Adding Language options for Members

[Ronaldo Richieri]

I was looking a way to let the members of my network choose their preferred language. I searched the forums but there was nothing like this on Ning. So I decided to do my way. It wasn't easy, but here how it was:

BE CAREFUL! DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

1 - First, you DON'T need the source code of your network :-)

2 - Then you need one or two free hours to do the work.

3 - Now, create a new profile Question to your network (Manage -> Profile Questions). I called "Preferred Language". It must be a multiple choice question. So you need to write the Choices you want to be available to your network's members. In my network, I put these:
Português (Brasil),English (U.S.),Español (España),Français

Of course the choices must be comma separeted.


4 - After that, you need to edit your own profile and answer this new question. After this, your user object has a new attribute. You need to check this at your content manager because we need to know what is the name of the attribute created. I don't know other way to do this but going to content manager:
http://YOURNETWORK.ning.com/xn/ningbar.php/helpers/contentManager.php

5 - Search for your user object, and you will se a new attribute at the last lines probably. Some thing like "my.xg_profiles_answer_q14" and the value you selected when you fill your new profile.. something like "English (U.S.)" ou "Potuguês (Brasil)"

Well the important for us is the "my.xg_profiles_answer_q20". It can be different on your network ok?

6 - Now, you need to edit the index.php of your network (BE CAREFUL!!!). Access the following link:
http://www.ning.com/home/apps/edit?appUrl=yournetworkname
Find your index.php and click on it

Here is the content of my index.php:

<?php
define('NF_APP_BASE',dirname(__FILE__));

//Hacking starts
try{
if(XN_Profile::current()->isLoggedIn()){
$query =XN_Query::create('Content')
->filter( 'type', 'eic', 'User')
->filter( 'owner' )
->filter( 'contributor', '=', XN_Profile::current() );
$mylocale = $query->uniqueResult();

//Português (Brasil),English (U.S.),Español (España),Français
$languages = array('Português (Brasil)' => 'pt_BR',
'English (U.S.)' => 'en_US',
'Español (España)'=>'es_ES',
'Français'=>'fr_CA');
if ($mylocale->my->xg_profiles_answer_q14){
$locale = $languages[$mylocale->my->xg_profiles_answer_q14];
define('XG_LOCALE', $locale);
}
}
/*End of work around */

} catch (MyException $e) {
echo 'oi';
//nothing to do ;)
}

//Hacking finishs

require_once NF_APP_BASE . '/lib/index.php';



Here we have some important notes:

a) Make $languages array in accordance with the options of language you will provide on your network.. The firs column of this array, should have the same values of the profile question you've created, in other words, "Português (Brasil)", "English (U.S.)", etc.
The second column should have the correspondent code for this language: pt_BR, en_US and so on...

b) Replace the "xg_profiles_answer_q14" with name of the attribute you collected at the step 5.

That's it. Now, take a deep breath and make a test.

Hope it works for you :-) fell free to contact me.

[Laurens Laudowicz]

hey

what about the language feature...is there an update...does it work flawless now?

[Ronaldo Richieri]

I think you did not read the comments. Ning have changed the way they worked, and they have disabled the option to edit files, so this Hack is not working anymore ok?

[Moataz]

Hey Mr. Ronaldo,

I try it but the my index.php not found, please help me to find it and edit.
Thanks in advance,
Moataz

[Ronaldo Richieri]

no :-(

[mirage]

Hi Ronaldo,

Please any update on it...??

[Ronaldo Richieri]

pois é, parece uma nova politica, tenho impressão que eles fizeram isso pra ter um modelo de negócios mais interessante (pra eles) ..rs.. Mas não sei ao certo, o que sei é que não tem mais código fonte disponível para alterar. Os hacks que já haviam sido feitos nas redes antigas continuam funcionando, mas não dá pra modificar ou adicionanr hacks em outras redes. Infelizmente, e eu também achei meio absurdo...

[Nayse Lopez]

saquei. mas porque noa é mais possivel mexer no index.php (absurdo) ou porque o novo update mexeu da confg e o hack nao roda? estou deixando messages em todos as discussoes e ja mandei requests para o carinhas do ning. é o fim da picada nao ter essa funcionalidade para uma rede que quer ser mundial. Fui na rede teste que vc linkou e a troca de idiomas funionou, quando eu me inscrevi. Ou seja, o hack funciona ainda, certo?

[Ronaldo Richieri]

Olá Nayse. Nenhuma notícia, parece que daqui pra frente tudo que se desejar desenvolver, qualquer aplicação, tem que ser no padrão OpenSocial. Como não conheço, não sei se é possível desenvolver uma funcionalidade como esta dentro do OpenSocial :-( Desculpe!

[Nayse Lopez]

OI Ronaldo, alguma noticia do acesso ao php? estou colocando no ar uma rede biligue portugues e espanhol e precisoooooo deste hack. mas nao consigo acessar mais o php. tentei pelo ultimo caminho que vc tinha dado (http://www.ning.com/home/apps/edit?appUrl=yournetworkname) mas agora aparecem mapping urls. tem como aplicar o hack assim? socorro.

[mirage]

hi ronaldo

as i have tried to edit the php but DB2Admin is right i can't edit it...

can you tell me how can i edit it even there is one button to edit it after clicking it jsut it shows


Pattern
/xn/detail/([^\?]+)(?:\?(.*))?

Target (then in text field )

/index.php/main/index/detail?id=$1&$2

so please can you guide us how to do it

looking forward for your prompt reply or action

regards,

mirage