1308168 - On non-translated pages, add English link to top 'Language' menu, banner

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Localization, enhancement)

Description

[Sander]

What problem would this feature solve?
======================================
As a developer I prefer to read the English documentation and it actually frustrates me that there is no easy way to switch from Dutch to English when I land on a non-english page.

My suggestion would be to add the English language selection in the 'Languages' menu so that you always can choose to use English.


Who has this problem?
=====================
All visitors to MDN

How do you know that the users identified above have this problem?
==================================================================
Everyone who wants to switch to English from a non-English page, can't switch.

How are the users identified above solving this problem now?
============================================================
-

Do you have any suggestions for solving the problem? Please explain in detail.
==============================================================================
Please add the option 'English' in the Languages menu.

Is there anything else we should know?
======================================

Comment 1

[Tooru Fujisawa [:arai]]

"English" should be in the language selection if corresponding English page is available.
for example:
  https://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest

Can you provide the URL of the page the issue happens?

Comment 2

[Sander]

Hi Tooru,

For example the following URL:
https://developer.mozilla.org/nl/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/import
                             ^^^^
This is a URL with           /nl/

When I open the 'Talen' menu, there is no English present, please see this image on which I have opened this menu:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwGTnXJ810ejaGNhRElBbVV3NGs/view?usp=sharing

Please let me know if this info is sufficient,

Thanks! :)

Comment 3

[Tooru Fujisawa [:arai]]

The page is showing "en-US" content as a fallback, as there is no "nl" translation available.
it would be nice to clarify it in the warning box at the top of the content.

Comment 4

[Sander]

(In reply to Tooru Fujisawa [:arai] from comment #3)
> The page is showing "en-US" content as a fallback, as there is no "nl"
> translation available.
> it would be nice to clarify it in the warning box at the top of the content.

That part I understand indeed,
But still for the pages that have translated content I'd like to head back to English. :)

My example was not necessarily because of the incomplete translated content, but the navigation part.

Comment 5

[John Whitlock [:jwhitlock]]

Sander,

Thanks for identifying this issue. I'm going to re-describe in a detailed way that is helpful for the MDN engine developers. Please tell me if I got any of it wrong.

There are pages on MDN that are translated, fully or partially:

https://developer.mozilla.org/nl/docs/Web/JavaScript

For partially or fully translated pages:

- The user interface (UI) elements are translated, if available (Talen for Language, Bewerken for Edit)
- The page content is the latest translation, which may include untranslated English content
- If the last editor left the "translation needed" checkbox, a yellow notice box encourages translation (Deze vertaling is niet volledig. Help dit artikel te vertalen vanuit het Engels.)
- The "breadcrumb" widget shows the page hierarchy in Nederlands 
  (MDN > Webtechnologie voor ontwikkelaars > JavaScript > JavaScript reference)
- The language dropdown at the top shows English (an alternate translation)
- The language dropdown in the footer shows that the content is Nederlands
- The history link shows the translation history of the page:
  https://developer.mozilla.org/nl/docs/Web/JavaScript$history

There are also pages that have never been translated:

https://developer.mozilla.org/nl/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/import

For never-translated pages,
- The user interface (UI) elements are translated, if available (Talen for Language, Bewerken for Edit)
- The page content is the latest English content
- A notice is placed in red, "Onze vrijwilligers hebben dit artikel nog niet naar het Nederlands vertaald. Doe mee en help de klus te klaren!". Clicking the link will start translation of the English into Nederlands.
- The breadcrumbs shows the English hierarchy
  (MDN > Web technology For developers > JavaScript)
  Clicking one of those links will switch to browsing in English.
- The language dropdown at the top omits English (the current content translation)
- The language dropdown in the footer shows that the content is English
- The history link shows a 404:
  https://developer.mozilla.org/nl/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/import$history

The proposed change:

1. For never-translated pages, include English in the top language selector
2. When English is selected, switch the URL language to English, like:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/import

This will make never-translated pages act more like partially-translated pages:
1. Change the UI language to English
2. Remove the "Our volunteers haven't translated this article..." note
3. Show the same current English content

Does this sound like what you are proposing?

I am also curious, what steps lead you to viewing MDN in Nederlands? Are you following search results, blog post links, or something else?

Comment 6

[Sander]

Thank you John!

I think it is very complete. However, I still would like to propose one change:

For never-translated pages,
- The language dropdown at the top shows English

This way you allow the user to always navigate away from the /nl/ context to English and creates a more accessible website. 

About ending up on /nl/ pages, that is when you use Google in the Dutch context. Google correctly points out the Dutch URL, however the first thing I want to do when I land on MDN is switch to English. Many Dutch developers use English a second language, but for development it is usually the first.

If you use Google in the Netherlands (and I think this is the same for practically all other countries), you will always get the search context of countries' main language by default - so for non-Dutch developers who work in the Netherlands I think it is also more convenient for them.

Comment 7

[John Whitlock [:jwhitlock]]

OK, so the specification is:

For never-translated pages, include English as the top item in the top language selector. When English is selected, switch the URL to the English variant of the page.

We'll discuss prioritizing this in our triage meeting. Meanwhile, I'm marking this as a good bug for our volunteers, who may get to it first.

Comment 8

[Sander]

(In reply to John Whitlock [:jwhitlock] from comment #7)
> OK, so the specification is:
> 
> For never-translated pages, include English as the top item in the top
> language selector. When English is selected, switch the URL to the English
> variant of the page.
> 
> We'll discuss prioritizing this in our triage meeting. Meanwhile, I'm
> marking this as a good bug for our volunteers, who may get to it first.

Thanks! Appreciated :)

Comment 9

[Kadir Topal [:atopal]]

The option to switch to English should go into the banner and the locale switcher

Comment 12

[MDN Team (:mdn-dev)]

Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/kuma

https://github.com/mozilla/kuma/commit/1dce52c0c947344906f4e692cb15f18d4c851398
[Bug 1308168] non-translated page should have English link to button, banner (#4036)

* [Bug 1308168] non-translated page should have English link to button, banner

Comment 13

[MDN Team (:mdn-dev)]

Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/kuma

https://github.com/mozilla/kuma/commit/747377f7cf07825af4ae7d6dfe99e7976efbec3d
bug 1308168: Remove comments

Comment 14

[MDN Team (:mdn-dev)]

Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/kuma

https://github.com/mozilla/kuma/commit/e5d19ade749537d1a22818f00673a2b262beaa36
bug 1308168: Remove more accidental code

Remove more accidental code from 1dce52c0c9

Comment 15

[Safwan Rahman (:safwan)]

Deployed into production