Multiple languages

Hi there,

I have a pretty demanding client with some fairly interesting expectations, so bear with me...

There are four sites for this client, all in different languages, all with different domains (abc.com, abc.pl, abc.pt, abc.fr).  I want all of these sites to be able to share the same database.  The user should have the option of seeing just forum activity for their language (or domain whichever is easiest to set up) or for all languages.  Each of these sites will share groups, but the content is filtered by thread language.  So, for example, a user registers in Poland and automatically assigned a language id of polish.  They go to the forums and see three groups with x threads in each group.  They go to their profile and change a custom field which changes their default viewing language to "All", go back to the forum home page and see three groups with x+y threads, in mulitple languages.  Does this make sense?

Also, the groups that will be set up, can we have different names for each group based upon their natural language?  So, someone from the UK sees "Videos, Photos, News", while someone from Poland sees "Klipy, Foty, Niusy".  The content could be language filtered or all, as specified above.

I guess now is also an opportune moment to ask if you have translations for Polish, French and Potuguese.  This may be expanded even further in the future, so perhaps a full translation list would be smarter, with a description of how we go about translating it.  If we come up with a language which you haven't got a language file for, can we do our own?

On a slightly different track, we intend to bring forum content into each site to some extent (latest postings, comments on an article looking like a standard list of comments, but actually being a forum post).  Is this possible, and how easy?  I guess what I'm asking is do you supply scripts (which can be understood and modified) for this type of thing.  Its not going to be much fun if I have to figure out the database table and data structure to be able to do these bits and pieces.

With the "member online" facility, how exactly are you able to determine if a user is online?  If its session based (IIS, db, whatever), don't you have the issue of the user closing their browser and the system being unaware they've gone until their session times out?  Its not actually "live", is it?  If it is, can we use it elsewhere in the sites?

And finally, licenses.  I assume that if the forum is available on four sites, regardless of the shared database, that four licenses will be needed, please confirm.  Also, please supply me with details of the special license to remove the copywrite signature at the bottom of the forum, and if possible details of the reseller program.

Hope this all makes sense.  If its daunting for you, guess how my brain feels?!

Kitster

Hi Kitster,

Let me answer your questions one-by-one:

1) language filtering is not supported in our software. The best we can do is to have 4 user groups (French, English, Polish, and go on) and assign members to each respective language group. Then, set up forums as private based on language and allow relevant groups access. Or, you can ask your members to subscribe to forums they want and ask them to visit the my forums page. This way they will see their forums based on their subscription and all the forums on the main page

2) no, group title is one language only. I am a bit confused as to what the group in your question actually refers to. Do you mean a group like an individual forum or an user group?

3) yes, we provide the Site Integration Package that can be used to easily extract messages. See this page for more info.

4) it is session based recorded in the database, so it is not going to time out just by closing the browser. The entry will be removed once the session times out. Well, you can still use it even if it is not live since it is recorded in the database.

5) yes, 4 licenses will be needed. Affiliate program is available here. I will send you the details about unbranded license in an email.

Hi Samuel, thanks for the reply.

We've altered our idea a bit, so the language filtering and group filtering is no longer necessary, don't worry about that bit.

Now I was wondering about the points system built into the forum software.  Is there an algorithm or set of rules which determine how many points people get for various forum activities?  And can we set up custom tasks for which users get points?  In other words, can we take your points engine and add bits to it?  So someone does something on the main site and their points are adjusted.

Cheers

Kit

The point system is actually just associated with the post rating system. If a user rate a post, a corresponding point will be assigned to the author. And sure, you can add/subtract points from outside the forum software by issuing a very simple SQL statement from a page on your main site.

OK, thanks Samuel, I've checked out the rating system, seems pretty simple.  We're probably going to want to expand it a little, add our own points to it and also be able to differentiate between three or four types of activity which gather points.  Are we going to be able to add a Points Type identifier to the points table, essentially expanding it from a flat points system to a two-tier system?  I imagine that would mean changing the table structure and the query which adds/subtracts the points after a rating, are there any other bits that I've missed?  If this is going to be too complicated, let me know and we'll come up with a workaround, probably having our points put into a seperate table and changing the query in the forum code so that it looks at both tables (yours and ours).  Am I on the right track here?  The points are quite important to the whole thing...

And the user "groups", like I'm a "New Member" and you're an "Administrator" and there are "License Holders", and there are different numbers of stars associated with each user, is that calculated from the points as well?

It looks like we're going to go ahead with this software, just need to be aware of any technical issues and conflicts with our business model.

Cheers

Kitster

you can add a table to record the different activities that generates point for each member, but add the points directly to our table. This way the forum brings up the total points in the fastest manner but if needed, you can query your own table to see the breakdown.

Group is different from rank. Rank is based on points and / or number of posts. Group is what I set up, and member of which can have a special title to override the title that carries over from the ranking system. Group is used to separate users of different permissions, and the ranking system (point system) is used as a way to show how involved a member is. They are totally separate systems.