Closed Bug 243113 Opened 21 years ago Closed 7 years ago

UI extension for langpack switching in Firefox/Thunderbird

Categories

(Core :: Internationalization: Localization, enhancement, P3)

Product:
Core
Component:
Internationalization: Localization
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1425941

People

(Reporter: mconnor, Unassigned)

References

Details

Spinoff from bug 224194, this should cover Thunderbird as well. What we need is a way to add UI for locale switching when we install a language pack, without requiring that the app have this as part of the base install. Implementation details (planned): Create an extension that will overlay onto Firefox/Thunderbird UI, with the content contained in a single jar. Provide a modified install.js that installs the overlay in the appropriate place. (Optional) To simplify localization, add the appropriate .dtd files into the en-US distribution. Otherwise provide base en-US files and instructions on where to include them. Update packaging documentation on MLP pages. Target is probably post 0.9 for Firefox, unless I get more free time than I'm expecting. This should be done by 1.0beta at the latest.
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
OS: Windows XP → All
Priority: -- → P2
Hardware: PC → All
Need any help?
I have a draft extension for this. I plan to finish it this week. I'll post it here as soon as I've finished it. Philippe
Surely this shouldn't need an install.js? If we follow the general extensions plan for Firebird, with possibly modifications for language packs, it should autoregister everything...
you need an extension.rdf instead of install.js now, but you still use something to install things phillipe, great!
Ben's latest version of the packaging doc : http://www.bengoodger.com/software/mb/extensions/packaging/extensions.html specifies install.rdf in place of extension.rdf
Ok, I've the extension finally finished. http://www.disque-monde.org/localechanger.xpi It add a menu in the Tools menu where you can switch from fr-FR to en-US (and vice-versa). You must have a french localised firefox 0.8 to test directly this extension. You can grab one here : ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/0.8/contrib-localized/ (frFR in the name) Sometimes the XUL.mfasl in the profile dir must be deleted (same issue as in mozilla). A good thing to do for the future is to detect the locales installed and propose them in the menu. (I'll need help for this). Or we can make the extension for each locale, or put it directly in the lang pack for each language Philippe
Great to see this, just some comments... I think there is a problem with putting it in each localized xpi as that would mean they could conflict... we really need to detect available languages
For any japenese reader, I've found this : http://saru.oops.jp/puki/index.php?langchange It seems to make the same thing but I'm not sure. Ph
I've put a page for the extension at mozdev : http://localechanger.mozdev.org/
I have just recently found this bug, but anyways here are some food for thought esp. when we wann do it right not fast. * I don't think the localeswitcher UI must/should be in each locale XPI, they will most likely step over each other. * If we don't somehow prepack the locale switcher UI, either in fx directly or with the locale, then uses might need a two step download. I have looked at the extension docs, and as far as I can see it provide some sort of dependency tracking. What if we made the langpacks depends on the localeswicther ui extension, would it not make firefox auto download the ui extention ? * One thing that seem forgotten is translations of extensions!! Lets say I have downloaded Firefox and my danish language pack. Then I go install some new extension like linky. I would asume my main browser still appears in danish, with a few english elements where the extension has added some gui. Now how do the danish translators provide a langpack for linky ? a) as a seperate langpack ? How do we install and maintain it ? b) in the extension's (linky's) XPI This can really block an extension if there are many translations. c) as part of their main language pack ? not really doable since extensions can be updated faster than the main product and the langpack quickly becomes outdated (at best) or nonfuncitonal (at worst)
How does it recognizes langpacks as extensions?
This is great. Would it be possible to make it only display the menu entry if there is more than one language installed? Then it could perhaps be included in the main Firefox/Thunderbird. The reason this would help is then users don't have to download two extensions... also it would make localizing this easier and would make it much better in multilang situations.
*** Bug 284794 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
There seems to be some general need for a discussion about what "selected language" is. Benjamin's comment in bug 331779 indicates that there may be more to it than "hey, set browser.useragent.locale". That needs a more detailed discussion, which I intended to kick off in .platform after fx2. Language selection for extensions may be of interest, too. Generally, I don't think we should really try to put language switching in an extension, if we want to support all of the language pack stuff better, but maybe just add the code by default, but not display it if there is only one locale to select from. Moving over to Core/Localization, seems more appropriate than other localizations.
Component: Other → Localization
Product: Mozilla Localizations → Core
Version: unspecified → Trunk
After watching the development of extension/add-on handling in general, I actually think there should be a "Languages" section in the Add-Ons windows, and this should have switching mechanism in the style themes have as well. Actually, I think locale handling and theme handling are similar in multiple ways, as even the problem of the selected locale not installed for a certain extension looks fairly similar to the selected theme not being available for that extension. The problem of how to display localizations for extensions (which may be included or may be separate extensions with dependencies) is the same as for extension theme packs - and both are rather hairy though.
(In reply to comment #17) > After watching the development of extension/add-on handling in general, I > actually think there should be a "Languages" section in the Add-Ons windows, There is one (after you install a langpack) but only allows you to deinstall and enable/disable a language pack. Enabling/disabling does nothing unless you set the general.useragent.locale by hand (then it switches between the selected langpack and the original language of the build). Really confusing. > and this should have switching mechanism in the style themes have as well. Probably even we could reuse the "Apply" string from the Themes tab. Unfortunately, it is too late to make the Languages tab do sth useful in Firefox 2. :(
Assignee: mconnor → kairo
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
QA Contact: mmx_bugzilla
Assignee: kairo → nobody
QA Contact: mmx_bugzilla → localization
See also bug 377881
Moving to p3 because no activity for at least 1 year(s). See https://github.com/mozilla/bug-handling/blob/master/policy/triage-bugzilla.md#how-do-you-triage for more information
Priority: P2 → P3
Counter intuitive, but this issue has been fixed in bug 1425941 for Firefox (bug 1481852 for Thunderbird).
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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