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Multi-boards ... or language-switching for users?

KirkmanKirkman
edited October 2005 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
Hey all... I would like to use Vanilla for a bilingual website. That is, the website exists as an English and Spanish version. So I'm wondering if there exists a way to either: a. Install two copies of Vanilla on the same domain, one for each language. or b. Have one forum but allow the USER to choose his/her preferred language, rather than have it set as a global forum preference. Then I could create Categories for each language. I would prefer B, but if anyone knows how to accomplish either A or B, it would be awesome! --Josh

Comments

  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    The second isnt possible - i did suggest it when languages were first being implemented but mark said that in 99% of cases, all the posts on a forum would be in the same language - therefore the ability for users to select their language seemed a little pointless. Maybe i should have argued it more at the time but it seemed like a pretty good comeback to me. The second one shouldnt be too hard to achieve, though. If you setup another vanilla and just make sure the database settings are the same i see no reason why it shouldnt work the same. The thing is that you'll need to make any settings you make to each forum seperately - though this could be a benefit. On that note, i could be wrong, but i believe there might be some sort of multi-forum development in the next revision - it was discussed a while ago that someone wanted forums for different divisions of their company but needed certain common settings - i'll need someone to back me up on that but if it is happening you might be best waiting for the update. In the meantime if you need any help trying to get 2 forums to run parallel to each other then just give us a shout - there might be cookie issues but i dont see why.
  • lechlech ✭
    as far as the database is concerned, you could have an unlimited number of forums in seperate folders all accessing the same information. That shouldn't be an issue. However, for each instance, you will have seperate themes, settings and just about everything else. So for that matter you'll have to tweak each one seperatly as there is no "global" setting in that respect.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    lech - am i right in thinking he could change his agEXTENSIONS setting in one of the forums so atleast his extensions would be mirrored? Styles are in the database so they should also be the same? Settings would still differ though, granted.
  • KirkmanKirkman
    edited October 2005
    Thanks for your replies, guys. So how can I go about implementing this? Can I duplicate my existing "messageboard" directory and rename it something like "foro" and then login? Or would I need to tweak some PHP files prior to trying to use the forum? --Josh P.S. in the course of writing this message i discovered that / me causes a link to my profile to be added to the message. interesting!
  • KrakKrak New
    /me points out that its just like in IRC
  • lechlech ✭
    Mini - Yeah, some settings could be shared, while others will remain completely seperate. To some extent, yes, themes will be the same in the database, however they will differ due to locations on the server. With some clever hacks im sure you could easily merge and globalize the themes and such.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    Kirkman - copy your directory and then open up the second appg/settings.php file and change the things which will be different for the second forum. If you have a play around with some of the path settings you might be able to get them as closely linked as possible - i.e. if you setup the extensions path as a full definiton and remove the relative pathtovanilla link it atleast means you wont have to upload extensions twice - though i do think you'll have to turn them on and off seperately and it'l be near impossible to avoid this. Whatever you do it cant do a great deal of harm - its probably worth backing up your existing setup just incase something goes badly wrong - so just have a play and see how well you can get them running together.
  • lechlech ✭
    Trial and Error - Best method ever, unless the risks involve bodily harm, then I'm totally against it.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    haha. *bows to lech.
  • KrakKrak New
    edited October 2005
    Trial and Error - Best method ever, unless the risks involve bodily harm, then I'm totally against it.
    But those are some of the best things...
  • lechlech ✭
    :D
This discussion has been closed.