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Basic Language Knowledge
XOOPS comes with a default English language installed.
XOOPS can per default be set to one language, although the XOOPS Multilanguages Hack does allow your users to switch between more than one language. It is, though, still a hack! http://dev.xoops.org/modules/xfmod/forum/forum.php?forum_id=268 Editing Language files and _CHARSET
When editing a language file, it is very important to make sure your text editor opens/saves the file in the character set specified in the main language file: /language/<your language>/global.php
The line (currently 195) looks like this: define('_CHARSET', 'ISO-8859-1'); This is the charset that the browser is going to render this language in, so make sure to edit all language files in this charset!
NOTE: Loading just one page in a wrong CHARSET can mess up the complete rendering of your page/site! _LANGCODE definition.
In the global.php file of the language, there is a _LANGCODE definition (currently on line 196). This is inserted in the page header, and tells indexing robots (like Google) what language the page is in. If you want to make sure your pages is choosen when users speficy to only search for pages in a given language, then make sure the _LANGCODE is set correct.
Module Language knowledge
Each module comes with a full set of definition in the English language.
Additional translations are (should be?) released separately. The reason for this is that it is easier to maintain the integrity and completeness of the various language files, and for users it's easier to see which translations are available for each module. For language files for a module, the same kind of naming convention is used as for file releases:
XOOPS2_lang_modulename_version.number_language.extension
Thus, the Dutch language for the mylinks module would (could) be named: XOOPS2_lang_mylinks_1.1_dutch.zip
Follow these simple rules and it will make it easier to organise your module collections and languages.
