no language at all after downloading English

[willemb]

For a closed, 200 member community I'm running 2.1 RC2 because we desperately needed the much improved display on mobile devices. Our language is Dutch, be we wanted to also allow for English. After downloading and installing English the forum does not show any text. The boards and topics are still there, but the forum interface shows only icons, empty buttons and some figures. No text.

[Illori]

you should always have the english files by default. what exactly did you download and install?

[willemb]

you should always have the English files by default. what exactly did you download and install?

I never realized that English should always be there. I did not install our forum originally, took over management last year.

Yesterday Dutch was the only language visible in Configuration > Languages. But I must add that when upgrading from 2.017 to 2.1 RC2 a few months ago we got some error messages about "outdated language files". After the upgrade we had indeed a bit of a English/Dutch mix. This was fixed by installing the Dutch language pack from here.

What I did yesterday: Add English as language using (translated) Admin > Configuration > Languages > Add Language.

I just got the forum working again with 2 things:
1. using restore_settings.php I made Dutch the default language. That did not solve it yet.
2. with ftp I noticed that the permissions on the /forum/Themes/default/languages folder were 0766 while everything else has 0777. After I set it to 0777 all texts are back to normal for user with Dutch as language setting.

English is still broken. When I edit it I see settings identical to Dutch like locale: nl_NL.utf8. When I edit that and try to save, it is reset to the wrong settings. Any suggestions on how to fix that?

Edit: when a user with English as language logs in the Error-log gets flooded with errors 8: Undefined index. Thousands!

[Antechinus]

You're using the Dutch utf8 language pack, so I assume your forum is set to utf8. Which English pack are you using?

[Illori]

You're using the Dutch utf8 language pack, so I assume your forum is set to utf8. Which English pack are you using?

SMF 2.1 is UTF-8 by default.

[willemb]

You're using the Dutch utf8 language pack, so I assume your forum is set to utf8. Which English pack are you using?

At Languages > Add Language I searched for English and got 2 options: English or English_british. I chose the first. Both show "2.1 RC2" under Version and "No" under UTF-8.

[live627]

and "No" under UTF-8

that's a bug and  can be ignored

[m4z]

Edit: when a user with English as language logs in the Error-log gets flooded with errors 8: Undefined index. Thousands!

Does the message show where (file and line) the error is occuring?

[willemb]

Does the message show where (file and line) the error is occuring?

Yes, see one example below. To me it looks like any .php that is executed results in an error. We got around 80.000 undefined errors in a few hours for 2 users with English.

Fouttype: Ongedefinieerd (transl.: Errortype: Undefined)
8: Undefined index: most_online_today https://www.<removed>.nl/forum/index.php?
/www/htdocs/wwwoegst/http/forum/Themes/default/BoardIndex.template.php (Regel 516)

[willemb]

Maintenance > Routine show ?? for the version of the English language files (that were installed yesterday). About half of the Dutch language files are 2.1 RC1 the rest is RC2. In addition, it shows Wireless.template.php with a red 2.0.16 and Compat.template.php with 2.0 .

[willemb]

Problem solved. It appeared that the English language files I installed yesterday using the admin menu were mostly empty and some contained garbage. With ftp I replaced them manually with downloaded language files and now we have a great bilingual forum!

Thanks all for help and advice! Our forum was first installed in 2011 and this was the first time we had a notable problem.

[m4z]

Maintenance > Routine show ?? for the version of the English language files (that were installed yesterday). About half of the Dutch language files are 2.1 RC1 the rest is RC2. In addition, it shows Wireless.template.php with a red 2.0.16 and Compat.template.php with 2.0 .

I believe this is "normal", individual files can be behind a couple of versions, because the versions depend on when the english(?) file was last updated (and sometimes, updating the versions seems to just have been forgotten).

[willemb]

After I uploaded the xyz.english.php files manually they show a mix of RC1 and RC2. Only Timezones.english.php stil shows up with ??