MST Clearinghouse

------ TECHNICAL TO DOs ------

1.    Display interface in different languages
    ⁃    Track down all instances where translatable text has not yet been ported over [DONE]
    ⁃    Put in global map icon in upper right to indicate where interface language can be changed
    ⁃    Create drop down/expand menu showing languages as jpg pictures rather than characters to avoid any font issues
    ⁃    Sort out issue with database table text - untranslated, not in the LaunchPad file (i.e. Pull out tables and turn them into .yml/xml files instead)

Comment: Drop-down language menu for record language selection will stay the same, as there isn't much we can do there

    2.    Ability for any users to create content in different languages
    ⁃    Ability to select a language when a user is about to create a new piece of content

    ⁃    Allow users to change the selected language after having created a new piece of content

Will users be able see what different languages the content is available in - need main menu for languages? CB

    3.    User preferred language
    ⁃    Change default language to automatically match browser upon arrival to homepage. This is over-ridden by cookie set using GlobalMap.

    4.    Search results
    ⁃    Show results sorted by default language, followed by results in all languages

    -   Allow two-bit character searching by Sphinx by patching PHP

   ⁃    Differentiate results that are in default language versus results that are in all languages by using a divider

    ⁃    Ensure that content with new language setting is searchable by Sphinx using language selection dropdown

    5.    Browse results
    ⁃    Allow members to filter results to a single language using a dropdown

My preference is that rather than have no results show up - that it says 'no results in your chosen language', 5 results in English - or show the results in the other languages automatically so the search results are never blank. cb

    6.    Homepage
    ⁃    Ability to have multiple pages - we need to talk about how we are going to manage the home page when it's in multipled languages - e.g. will we have an automated home page queue to allow admins to upload relevant groups/people in their language weekly ...that would be great as the current site gets updated when we can, which isn't often enough

    ⁃    Display homepage in different languages according to language preference or based on browser language

    ⁃    Automate what is shown on the homepage to feature content relevant to specific language, Editors may be able to select what is queued for viewing

    7.    AOFS
    ⁃    Import translation of name, definition, and keywords into all languages. This may require new fields for AoFs (not sure if name, definition, and keywords are fields)

    8.    Culture

• Images and colors: issues of comprehensibility and cultural appropriateness
• Names and titles
• Government assigned numbers
• Telephone numbers, addresses and international postal codes
• Currency (symbols, positions of currency markers)
• Weights and measures
• Paper sizes

    9.    Writing Conventions

• Date/time format, including use of different calendars
• Time zones (UTC in internationalized environments)
• Formatting of numbers (decimal points, positioning of separators, character used as separator)

----  USE CASES----

Use Case 1: A non logged in user comes to WiserEarth from France and does a search

Jean is from France and visits WiserEarth.  By default the language matches his browser, which is set to French.  He sees the WiserEarth interface in French and types in a search term.

His search results could be shown in one of two ways (we will likely create some mockups and do user testing to see what works best):

Option 1)
His search results are sorted first by language, then by relevancy.  So, he will see results matching his default language first, and then a divider that lets him know there are more search results in other languages.  

So in Jean's case, Jean's search shows him results in French first.  When he reaches the bottom of the last search page, he will see a divider that lets him know search results falling below this line are search results in All languages.  GREAT CB

a) Another option is to hide the results in All languages, so that only the French set is shown.  Prefer not CB  At the end of the French search results, there would be help text (similar to Google's) saying "per your language preferences, we have only shown results in French.  To see search results available in "All languages, toggle your search options's language menu on the left hand side"

At the top of the first page of search results, Jean would see some help text guiding him to know we have opted to show him his results in French first, but if he would like to return results in all languages, how to goggle the search options panel to do so.  

Option 2) Search results are returned in "All languages" and sorted by relevancy.  Jean would see help text at the top of the search page indicating that "Your search results have been returned in All languages.  If you would like to restrict your search to show results only in your preferred language, change the language field in the Search Options panel"

Use Case 2: A logged-in user comes to WiserEarth and decides to change his language of preference
Jean is logging in from France, but his native language is really Spanish.  He notices the map icon on the top right and chooses "Spanish | Espanol" from the choices.  The page refreshes and he sees the interface in Spanish.   This should set a cookie on Jean's computer so that when he returns to WiserEarth, it'll remember his last chosen language and display the interface accordingly.


Use Case 3: A logged-in user comes to WiserEarth and creates a new organization profile
Jean searches for the name of an organization in French.  Does not see it, but sees the help text prompting him to create the organization listing if he hasn't found it.  Clicks on the create org wizard and sees that in the Language field for the content creation page, it's automatically been selected to match his default language.  If he had changed it to a different language, then the language field automatically matches whatever has been set in his cookie.