Going Global

[Ted Cohn]

We're wondering how difficult it would be to let users choose what language they prefer to use when they sign up or login, perhaps a setting, versus the site administrator setting a single site-wide language. We're getting so much international traffic, but don't want to create a site per language. Anyone have thoughts about this?

[Phil McT]

Ted,

A couple of things upfront:

1) This might be fairly major surgery (or light surgery to a critical part of the app)

2) I've seen this asked-for in the past so it may be on Ning's roadmap to do anyway.

3) Would the non-English-speaking users (assuming your main language is English for a second) find enough value in the site even if they couldn't read the English text content (i.e. blogs, forums)? Just something to think about.

Having said that...I think the area to check out is /lib/XG_App.php - there's some code in there for setting the locale. If you over-ride that logic, you may be able to get this to work.

[Ted Cohn]

Right, I think the biggest concern about this is user experience. Will users be turned off by content that is not in their language. Certainly the case for a "walled garden" approach. This balances against our desire to keep to one site to maintain rather than many. Also, there is real value to our members being able to make international contacts through one site.

I think an answer is to develop a secondary user switch that filters content by geography or language (probably language). This would require that all content be "tagged" with a language code. This would prevent Chinese from mixing with English, say, unless specifically desired by the user. Not simple surgery indeed, but an update to every query in the app.

This is not the highest priority on our road map, but an important one since we have such a global audience.

[Steve Lewis]

This is a high priority feature for me. In fact it would have me creating and implementing a whole slew of apps to meet the needs of a mixed mono/bilingual English/Japanese community in which I live and work. (I'd also spend the time to put together the Japanese language translation which is currently missing from the list).

There are some people in my community who can cope with a menu set in English and add content in Japanese, fewer who could cope with the opposite. But I want to attract the mono-lingual members and neither an English language site-wide setting, nor a Japanese one serves this need.

Currently I can cobble together something using a mixture of Google's and other supplier offerings, but there's nothing out there, that I know of, that combines the feature set so suited to my needs as ning.

[Daniel Leuck]

Yes! This is a very high priority feature for us as well.

[Ricardo Lima]

This is a good example about what all ning needs: http://en.netlog.com/go/developer/documentation/article=opensocialt...

We can have that?

Other thing: Why the google gadget tanslator api:

--------src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/translatemypage.xml&up_source_language=pt&w=160&h=60&title=&border=&output=js"----------------- (incomplete example)


doensn't work on ning? When i change the language the site reload at the original language?

WHY?

[Susan]

Hi Ricardo,
The site reloads in the original language because Google translate opens the site in a frame as default, and Ning sites pop out of frames.

I have a script based on Google translate that can be added to your site, it opens the translated version in a new window. It's not a perfect solution, members who are logged in to the site cannot be logged in on the translated version, but it does work.
You can see it and get the code here http://translated.ning.com

[Daniel Walters]

Has Ning given any legitimate fixes to this? I just can't believe it's been a year and there are still no solutions.

[Leese]

This is a HUGE priority for me! Our organization is bilingual -Spanish and English- and we HAVE to have everything is Spanish. We've chosen Ning because in every other way it fits our needs perfectly, but this is a huge problem! The help desk wsn't able to offer any solutions for me other than to set up two networks and connect them with a splash page. However, not only is this a huge pain to create two identical networks, but we'll have to pay twice as much for premium services and I'm concerned that our members won't want to maintain two separate profiles.
Does anyone have any suggestions for feeding members from one network (say the Spanish one) to the English one so that they show up on the English members page (and vice versa)? Then my members will only have to have one profile and it will show up on both versions of our website. I'd be forever indebted to anyone who can offer some help!! (please be as specific as possible)
I can't believe Ning isn't working on this! So much for the whole point of social networking!

[One Voice]

Adding my request for such a feature as well, though following the member below to see if her code gets fixed soon. :) I think it was translated.ning.com.

Thanks!

[Nayse Lopez]

In our case, the network is biligual portuguese/, spanish. I wonder if we could adapt a language switcher pluggin from wp to the ning structure. Is a matter of biligual menus, basiclly, how hard can that be?

Is that hard, I ask the ning team, to make possible for a network admin to choose two languages in the language editor and add a box in tne user login where he/her chooses the network language of choice?

[Nayse Lopez]

People,

Researching this week on this issue, I came across a solution that was working fine and now, for some reason I cannot understan, is being taken away from us multilingual , non english speaking networks.

Members Oles and Ronaldo already did a tutorial (that for a while waseven in this devnetwork depository and has been removed http://developer.ning.com/tutorials/Adding_Language_Options_For_Mem...)

Ronaldo still has his test network online and with the language option working fine at papateste.ning.com

My question is, why, if it works and is a demand from so many networks, is not already in the main code as a option? Is a veru simple procedure.
Or, if is not a priority to all the complex operations I Imagine the ning team has to do to integrate a new feature for good, why not let us do it at our own risk?

The sad part for me is that I love the platform, have been promoting across all my proejcts and now I realize that if I joined six months ago I would have access to a fundamental feature that now I dont. That does not make sense as a upgrading ans evolving network I see ning as being.

I understand the new biz model and all. I just resent that buddypokes and other teen apps have priority over fundamental issues as wide (and simple to solve as the ref members above proved) as language option to members.

I hope to hear from the ning team soon.
thanks

[Guilherme]

Help! This is a MUST feature for Ning. Listen to your developer network!