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Post-Language selector

So I would be in need of a plugin for my forum where users an select a language from a dropdown when they create a post. That language is then added to the post in the overview. This is because we are a bilingual forum and it would make it easier for people to flag threads in a certain language. I haven't found anything like that but I can see this being useful so eventually I'd like to try my hand at it.

Now I have some mediocre coding skills but I have absolutely no overview over the way Vanilla Forum is structured. Maybe someone here has some pointers on where to start? Good tutorials? Relevant links? etc.

Comments

  • whu606whu606 I'm not a SuperHero; I just like wearing tights... MVP

    @mnerurkar

    If threads and responding posts are going to be monolingual, why not create two Categories and have them as headings, with the relevant language as the heading?

    You could then create sub-categories for the different languages if you wanted to.

  • Well because we have a lot of functional/thematic categories and I'm don't want to break them. I also don't want to seperate the two languages into differen ghettos, I want them on the same page. Also because everyone uses the "all discussions" view, where the given category is not very obvious.

  • whu606whu606 I'm not a SuperHero; I just like wearing tights... MVP

    I'm obviously not 'getting' what you are looking for.

    Wouldn't the language of the thread be obvious from the title?

    Do you want people to be able to filter out only threads in one language?

  • No the language isn't neccessarily evident. So the idea is that when you create a thread, you have to select the category and the language. The language is then shown in the thread list (all discussions etc.). That's it. Nothing fancy. Possibly with an admin panel where you can define the various languages you want to have available

  • why don't you use tags?

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    Just use the translate this plugin and people can translate in any language they want when they want...

  • hgtonighthgtonight ∞ · New Moderator

    @peregrine said:
    why don't you use tags?

    I also suggest you use the tag route.

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  • Is there tag support in Vanilla or are you talking about a plugin?

    Not sure how they are implemented but generally they allow users to manually set tags. I kind of want there to be a fixed set only.

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited June 2014

    there are a few tagging plugins, I believe one comes with the core. if not you can download form add-ons section or github.

    don't know if you can isolate it to a fixed set, but you could try it.

    The devil's advocate: what if a user posts in english but flubs and chooses spanish from the dropdown, how will that help, or alter your thinking - since ultimately it depends on the user to do it correctly as you want, which is not always the case. you can make pre-set tags and hope they choose the correct ones, as well.

    The advantage of tags is you can click on a tag and it displays discussions with that tag.

    also with your dropdown idea. what if a user starts a discussion in English chooses English from dropdown, and users make comments in 5 different languages. do the comments as well have dropdowns. just things to consider in your design.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    As far as I know you can choose if users are allowed to create new tags or tags can only be created in admin screen.

  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    Sometimes people drop by and ask for something like "thread icons" - a feature that I never understood - but maybe here it could make sense. Perhaps someone wants to create something like that.

  • hgtonighthgtonight ∞ · New Moderator

    @R_J said:
    Sometimes people drop by and ask for something like "thread icons" - a feature that I never understood - but maybe here it could make sense. Perhaps someone wants to create something like that.

    So... pick an icon when you create the discussion?

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  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    I know that MyBB has that feature. I found a thread with a screenshot: http://community.mybb.com/thread-128692.html
    In that special case it would be nice to be able to pick country flags. Although I would also use tags so that you have the possibility to filter the discussions for your language

  • hgtonighthgtonight ∞ · New Moderator

    @R_J an idea I have been mulling over was creating a "RequiredTags" plugin. It would provide the admins an interface to group tags together into groups and require "only one" of each group they define on new discussions. On the member side, they would see a drop-down with the list of tags they must choose from. This would create an "enforceable" tagging usage policy.

    E.g. Create a bunch of language tags, group them, and then they show up as a drop down on the new discussion page. The validation would be somewhat painful, but it is what it is.

    Point of this ramble is it could be cool to build an icon list out of the tag list. Create a set of tags prefixed with post-icon and show those in a dropdown. Spit out the "special" tag on the discussions page and use CSS to style to suit.

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  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    On demand I've created such a forced tag plugin: https://github.com/R-J/AddWPInfo
    But as you can already see from the title it is not flexible but instead insists on configuration and would have to be customized by a developer if it should be used in different forum.
    I would be proud if you look at it and take some bits of it as an inspiration.

    By the way: at first the layout conflicted with ButtonBar and that's why I changed the name from WPInfo to AddWPInfo. Maybe you have to make sure that you do not call your plugin TagEnforcer or TagSomething. Let it be something like AwesomeTags or AstonishingTags or something like that ;)

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