
I’ve noticed a problem after upgrading to WP 2.7 and unfortunately xLanguage 2.0.1 doesn’t solve it: on my blog front page I have links to the various language versions (<a href=”/lang/en”> et cetera) and clicking them now says 404 not found!
A workaround was to go to xLanguage’s preferences and change permalink style from prefixing to postfixing. For me it’s not really a big issue. However, due to the warning about postfixing not working with paged comments and other plugins, and because other users upgrading will likely see this I thought you would like to know..
January 7th, 2009 at 4:50
Ooops, writing my mail and seeing your mail again I figured out that I have to rename my files to de-de.png, de-de-active.png sorry etc. now it works thanks!
January 7th, 2009 at 4:45
Hi Sam,
well for example the german flag is here: http://www.yogie.de/wp-content/themes/yogie-mod/view/xlanguage/images/de.png and there is also de-active.png, en.png and en-active.png.
In my settings I use de-de and en-us as locale codes…
How should the permissions of the images look like?
January 7th, 2009 at 4:23
Andy: sorry I (half accidentally half intentionally) changed the default template.
Please use the old template to restore the previous look and feel.
The template of the previous version could be downloaded at http://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/xlanguage/tags/1.3.3/view/xlanguage
Put it (other_post_lang.php) into /wp-content/themes/_YOUR_THEME_/view/language (create the folder as needed)
Louis: Removing the /lang/ this is not possible just yet. Stay tuned.
Yogie: Please do me a flavor in checking a few things. 1. The filename is correct, “xx” is corresponding to your language code, and it is CASE Sensitive. 2. The files are uploaded with correct permission. For example, here is my files structure under /themes/.
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images/en-active.png
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images/en.png
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images/zh-active.png
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images/zh-hk.png
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images/zh.png
hellosam1/view/xlanguage/images/zh-hk-active.png
January 6th, 2009 at 23:26
Hello,
First, thanks for for this good and really extensive plugin !
I’d like to know how I can delete le word “lang” in my url,
to have this
http://www.example.com/fr/date/post
instead of this
http://www.example.com/lang/fr/date/post
Thanks
January 6th, 2009 at 22:38
Well to me simply adding the xx.png and xx-active.png files will not work
I added them into /wp-content/themes/”mytheme”/view/xlanguage/images/ and also into the plugin folder - No Success!
January 6th, 2009 at 21:48
Hi again.
I have had a bit of time to re-read your new instructions for installation and have discovered that I had to recreate the view/images folder inside my theme. This now works to show the flags (but the flags only) whereas before it showed “[flag] Other language name” etc.
Where can I add the code so I can show the language name and the flag?
thanks,
Andy