Support multi-language content in custom menu

I was messing with the code, and in lib/outputcomponents.php around line 2372, we could add just after
public static function convert_text_to_menu_nodes($text) {
$text = format_text($text, $format=FORMAT_MARKDOWN, $options=NULL, $courseid=NULL);

so the multilang plugin could work. Isn't this right?

Submitting this for the integration. To test, you can use a custom menu definiton like this:

<span lang="en" class="multilang">
English community|http://moodle.org|Community site moodle.org
-Contacts|http://our.school.edu/contact-us
</span>
<span lang="cs" class="multilang">
Česká komunita|http://moodle.cz|Komunitní stránky
-Kontakty|http://our.school.edu/kontaktujte-nas
-Demo|http://demo.moodle.cz
</span>

See http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=177555 for the demand for this

Hi David,
I have just implemented the 1st of the two ideas put forward, and got it to work in my latest version of Moodle 2.0.3(build 20110616).

Here's what I wrote...
en:Moodle community;it:Moodle comunità|http://moodle.org
-en:Moodle free support;it:Moodle supporto gratuito|http://moodle.org/support
-en:Moodle development;it:Moodle sviluppo|http://moodle.org/development
en:Theme Settings;it:Tema impostazioni;|http://localhost/moodle/admin/settings.php?section=themesettings
en:Purge Caches;it:Purga la cache|http://localhost/moodle/admin/purgecaches.php
en:Cron;it:Fare il cron|http://localhost/moodle/admin/cron.php

It works beautifully! (see attached snapshot) and easy to write too. Personally I think the span, although familiar to multi-lang users, is too long winded, whereas this options is, I think much simpler and easier to do.

Cheers
Mary

Here's a snapshot of the output...in Italian...or course!
The only bugbear if any, and nothing to do with the menu itself, is the date which I have just noticed shows a ? instead of a letter - why is this??? Is it something to do with my browser settings?

David,
I have just been testing the patch you have submitted, using two languages English and Italian, and found that it does not work as expected.

1. The Menu is displayed in both sets of languages.
2. In the first set where lang="en" you can see "> which I suspect is part of the HTML writer which closes the anchor tag in the normal custom menu in outputrenderer.php

I'll attach an image so that you can see what I mean.

Cheers
Mary

Mary, if you see both languages then I believe you either do not have the multilang filter enabled correctly or the syntax of the custom menu definition is not valid.

In the attached screenshot you can see the source view for the selected part of the menu as seen using Firebug (FireFox add-on)

The multilang filter is enabled and working ok in a course topic page. The notation for the menu I added to the custommenu settings page is as follows:
<span lang="en" class="multilang">
Moodle community|http://moodle.org
-Moodle free support|http://moodle.org/support
-Moodle development|http://moodle.org/development
</span>
<span lang="it" class="multilang">
Moodle comunità|http://moodle.org
-Moodle supporto gratuito|http://moodle.org/support
-Moodle sviluppo|http://moodle.org/development
</span>
.

Apologies! I was working on localhost server and had not enabled filter as you suspected. Testing now on web server proved you were right! Which is good thing as I was getting distraught!
Sorry about that.

Mary

Hi Mary, I've tested this simple script:

<?

require_once('config.php');

$text =
'<span lang="en" class="multilang">
Moodle community|http://moodle.org
-Moodle free support|http://moodle.org/support
-Moodle development|http://moodle.org/development
</span>
<span lang="es" class="multilang">
Moodle comunità|http://moodle.org
-Moodle supporto gratuito|http://moodle.org/support
-Moodle sviluppo|http://moodle.org/development
</span>';

$fm = format_text($text, FORMAT_MOODLE, array(
         'para'     => false,
         'newlines' => false,
         'context'  => get_system_context()));
var_dump($fm);

And it seems to work ok here, and the active lang is picked properly. And that's exactly what David's patch does.

I only can imagine 2 reasons for this failing in your site:

• You're getting cached results. Try modifying the text and or disabling cache in filter common settings.
• To have not the multilang filter enabled by default (On) at system context.

Can you try the test above and verify the 2 possible reasons commented? I'll halt this until getting some feedback from you.

TIA!

Hi,
It works fine. It was me...I got it wrong. I was working on localhost server where the Menulang filter was Disabled!

All is well and it does work...get the thing passed and into Moodle ASAP...

Cheers
Mary

Thanks!

This has been integrated now, will land upstream soon.

All git & cvs servers have been updated with these cool changes, so closing, many thanks!

Hi,

just to comment I've discovered one regression caused by the code introduced here: MDL-28168

Ciao

In the linked MDL-28168, a variant of syntax suggested by Mary Evans is proposed that would replace the <span> based one described in this issue. Note that we need whole menu items being language-dependent as we want the language-specific URL, too.

Are URLs translatable? I thought the 'Lingua Franca' of the WWW was English? Or am I reading your comment wrongly?

I think that he just means that sometimes we will want to be able to send one lang to one page (URL) and another lang from the same"place" in the menu to another URL (even though Moodle has an operating multilang filter).

I think it will often be the case that the menu can be quite different in size/structure for different languages depending on which resources have been prepared.

Yup, as Jeff says.

Is this on Moodle 2.1? Is there documentation of usage somewhere? Thank you.

Yes Rui, this was added into 2.1 and also into the 2.0.3+. Unfortunately shortly after the release, we realized that the implementation is wrong. So the syntax will be changed soon (in this or next week release of "plus" versions). Then the syntax will be documented at http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Custom_menu_items

I'm sorry, I've already revoked the comment about custommenu without titles,
because found my mistake. Attachments are not current too.

Anna

Thank you David. Did you manage to document the syntax somewhere? That link seems empty.

Hi David,

You mentioned above (07/Jul/11 2:18 PM) about release 2.1 having a potential problem. We have a Moodle site at 2.1.1+ on which the syntax unfortunately does not seem to work when you switch language.

Has the code that does this been disabled for the moment in 2.1.1 builds and if so do you have a timescale on which the implementation will be corrected?

Many thanks,

Kenny

Ooops sorry I forgot to document the syntax. I just added an example to http://docs.moodle.org/21/en/Custom_menu_items on how you can use multilanguage support for custom menu items in Moodle 2.1 and higher. Thanks for the reminder!

Hi David

Many thanks that works a treat

Kenny

Hi Everybody:

In Moodle 2.3.4 you have to add a function to option 2 to work like this:

before:

public static function convert_text_to_menu_nodes($text, $language = null) {
$text = format_text($text, $format=FORMAT_MARKDOWN, $options=NULL, $courseid=NULL);
$lines = explode("\n", $text);
$children = array();

after:

public static function convert_text_to_menu_nodes($text, $language = null) {
$text = format_text($text, $format=FORMAT_MARKDOWN, $options=NULL, $courseid=NULL);
$lines = explode("\n", $text);
+ $lines = array_slice($lines, 1, -2);
$children = array();

Good Day!