Language Matrix

[iceat]

Here's the module I promised a while ago

Language Matrix can generate a language menu based on the relations you create among your webpages. Documentation on my website is in Dutch at the moment but i'll take care of an english version later on this week. Both English and Dutch translations are included in the module.

How does it work:

Install both the backend and the frontend.

You'll find the backend in the admin tools.

1. Create the root of each of your languages on level 0 (as explained in the official WebsiteBaker documentation for multilingual sites)

2. Open the backend and add the languages (choose the root page and the startpage for each language, the name of the language will be the text of the link in the menu)

3. As you add languages you'll see the matrix-table grow

4. Create relations in the matrix. (when switching to another language on a page with no relation, you'll be redirected automatically to the startpage (chosen when you added the language))

5. Create your template  in the template section.

Template for a link:

Code:

[LINK_X][LANG_X][/LINK]

(instead of the X, type the number of your language starting by 0, eg:

Code:

[LINK_0][LANG_0][/LINK]

-> this will create the link to the first language).

You can change the order of the languages like this:

Code:

[LINK_0][LANG_0][/LINK] -  [LINK_2][LANG_2][/LINK] - [LINK_1][LANG_1][/LINK]

Here's how you can use images:

Code:

[LINK_0]<img src='[LANG_0]' />[/LINK]

The frontend is a code snippet. Use this code to call the menu in your template:

Code:

<?php language_menu(); ?>

You can download it here:
http://www.medialoft.be/pages/nl/technische-support/downloads/language-matrix.php

Don't forget to give feedback!

[Vincent]

Beautifully made, iceat.
Don't know if I'll use it, but it can be useful if for sites where you'd want to refer to a specific page in another language. 

It would be nice to see the parent/child relation in the dropdown list under 'startpagina' - in stead of the alphabetical order.

Regards,
Vincent

[iceat]

great idea, i'll add it to the roadmap thx!

[iceat]

One of the users reported a small bug, some relations were not shown correctly in the backend. This is fixed now. You can find v1.1 here:

http://www.medialoft.be/pages/nl/technische-support/downloads/language-matrix.php

[iceat]

For those who don't understand what this module is for and how it works:

Let's say you have the following structure in your website:

- Dutch
  - Page 1
  - Page 2
English
  - Page 3
  - Page 4

When you switch language (eg. english to dutch) on 'Page 4' you should end up on 'Page 2'. But the WebsiteBaker doesn't know this so you'll probably always end up on 'Dutch' or 'Page1' (according to your fixed script).

Language Matrix is an interface wherein you can create relations between different pages (eg. Page4 is connected to Page2). So if you switch from English to Dutch on 'Page 4', you'll end up on 'Page 2'.

[crnogorac081]

OMG thanks for tip, i was wondering/looking for demo for this )) this is great

[iceat]

I've made an important adjustment to the frontend. Now it uses 'PAGES_DIRECTORY' instead of  '/pages' to build his urls.

Enjoy!

http://www.medialoft.be/pages/nl/technische-support/downloads/language-matrix.php

[Stefek]

Hello Iceat,

I tried this module out and I like this Idea (and the look&feel of your modules).
Unfortunatly I didn't get it to work.

Install and everything seems to work correctly.
But there is something wrong with the functionality of the links in the frontend, I think.

Kind regards,
Stefek

Please keep on your promising works for WB CMS

[iceat]

If you send me the url of your site, i'll take a look at it.

thx for the compliments!

[Stefek]

Dear Iceat.

Nevermind.
I did it the "traditional" way this time.

What about a small howto for this Module?

One thing which mostly confused me was the fact, that you are using the "menu titles" instead of "page titles".
If you have, for example, in both languages the page "info", "news" etc. you will find yourself in troble.
For you do not know which item to choose.
So "page titles" were the better choice.
And I would like to see page_id number in brackets behind the "page title" like:
info (7)
news (8 )
info (15)
news (16)

What do you think?

Kind regards,
Stefek

[wizz]

Hi there,


I like this feature very much, thanks for the great effort!

One detail could perhaps make things more clearly on the backend, and that's the use of little stripes in front of the directory name to show the level of the page. (Just like the "parent" dropdown under the "pages" tab)




Just my 2 cents.

[D72]

In the include.php file of language output, on line 49 is a little html "bug"

Code:

$link = "<a href='".$linkhref."' class='".$cssclass."'>";

This line need to be changed into the line below.

Code:

$link = "<a href=\"".$linkhref."\" class=\"".$cssclass."\">";

The output renders:

Code:

<a href='http://www.site.com/pages/page.php' class='langnormal'>

Which should be:

Code:

<a href="http://www.site.com/pages/page.php" class="langnormal">

It's not that important for most people, but i like to have valid xhtml templates and the markup validation will not succeed with the first line of code.

[jugeh]

Hello iceat,

I have a problem with lm in wb2.7 and 2.8.

If I have more than 2 languages the links of the language menu are shifted by one position to the right.
e.g. German - English - French - Italian. If i click Italian the English menu points to the German page, the French points to English a.s.o.

Can be seen on http://waruwora.org/de/home.php

Please help

[jugeh]

Hello,

I found that $currentpage in the function getlink in include.php is giving wrong values but my php knowledge is to poor to solve the problem.

Perhaps an expert can show me the right way.

Please help.
jugeh

[FrankH]

Perhaps an expert can show me the right way.

Try this one, much easier to use and less overhead:
http://www.websitebakers.com/pages/code-snippets/various/easy-multilanguage-link.php

[jugeh]

I try to avoid kernel patches and language matrix is much more end-userfriendly.

Nevertheless thanks for the tip.

[FrankH]

language matrix is much more end-userfriendly.

Sure not. What makes you thinking this?

[jugeh]

Because I have one page with all relations and every possible link is in a drop-down list.

jugeh

[lausianne]

Hi,

http://www.medialoft.be/pages/nl/technische-support/downloads/language-matrix.php

is currently offline. Is there another source for the file somewhere, or would someone be so kind to send me the file?

Thanks!

Cheers, Ralf.

[crnogorac081]

Hi,

this is really an outdated script, I personaly use: Easy multilanguage link: http://www.websitebakers.com/pages/code-snippets/various/easy-multilanguage-link.php

you can try with it

cheers

[lausianne]

Thanks. Doesn't run with 2.8.1. I checked other options, finally found out that 2.8.2 is coming out very soon. 2.8.2 has multilanguage built in. So I'm going to go with that.

Cheers, Ralf.

[Luisehahne]

. 2.8.2 has multilanguage built in.

INFO: 2.8.2 is prepaired for multilanguage!

I will be going to put the snippet here. It's running with WB 2.8.1 from revision 1304 and higher.

Dietmar