moodle-filter_multilang2

To Install it manually

• Unzip the plugin in the moodle .../filter/ directory.

To Enable it

• Go to "Site Administration >> Plugins >> Filters >> Manage filters" and enable the plugin there.

To Use it

• Create your contents in multiple languages.
• Enclose every language content between {mlang XX} and {mlang} tags (also known as a "language blocks"):

    {mlang XX}content in language XX{mlang}
    {mlang YY}content in language YY{mlang}
    {mlang other}content for other languages{mlang}

• where XX and YY are the Moodle short names for the language packs (i.e., en, en_CA, en_kids, fr_CA, de, etc.) or the special language name other.
• Version 1.1.1 and later: a new enhanced syntax to be able to specify multiple languages for a single tag is now available. Just specify the list of the languages separated by commas:

  {mlang en,es,fr_CA}Text displayed if current language is en, es or fr_CA, or one of their parent laguages.{mlang}

• Test it (by changing your browsing language in Moodle).

How it works

Default behaviour

• Look for "language blocks" in the text to be filtered.
• For each "language block":
  • If there are texts in the currently active language, print them.
  • Else, if there exist texts in the parent language(s) of the currently active language, unless the parent language is 'en', print them. This behaviour is configurable in version 2.0.5 and later (see "Configurable parent languages behaviour" below).
  • Else, as fallback, print the text with language 'other' if such one is set.
  • Else, don't print any text inside the language block.
• Text outside of "language blocks" will always be shown.

Configurable parent languages behaviour

Since version 2.0.5, the plugin offers a setting to configure how the filter will behave, with respect to parent languages, when processing a language block.

As described in the previous section, when the filter checks whether a language block has to be displayed or not, it tries to match the languages specified in the block with the current language used by the user displaying the content. This matching can be done in three different ways, that the filter calls parent languages behaviour:

• Always use parent languages, excluding 'en'. This is the traditional behaviour of the plugin, and is the default value for the setting. When this behaviour is selected, the filter uses both the languages specified in the language block, and all the parents of those languages (recursively to the top), to match the current language used by the user. But the English language ('en') is never considered a parent language in this case, and is removed from the parent list. E.g., a language block that specifies 'en_kids' in the language list will not be displayed if the current language used by the user displaying the content is 'en'. Notice that the English language is still used by the filter if it is explicitly specified in the language blocks (e.g., {mlang en}This text will be shown when the current language used by the user displaying the content is 'en'{mlang}).

• Always use parent languages, including 'en'. Which works as Always use parent languages, excluding 'en', but does not remove the English ('en') language from the parent languages list. E.g., a language block that specifies 'en_kids' in the language list will be displayed if the current language used by the user displaying the content is 'en'.

• Never use parent languages. As the name implies, parent languages are never used to match the current language used by the user displaying the content. The filter restricts itself to the languages specified in the language block.

Definition of "language block"

Is any text (including spaces, tabs, linefeeds or return characters) placed between '{mlang XX}' and '{mlang}' markers. You can not only put text inside "language block", but also images, videos or external embedded content. For example, this is a valid "language block":

{mlang es,es_mx,es_co}
First paragraph of text. First paragraph of text. First paragraph of text.

Second paragraph of text. Second paragraph of text. Second paragraph of text.

                   An image could go here

Third paragraph of text. Third paragraph of text. Third paragraph of text.

                   An embedded Youtube video could go here

Fourth paragraph of text. Fourth paragraph of text. Fourth paragraph of text.
{mlang}

A couple of examples in action

Using text only

This text:

  {mlang other}Hello!{mlang}{mlang es,es_mx}¡Hola!{mlang}
  This text is common for all languages because it's outside of all language blocks.
  {mlang other}Bye!{mlang}{mlang it}Ciao!{mlang}

• If the current language is any language except "Spanish International", "Spanish - Mexico" or Italian, it will print:

  Hello!
  This text is common for all languages because it's outside of all language blocks.
  Bye!

• If the current language is "Spanish International" or "Spanish - Mexico", it will print:

  ¡Hola!
  This text is common for all languages because it's outside of all language blocks.

• Notice the final 'Bye!' / 'Ciao!' is not printed.
• If the current language is Italian, it will print:

  This text is common for all languages because it's outside of all language blocks.
  Ciao!

• Notice the leading 'Hello!' / '¡Hola!' and the final 'Bye!' are not printed.

Using text, images and external embedded content

We create a label with the content shown in the following image:

The "language block" tags are highlighted using blue boxes. You can see that we have three pieces of content: the Spanish-only content (light yellow box), the language-independent content (light blue) and the English-only content (light red).

If the user browses the page with English as her configured language, she will see the common content (light blue box) and the English-only content (light red):

If the user browses the page with Spanish as her configured language, she will see the Spanish-only content (light yellow) plus the common content (light blue box):