General Community > Scripting Help
force Language
Arantor:
*shrug* Hope it works out for you.
MrPhil:
You might look at how applications like osCommerce do it -- they ask the browser what language it is configured to use, and default to that language (if installed). The only reasonable alternative, if you want registration in the user's language, is to offer a language selection pulldown on the registration page. Put several national flags next to it so users will get the hint that it's a language selection place, in case they see only "English".
I agree that a georeferenced (by IP address) language selection is likely to have many errors. Asking the browser what to use may be a slight improvement, but many browsers remain configured in English. Letting the user explicitly pick their language is best.
Arantor:
Going down that particular road is a sort of madness. Apart from the fact that most browsers are not properly configured from what I've seen, if you're also following the header properly you should also be prepared to deny users.
The specification as far as Accept-Language goes is that if you're adhering to it but cannot serve something for any of the languages served, you must deny the request with HTTP 406 Not Acceptable.
cocacolas:
Seriously... i don't understand where is the problem to ask: are you italian? or maybe spaniard? or maybe french? No? so... english
WHERE IS THE PROBLEM HERE??, WHERE THE MADNES?WHERE THE BAD IDEA?
I'm freaking out with your behavior, as i said i'm grateful for your advices but just i wonder how i can force a variable to the comfort of few visits, this is not a road madness, a deny user party or whatever.. i'm sorry but I would have preferred a "i do not know" or "you can not" but road madness? ROAD MADNESS? wtf man! so.. maybe 10% of browsers will not properly configured and they will get English as default ... oh my god what road madness..
Arantor:
--- Quote ---maybe 10% of browsers will not properly configured and they will get English as default ... oh my god what road madness..
--- End quote ---
I class such things as a path to madness because I know from experience that people chasing such things will be forever tweaking them and having to change them because it will keep requiring changes to keep it working 'well', if it ever gets such like that.
Here's the thing: I've been working on websites for 14 years now, including some multi-lingual sites. I have yet to see a site that actually successfully detects the user's language correctly. GeoIP is not reliable (for the examples I gave earlier), browsers are not set properly far more than 10% of the time, my research on the subject puts it nearer to 40%.
I ask again: do you actually need multiple languages? Do you have a significant proportion of your forum actively using different languages? Just installing other languages in the hopes of getting more users is actually not a good idea - because it means you can't concentrate on them and build them.
It's hard enough keeping a forum going when you're only using one language, let alone multiple, unless you have enough staff that are multi-lingual to cope with it all.
I don't know enough about your site - you haven't told us anything about it - to tell you whether you're chasing dreams here or whether it would meaningfully benefit your site.
But here's the thing, even much much larger sites than yours avoid trying to guess the user's language because they know full well it doesn't work.
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