Slavic conjugation

Osa

Hi
I'm trying to translate Vanilla to polish and found that polish (and probably other Slavic) "activities" translation will be quite difficult, because verbs in the past tense are inflected for gender.

It can be done by changing ActivityHeadline and ProfileHeadline functions in /library/core/class.format.php
Is there other way to implement Slavic conjugation , like adding some functions to definitions.php

Tudor

I'm having similar problems with the Romanian translation. I eventually gave up and let everything on the Activity page in English.

S

@Osa @Tudor
Plugin Smart Localization will save you.

update: Oh, sorry. Didnt read carefully. It will not save you. It is for other translate problems.

Osa

Made some progress..

I added 1 line to /vanilla/applications/dashboard/models/class.activitymodel.php

public function ActivityQuery() {
$this->SQL
->Select('a.*')
->Select('t.FullHeadline, t.ProfileHeadline, t.AllowComments, t.ShowIcon, t.RouteCode')
->Select('t.Name', '', 'ActivityType')
->Select('au.Name', '', 'ActivityName')
->Select('au.Gender', '', 'ActivityGender')
->Select('au.Photo', '', 'ActivityPhoto')
->Select('ru.Name', '', 'RegardingName')
->Select('ru.Gender', '', 'RegardingGender')
->From('Activity a')
->Join('ActivityType t', 'a.ActivityTypeID = t.ActivityTypeID')
->Join('User au', 'a.ActivityUserID = au.UserID')
->Join('User ru', 'a.RegardingUserID = ru.UserID', 'left');
}

This modification will allow to format string depending on gender in /vanilla/library/core/class.format.php in function ActivityHeadline.

/**
    * The ActivityType table has some special sprintf search/replace values in the
    * FullHeadline and ProfileHeadline fields. The ProfileHeadline field is to be
    * used on this page (the user profile page). The FullHeadline field is to be
    * used on the main activity page. The replacement definitions are as follows:
    *  %1 = ActivityName
    *  %2 = ActivityName Possessive
    *  %3 = RegardingName
    *  %4 = RegardingName Possessive
    *  %5 = Link to RegardingName's Wall
    *  %6 = his/her
    *  %7 = he/she
    *  %8 = route & routecode
    *  %9 = gender sufix
    *
    * @param object $Activity An object representation of the activity being formatted.
    * @param int $ProfileUserID If looking at a user profile, this is the UserID of the profile we are
    *  looking at.
    * @return string
    */
   public static function ActivityHeadline($Activity, $ProfileUserID = '', $ViewingUserID = '') {
      if ($ViewingUserID == '') {
         $Session = Gdn::Session();
         $ViewingUserID = $Session->IsValid() ? $Session->UserID : -1;
      }
      if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->ActivityUserID) {
         $ActivityName = $ActivityNameP = T('You');
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
      } else {
         $ActivityName = $Activity->ActivityName;
         $ActivityNameP = FormatPossessive($ActivityName);
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? '' : 'a');
      }
      if ($ProfileUserID != $Activity->ActivityUserID) {
         // If we're not looking at the activity user's profile, link the name
         $ActivityNameD = urlencode($Activity->ActivityName);
         $ActivityName = Anchor($ActivityName, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
         $ActivityNameP = Anchor($ActivityNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID  . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? '' : 'a');
      }
      $Gender = T($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'his' : 'her');
      $Gender2 = T($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'he' : 'she');
      if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->RegardingUserID || ($Activity->RegardingUserID == '' && $Activity->ActivityUserID == $ViewingUserID)) {
         $Gender = $Gender2 = T('your');
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
         }

      $IsYou = FALSE;
      if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->RegardingUserID) {
         $IsYou = TRUE;
         $RegardingName = T('you');
         $RegardingNameP = T('your');
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->RegardingGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
      } else {
         $RegardingName = $Activity->RegardingName == '' ? T('somebody') : $Activity->RegardingName;
         $RegardingNameP = FormatPossessive($RegardingName);
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
      }
      $RegardingWall = '';

      if ($Activity->ActivityUserID == $Activity->RegardingUserID) {
         // If the activityuser and regardinguser are the same, use the $Gender Ref as the RegardingName
         $RegardingName = $RegardingProfile = $Gender;
         $RegardingNameP = $RegardingProfileP = $Gender;
         $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
      } else if ($Activity->RegardingUserID > 0 && $ProfileUserID != $Activity->RegardingUserID) {
         // If there is a regarding user and we're not looking at his/her profile, link the name.
         $RegardingNameD = urlencode($Activity->RegardingName);
         if (!$IsYou) {
            $RegardingName = Anchor($RegardingName, '/profile/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD);
            $RegardingNameP = Anchor($RegardingNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD);
            $GenderSuffix = ($Activity->RegardingGender == 'm' ? '' : 'a');
         }
         $RegardingWall = Anchor(T('wall'), '/profile/activity/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD . '#Activity_' . $Activity->ActivityID);
      }
      if ($RegardingWall == '')
         $RegardingWall = T('wall');

      if ($Activity->Route == '')
         $Route = T($Activity->RouteCode);
      else
         $Route = Anchor(T($Activity->RouteCode), $Activity->Route);

      /*
        Debug:
      return $ActivityName
      .'/'.$ActivityNameP
      .'/'.$RegardingName
      .'/'.$RegardingNameP
      .'/'.$RegardingWall
      .'/'.$Gender
      .'/'.$Gender2
      .'/'.$Route
      */

      return sprintf($ProfileUserID == $Activity->ActivityUserID || $ProfileUserID == '' ? T($Activity->FullHeadline) : T($Activity->ProfileHeadline), $ActivityName, $ActivityNameP, $RegardingName, $RegardingNameP, $RegardingWall, $Gender, $Gender2, $Route, $GenderSuffix);
   }

This hard-coded suffixes works for me ;-)
But now, how to overwrite (overload??) ActivityHeadline function from definitions.php ?

veki

@Tim, this is great work by @Osa.

If it is possible this should be implemented in V2.01, bacause all eastern Europe has this kind of conjunction...

In our languages we use different verbs he and she.
He says: / On je rekao:
She says: / Ona je rekla:

Nice add on.

Todd

@Osa, this is great work. I try and get in in to core in a generic way. I edited your post so I can follow the indentation a bit better. Hope you don't mind.

Todd

Can you answer a question for me? Is there is a different gender suffix for second person (you, your) and third person (he, his)? Could we just have translations for:

GenderSuffix.Second.m = 'eś'
GenderSuffix.Second.f = 'aś'
GenderSuffix.Third.m = ''
GenderSuffix.Third.f = 'a'

Also, I'm going to be putting support for translating the activities in your language files so they will be portable.

Osa

@Todd Yes, we have different gender suffix for second and third person in past tense and You made translation strings correct.

And another small mod

$IsYou = FALSE;
if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->RegardingUserID) {
$IsYou = TRUE;
$RegardingName = T('you');
$RegardingNameP = T('your');
$GenderSuffix = ($Activity->RegardingGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
} else {
$RegardingName = $Activity->RegardingName == '' ? T('somebody') : $Activity->RegardingName;
$RegardingNameP = FormatPossessive($RegardingName);
    if ($Activity->ActivityUserID != $ViewingUserID) {
	$GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? '' : 'a');
	} else {
	$GenderSuffix = ($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'eś' : 'aś');
    }
}
$RegardingWall = '';

Feel free to make changes more generic.

Todd

I've pushed a change with gender suffix support to unstable. It would be great if you guys could try out the fix before we release 2.0.1 to get any bugs out.

If you want to try the fix, but don't want to copy everything then the only file affected is /library/core/class.format.php.

Osa

Line 113 $GenderSuffixCode = "GenderSuffix.$GenderSuffix.{$Activity->ActivityGender}";

Should be

$GenderSuffixCode = "GenderSuffix.$GenderSuffixCode.{$Activity->ActivityGender}"; 

to get suffix gender like GenderSuffix.Third.m

Another problem is, that gendersuffix depends on Regarding user gender(if any)!
ie i get

# GenderSuffix.Third.f -- my debug

Misiek utworzyła konto użytkownikowi Michalina.
Misiek(male) created account for Michalina(female)
This shoud be
Misiek utworzył konto użytkownikowi Michalina.

But
Michalina dołączyła
Michalina joined

And
Misiek dołączył
Misiek joined.

So this is why i added

->Select('ru.Gender', '', 'RegardingGender')

to /vanilla/applications/dashboard/models/class.activitymodel.php

TiGR

It gets more and more complicated and I don't like that.

Todd

@Osa, I forgot about the regarding gender thing. I've made the changes as best I could.

It would really be great if someone here can get their own branch going in github and send us pull-requests. It will go much faster.

Osa

@TiGR It gets more complicated ;-)

I propose rewriting ActivityHeadline to get it clear.. It works for me, but please test it before committing. Especially Eastern and Central Europe translators could help. I tried to get all conditions , but simply could miss something.

Osa

   public static function ActivityHeadline($Activity,$ProfileUserID = '', $ViewingUserID = '') {

	if ($ViewingUserID == '') {
		$Session = Gdn::Session();
	$ViewingUserID = $Session->IsValid() ? $Session->UserID : -1;
	}

	$GenderSuffixCode = 'First';
	$GenderSuffixGender = $Activity->ActivityGender;
	$Gender = T($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'his' : 'her');
	$Gender2 = T($Activity->ActivityGender == 'm' ? 'he' : 'she');
	$ActivityName = $Activity->ActivityName;
//activity user, no regarding user, no route , possible routecode
	if ($Activity->RegardingUserID=='' && $Activity->Route == NULL) {
		if ($ViewingUserID<>$Activity->ActivityUserID) {
			$GenderSuffixCode = 'Third';
		} else {
			$ActivityName = T('You');
			$Gender = T('your');
		}
		if ($ViewingUserID != $Activity->ActivityUserID) {
			// If we're not looking at the activity user's profile, link the name
			$ActivityNameD = urlencode($Activity->ActivityName);
			$ActivityName = Anchor($ActivityName, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
		}
		if ($Activity->RouteCode !='')  $Route = T($Activity->RouteCode);
	}
//activity user, regarding user, no route
	if ($Activity->RegardingUserID>0 && $Activity->Route =='') {

		$GenderSuffixGender = $Activity->RegardingGender;
		if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->RegardingUserID) {
			$RegardingName = $Activity->RegardingName = T('You');
			$Gender = $Gender2 = T('your');
		} else {
			$GenderSuffixCode = 'Third';
			$RegardingName = $Activity->RegardingName == '' ? T('somebody') : $Activity->RegardingName;
			$RegardingNameD = urlencode($Activity->RegardingName);
			$RegardingName = Anchor($RegardingName, '/profile/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD);
			$RegardingNameP = Anchor($RegardingNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID  . '/' . $RegardingNameD);
		}
		if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->ActivityUserID) {
			$ActivityName = T('You');
		} else {
			// If we're not looking at the activity user's profile, link the name
			$ActivityNameD = urlencode($Activity->ActivityName);
			$ActivityName = Anchor($ActivityName, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
			$ActivityNameP = Anchor($ActivityNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID  . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
		}
		$RegardingWall = '';
		$RegardingWall = Anchor(T('wall'), '/profile/activity/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD . '#Activity_' . $Activity->ActivityID);
		if ($RegardingWall == '') {
		        $RegardingWall = T('wall');
		}
	}
//activity user, no regarding user, route

	if ($Activity->RegardingUserID=='' && $Activity->Route !='') {
		if ($ViewingUserID==$Activity->ActivityUserID) {
			$ActivityName = $ActivityNameP = T('You');
		} else {
			$GenderSuffixCode = 'Third';
			$ActivityNameP = FormatPossessive($ActivityName);
		}
		if ($ProfileUserID != $Activity->ActivityUserID && $ViewingUserID != $Activity->ActivityUserID) {
			// If we're not looking at the activity user's profile, link the name
			$ActivityNameD = urlencode($Activity->ActivityName);
			$ActivityName = Anchor($ActivityName, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
			$ActivityNameP = Anchor($ActivityNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID  . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
		} else {
		$Gender = T('your');		
		}
		$Route = Anchor (T($Activity->RouteCode),$Activity->Route  );
	}
//activity user, regarding user, route
	if ($Activity->RegardingUserID>0 && $Activity->Route !='') {
		$Route = Anchor(T($Activity->RouteCode), $Activity->Route);
		$RegardingName = $Activity->RegardingName;
		$RegardingNameP = FormatPossessive($RegardingName);
		$GenderSuffixGender = $Activity->ActivityGender;
		if ($ViewingUserID==$Activity->ActivityUserID) {
			$ActivityName = T('You');
			$RegardingNameP=T('your');
			$ActivityNameP = FormatPossessive($ActivityName);
						
		} else {
			$GenderSuffixCode = 'Third';
			// If we're not looking at the activity user's profile, link the name
			$ActivityNameD = urlencode($Activity->ActivityName);
			$ActivityName = Anchor($ActivityName, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
			$ActivityNameP = Anchor($ActivityNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->ActivityUserID  . '/' . $ActivityNameD);
		}
		if ($ViewingUserID == $Activity->RegardingUserID) { $RegardingNameP=T('your');$RegardingName=T('You');
		} else {
			// If we're not looking at the regarding user's profile, link the name
			$RegardingNameD = urlencode($Activity->RegardingName);
			$RegardingName = Anchor($RegardingName, '/profile/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD);
			$RegardingNameP = Anchor($RegardingNameP, '/profile/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID  . '/' . $RegardingNameD);
		}
		$RegardingWall = '';
		$RegardingWall = Anchor(T('wall'), '/profile/activity/' . $Activity->RegardingUserID . '/' . $RegardingNameD . '#Activity_' . $Activity->ActivityID);
		if ($RegardingWall == '') $RegardingWall = T('wall');
	}

      // Translate the gender suffix.
      $GenderSuffixCode = "GenderSuffix.$GenderSuffixCode.$GenderSuffixGender";
      $GenderSuffix = T($GenderSuffixCode, '');
      if ($GenderSuffix == $GenderSuffixCode)
         $GenderSuffix = ''; // in case translate doesn't support empty strings.

      /*
        Debug:
      return $ActivityName
      .'/'.$ActivityNameP
      .'/'.$RegardingName
      .'/'.$RegardingNameP
      .'/'.$RegardingWall
      .'/'.$Gender
      .'/'.$Gender2
      .'/'.$Route
      .'/'.$GenderSuffix.($GenderSuffixCode)
      */
      return sprintf(($ProfileUserID == $Activity->ActivityUserID || $ProfileUserID == '' ? T($Activity->FullHeadline) : T($Activity->ProfileHeadline)), $ActivityName, $ActivityNameP, $RegardingName, $RegardingNameP, $RegardingWall, $Gender, $Gender2, $Route, $GenderSuffix);
   }

iznk

Awesome tips, @Osa! Thanks a lot! I'm translating it into Russian and it really makes my life easier.

TiGR

@Osa, could you, please, show your activity definitions?

TiGR

This just does not work.

Russian suffixes for varius male/female verbs are different. You can't just specify one suffix and be happy with that. For example:

Joined - зарегистрировался/зарегистрировалась.
Edited - отредактировал/отредактировала

With current code it's quite hard to get into it and impossible to do these varying suffixes.

I think you should create some api for locales, so that locale developers might write their code. For instance:

function formatActivityString(<all parameters, including activity code, all names, genders and so on>) {

    switch ($ActivityCode) {
        case "Joined":
            return "$ActivityUserName зарегистрировал" 
                 . ($ActivityUserGender=='m' ? "ся" : "ась")
                 . " на форуме."
        case "Some":
        case "Other":
        case "Activities":
        case "WIth":
        case "Common":
        case "Suffixes":
             $codes = array('containting activity lines and codes');
             return sprintf($codes[$ActivityCode], $ActivityUserName, $ActitvyUserGender=='m' ? "" : "а", $somethingElse);

        default:
            return false; // so that we might know that we should return default string;
    }
}

Then somewher in the core:

if (!function_exists('formatActivityString')) {
    // Fallback to currently used code
}

x00

Why not just handle it on the phrase level? Have a convention. Therefore there is no need to learn language rules, which can vary quite a bit.

Osa

it's also possible to make sex independent phrases, but they sucks.

Fb adds "użytkownik" before each username in polish. "Użytkownik" means "user" and is sex independent. Reading "użytkownik" in every post makes me angry ;-). They are my friends, not just users.
I like @TiGR's way of making translators responsible for quality of translation. AFAIK we have about 20 activities and only some of them are problematic.

x00

There is no need to make neutral phrases just have a convention for the locale, like an array lookup. The problem is you are having language syntax issues, that is becuase you are working on the word level rather than phrase level. Phrase level there needn't be syntax issues, there are actually only a limited amount of scenarios. Why should vanilla need natural language processing capabilities? It should be fairly language agnostic. All you need in the convention is gender capability, and the various versions of that saying. Once you start to try an figure out which words go where and when then you need the processing capabilities of google, if you wish to please everyone. Not necessary.

TiGRs idea is messy IMO. Function overrides are not the best way to extend. I think you should only be extending local conventions, as they apply to output.

oliverraduner

Just to put some weight on this topic: the German speaking users will also be interested in a solution for this gender-related translations issue :)

Anonymoose

Has this problem been solved in the new version?

Todd

I don't think this has been solved, but I want to make sure it is solved before we release version 2.1. Here is what needs to be done though:

1. I need to come up with some proposed solutions.

2. I will need feedback from the community on whether or not it will work with various languages.

I'll be posting a thread on it this week so if you know how to speak a language that needs this feature then please keep an eye open.

TiGR

@Todd, please, drop a link to that discussion here once you create it.

Sheila

Will be happy to contribute as well if I only can. I don't have any specific issues with gender related translations other than they are not used in my language at all, problems are merely with plurals and personal pronouns. And especially the activity feed is hard to translate fluently.

I have reported these already and Todd is aware of them, but in case other languages are facing same kind of problems, here's a link to that thread: http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/20650/personal-pronouns-plurals-you-vs-username-and-possible-other-issues-with-localization#latest

Todd

Hey all, we are discussing a solution to activity translation here.