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Moodle has been designed for internationalisation. Each 'string' or 'page' of text that is displayed as part of the interface is drawn from a set of language files.

Estructura de un paquete de idioma de Moodle

Moodle 1.6

Todos los paquetes de idioma de Moodle están ubicados en el directorio de lenguajes (lang), en un directorio único con el mismo nombre de la abreviatura del idioma. (en, fr, nl, es...) A partir de la versión Moodle 1.6, usted encontrará el directorio de idiomas en su carpeta de datos con una nota resaltando que ellos son paquetes de idioma UTF-8: es_utf8, fr_utf8. El paquete por defecto (en inglés) en_utf8, está creado en moodle/lang, junto con una versión reducida no utf (en inglés) para la actualización de 1.5 a 1.6, previa al proceso de transferencia de datos.

Todos los archivos principales están en esta carpeta lang/xx_utf8, con extensiones .php (por ej. moodle.php, resource.php etc). Estos archivos contienen frases cortas, llamadas algunas veces "cadenas". Cada cadena soporta sustitución variable, para complementar el ordenamiento variable en diferentes idiomas.

por ej. $strdueby = get_string("fecha de entrega de tarea", "tarea", userdate($date));

Si una cadena no existe en un idioma particular, entonces su equivalente en inglés será mostrada por defecto.

Existe también una carpeta de ayuda que contiene páginas web .html para ventanas "pop up" de ayuda de contexto sensitiva.

Edición de Lenguaje

Por favor fíjese que usted puede editar los idiomas via Administration >> Configuration >> Idiomas. (Le aconsejamos que no edite las cadenas directamente en un editor de texto).

Esto facilita no solamente crear nuevos idiomas sino también refinar los existentes. Si usted está empezando un nuevo idioma, por favor contacte a Koen Roggemans, nuestro coordinador de traducciones. (email: translation AT moodle DOT org). Si lo desea puede realizar aportes en el foro Using Moodle: Languages

Creating a new language pack

If your language is not yet supported by Moodle, or if you just want to make some customisations to your own site's interface, you may want to start a new translation.

All you need to do is create a new folder in the lang directory using the 2-letter code for your language. You can find these standard codes in lib/languages.php. If you are making a local variation of another language, use the code of that language with an underscore and a meaningful two letter extension (e.g. pt for Portuguese and pt_br for Brasilian variation of the Portuguese language pack). If you are making a Unicode version add _utf8 at the end (eg sr_utf8). Language packs created with a new Moodle 1.6 or with a Moodle 1.6 in Unicode mode are always in Unicode and should get the _utf8 suffix.

Next, copy the langconfig.php from another language into your new directory. The one from the "en_utf8" folder is usually best.

You are now ready to start inserting new strings by editing your language... see below for details on this.

Moodle 1.6

Since Moodle 1.6, only UTF-8 is used as characterset. This setting is located in a string named "thischarset" in langconfig.php and should not be changed. All other settings for your language pack, as the notation of dates, the locale string, the direction etc. are in this file and can be changed there. Just be careful! ;-)

Editing an existing language pack

Realizando pequeñas modificaciones

Si usted solo quiere cambiar pequeñas cosas en la interfaz para mejorar el perfil de su sitio, no empiece editando uno de los paquetes de idiomas existentes. Si usted lo hace de esta manera, los cambios que usted realice serán insertados y sobreescritos la próxima vez que actualice a una nueva versión de Moodle.

En vez de hacer lo anterior, siga las instrucciones que a continuación se especifican: para elaborar un nuevo paquete de idioma, añada una cuerda ('parentlanguage' en langconfig.php) con el código de dos letras del lenguaje que más se parezca al suyo. Por ejemplo, un buen nombre para una versión local de inglés pudiera ser "en_local" y el lenguaje matriz pudiera ser "en" o "en_us".

$string['parentlanguage'] = 'en';

En las versiones de Moodle anteiores a la 1.6, usted también debe crear una cuerda 'thislanguage' en moodle.php para su paquete de lenguaje "en_local": $string['thislanguage'] = 'English';

Fíjese que para que todo aquél en su sitio vea este nuevo paquete, usted debe seleccionarlo como el lenguaje del sitio y restringir los lenguajes disponibles en Administration >> Configuration >> Variables.

Translating the Moodle interface language files (the "string" files)

  1. Log on to your Moodle server as an administrator.
  2. Go to Administration >> Configuration >> Language, which is the language administration page.
  3. On this page you can choose your language from the menu, then choose "Compare and Edit Language".
  4. You should see forms you can edit for each file. If you do not, then you may have to make sure that the files are writeable - you may have to change file permissions in your web folder.
  5. The forms consist of three columns, the first is the name of each string, the second is that string in English, and the last is translation in the current language.
  6. Edit missing strings in each files (highlighted in colour), remembering to hit the "Save changes" button at the end of each form.
  7. It's OK to leave strings empty - Moodle will simply use the parent language for that string instead. You can define the parent language in langconfig.php, otherwise English is always used by default.
  8. A quick way to see all the missing strings is by using the button to "Check for missing strings". Leave the untranslated strings completely empty or this handy tool won't work.

Translating the help files

There is a built-in editor in Moodle to translate the help files. It uses the en_utf8 language pack as a reference language. You are strongly advised to use this editor: it cleans out some possible problems, it warns you for old translations and it marks (with stars in the drop down list) wich files are out of date and takes care of Unicode. If you want another language than English as a reference (wich is not a good idea), you copy a help file from the reference language pack and paste it on the same location in your own language pack. Then use a plain text editor with Unicode support to translate the file, making sure not to modify any code in the file (there usually is no code, just HTML-tags). (DON'T USE A WORDPROCESSOR to write the help-files because these programs add too much rubbish to the files). Don't leave untranslated help files or empty files in your language pack.

Take care to write the helpfiles XHTML-compliant. This means in short:

  • All tags should be closed:
    <p>lalala</p>
  • All elements should be nested:
    <p> lalala <em>lalala</em> </p>
  • All elements and attributes must be lower case
  • All atributes should be written in full and with quotes :
    <p align="right"> lalala </p>
  • Empty elements must end with />:
    <br /> <hr />
    . You should add an extra space before the "/" symbol.
  • An <img should have an alt="" (it can be empty) en must be closed like other empty elements with a space and /> like
    <img alt="" src="picture.gif" />
  • <?= and <? should be
    <?php
  • There should not be ANY font tags at all.
    <p><em> <h1> <h2>
    etc should be enough for the language files ...

None of the files in the help folder need a doc type, html, body, head opening and closing tags - these files are included with help.php. The script will take care of welforming the pages. This means also there is not much room for HTML creativity! Please stick to the English example.

Moodle 1.6

The files in the docs folder must be completely XHTML compliant, including doc type, header etc. From Moodle 1.6 they will be moved to this wiki.

Clicking on "Check for missing strings" in the language administration screen will also show you what files you are missing. If you have missing files then Moodle will use the parent language instead, so don't leave copies of untranslated help files in your language pack or this handy tool won't work.

Submitting your language pack to the Moodle project

Sharing your translation with Moodle will ensure that you help other people who speak your language. Your interface language will be available in future versions of Moodle.

Simply archive your whole new language directory as a zip file and email it to translation AT moodle DOT org.

We will get back to you with further details.

Checklist you can use before committing:

  • No empty files?
  • No untranslated files or strings?
  • Help files not edited with a wordprocessor?
  • README file contains language, name and emailadress of the translator?
  • Foldername is the right language code (check moodle\lib\languages.php)?
  • Does the language pack run errorfree on a testsite?
  • Are the strings and files XHTML compliant?
  • Does langconfig.php exists and is it correct?

Maintenance of a standard language pack

If you are committed to maintaining a language in Moodle, it's best to use Moodle CVS so that you have an up-to-date version of Moodle, and can easily "check in" your changes directly into the Moodle project.

Moodle 1.6

You should always use HEAD to do translation. Instead of modifying the lang pack within your main code tree as it was until Moodle 1.6, you will now be modifying the one within your dataroot/lang directory.

  • Always check out the very latest Moodle code
  • Upgrade your site. Of course you use a NON-PRODUCTION server for this.
  • Go to your dataroot directory and check out the new lang directory from CVS there like this on Unix/Linux
  cd moodledata    (for example)
  cvs -z3 -d:ext:me@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle co lang

or like this with Tortoise on Windows,

  right click on your dataroot folder, choose "CVS Checkout", 
  CVSROOT field:  :ext:sfusername@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle
  Module: lang
  • Continue editing languages from within the Moodle GUI as you did before Moodle 1.6.

To check them into CVS, just go into the dataroot/lang directory and commit your changes.

If you really want to continue updating the language packs for 1.5.x or earlier, then you should zip the folder of your langpack and mail it to translation AT moodle DOT org. CVS write rights on moodle/lang/xx will be moved to lang/xx

Contact translation AT moodle DOT org if you need help setting this up.

You must also subscribe to the Languages Forum for news and discussion about issues that affect translations.

Finally, to keep in touch with changes in the project on a day-to-day basis it is a very good idea to subscribe to the CVS mailing list. This helps to keep your translation as close to the English text as possible.