Annotation of loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Authoring_Multilingual_Problems.tex, revision 1.2
1.1 bisitz 1: \label{Authoring_Multilingual}
2: \textbf{How to write problems in different languages?}
3:
4: LON-CAPA offers the optional possibility to create multilingual problems.
5: You can use different languages for the task text and also for the options and
6: all other texts shown to the student. LON-CAPA automatically finds the best
7: fitting language for the texts to show to your students.
8:
9:
10: \textbf{Problem Template}
11:
12: A good point to start is to select the template \textbf{Option Response -
13: Matching (multilingual)} when creating a new problem. You can see there how
14: to show texts and options in an optionresponse problem
15: \ref{Authoring_OptionResponse} in different languages. More details how to
16: write such problems as follows.
17:
18:
19: \textbf{Different languages in a text block}
20:
21: Text to show to students is surrounded by <startouttext /> and <endouttext>.
22: If you use only one language, just type your text within these tags:
23:
24: \begin{verbatim}
25: <startouttext />
26: English question
27: <endouttext />
28: \end{verbatim}
29:
30: If you want to offer your text with more than one language, use the
31: \textbf{<translated>} tag within the <startouttext> / <endouttext> tag. Type
32: your text for each language in a \textbf{<lang>} tag. Specify the language code
33: in the attribute ``which'', e.g. ``en'' for English or ``de'' for German.
34: When the problem is presented to your students, LON-CAPA will automatically
35: choose the best language fitting to the user's environment taking care of
36: personal preferences. Details see below.
37:
38: Don't forget to always have a \textbf{default language} present. If the default
39: was missing and LON-CAPA didn't find any fitting language, no text at all would
40: be shown to the student. It is recommended to use English as default or -
41: depending on the field of application - the language which fits best in the
42: context where the problem will be likely used.
43:
44: Example (three different languages and default):
45: \begin{verbatim}
46: <startouttext />
47: <translated>
48: <lang which="en">English question</lang>
49: <lang which="de">Deutscher Aufgabentext</lang>
50: <lang which="fr">Texte de la question en français</lang>
51: <lang which="default">English question</lang>
52: </translated>
53: <endouttext />
54: \end{verbatim}
55:
56: Add a <lang> tag and the corresponding text for each additional language. Watch
57: out to extend all <translated> tags within this problem in this way to have a
58: consistent language for all texts in the problem.
59:
60:
1.2 ! bisitz 61: \textbf{Different languages in options, variables, etc.}
! 62:
! 63: If you use a script block to create dynamic content and it contains text, the
! 64: \textbf{\&languages()} function is used to offer these texts in different
! 65: languages. This function can be called in different ways, see Script Functions
! 66: \ref{Problem_LON-CAPA_Functions}.
! 67: One way is to provide the language codes for the languages you like to support
! 68: in an anonymous array to the function and get back the best fitting language of
! 69: those. Use the returned language code to decide which text in which language
! 70: should be used.
! 71:
! 72: Example:
! 73: \begin{verbatim}
! 74: <script type="loncapa/perl">
! 75: &bestlanguage = &languages(['en','de','fr']);
! 76: if ($bestlanguage eq 'de') {
! 77: $optiontext = 'rot';
! 78: } elsif ($bestlanguage eq 'fr') {
! 79: $optiontext = 'rouge';
! 80: } else { # 'en' and default
! 81: $optiontext = 'red';
! 82: }
! 83: </script>
! 84: \end{verbatim}
! 85:
! 86:
1.1 bisitz 87: \textbf{Interface language vs. problem language}
88:
89: LON-CAPA supports various languages for the web interface, e.g. for menu items
90: and help files. These languages are not necessarily dependent on the languages
91: offered within problems. I.e. it is possible to have the web interface shown
92: in Chinese and a problem is shown in Turkish. However, the user's language
93: preference is considered when the interface is rendered and also when the best
94: fitting language for texts in a problem is chosen. Details see below.
95:
96:
97: \textbf{Language Codes}
98:
99: Some language codes which can be used in the <lang> tag within the <translated>
100: tag:
101: \begin{itemize}
102: \item ar - Arabic
103: \item de - German
104: \item en - English
105: \item es - Spanish
106: \item fa - Persian
107: \item fr - French
108: \item he - Hebrew
109: \item ja - Japanese
110: \item pt - Portuguese
111: \item ru - Russian
112: \item tr - Turkish
113: \item zh - Chinese (Simplified)
114: \end{itemize}
115:
116: These languages are currently also available as interface language, see
117: Language \ref{Prefs_Language} in the User Preferences section.
118: You can use other languages in your problems.
119:
120:
121: \textbf{Consistent language with <translated> and \&languages()}
122:
123: If you use both, <translated> and \&languages(), in your problem, always make
124: sure to keep the languages synchronized. Use exactly the same language codes
125: for the \&languages() call like those used in the <lang> tags within
126: <translated>.
127:
128: \textbf{Testing multilingual problems}
129:
130: You can temporarily change the language for a problem in the \emph{Problem
131: Testing} screen. Use the ``Language'' dropdown list to choose the language
132: to be used for testing and click \fbox{Change View}.
133:
134: Note: Your own personal settings apply, including your browser settings (see
135: below).
136:
137:
138: \textbf{Language hierarchy model in LON-CAPA}
139:
140: LON-CAPA uses the best fitting language by considering the following settings
141: (if available), in the order as follows:
142: \begin{enumerate}
143: \item Overall default: English
144: \item Server setting (see Domain Configuration \ref{Domain_Configuration_LangTZAuth})
145: \item User's language preference(s) in the web browser (client side)
146: \item User preference: Language \ref{Prefs_Language}
147: \item Course setting (see Course Configuration \ref{Course_Prefs_Language})
148: \item Individual problem content (e.g. hard coded language)
149: \end{enumerate}
150:
151: Example 1:
152:
153: The server is set to French, the user's preference in LON-CAPA is set to
1.2 ! bisitz 154: prefer Spanish, the problem is programmed to offer Portuguese and Spanish,
1.1 bisitz 155: and the problem default language is German.
156: LON-CAPA shows this problem in Spanish to the student.
157:
158: Example 2:
159:
160: The server is set to French, the user's preference in LON-CAPA is set to
161: prefer Spanish, the problem is programmed to offer Turkish and Portuguese,
162: and the problem default language is German.
163: LON-CAPA shows this problem in French to the student.
164:
165: Example 3:
166:
167: The user's preference in LON-CAPA is set to prefer Spanish, the problem
168: is programmed to offer French and Portuguese, and the problem default language
169: is German.
170: LON-CAPA shows this problem in German to the student.
171:
172:
173: \textbf{Legacy code with <languageblock>}
174:
175: Some old problems might contain the \textbf{<languageblock>} tag. This tag is
176: deprecated and it is discouraged to use it. The functionality is different to
177: <translated>. It does not fully support the practical needs for offering
178: multilingual problems. If you adapt such a problem for your own purposes, it
179: is recommended to replace <languageblock> by <translated> as described above.
180:
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