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    1: \label{Authoring_Multilingual_Problems}
    2: \section*{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: \subsection*{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: \subsection*{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: 
   61: \subsection*{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: 
   87: \subsection*{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: \subsection*{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: \subsection*{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: 
  129: \subsection*{Testing multilingual problems}
  130: 
  131: You can temporarily change the language for a problem in the \emph{Problem
  132: Testing} screen. Use the ``Language'' dropdown list to choose the language
  133: to be used for testing and click \fbox{Change View}.
  134: 
  135: Note: Your own personal settings apply, including your browser settings (see
  136: below).
  137: 
  138: 
  139: \subsection*{Language hierarchy model in LON-CAPA}
  140: 
  141: LON-CAPA uses the best fitting language by considering the following settings
  142: (if available), in the order as follows:
  143: \begin{enumerate}
  144: \item Overall default: English
  145: \item Server setting (see Domain Configuration \ref{Domain_Configuration_LangTZAuth})
  146: \item User's language preference(s) in the web browser (client side)
  147: \item User preference: Language \ref{Prefs_Language}
  148: \item Course setting (see Course Configuration \ref{Course_Prefs_Language})
  149: \item Individual problem content (e.g. hard coded language)
  150: \end{enumerate}
  151: 
  152: Example 1:
  153: 
  154: The server is set to French, the user's preference in LON-CAPA is set to
  155: prefer Spanish, the problem is programmed to offer Portuguese and Spanish,
  156: and the problem default language is German.
  157: LON-CAPA shows this problem in Spanish to the student.
  158: 
  159: Example 2:
  160: 
  161: The server is set to French, the user's preference in LON-CAPA is set to
  162: prefer Spanish, the problem is programmed to offer Turkish and Portuguese,
  163: and the problem default language is German.
  164: LON-CAPA shows this problem in French to the student.
  165: 
  166: Example 3:
  167: 
  168: The user's preference in LON-CAPA is set to prefer Spanish, the problem
  169: is programmed to offer French and Portuguese, and the problem default language
  170: is German.
  171: LON-CAPA shows this problem in German to the student.
  172: 
  173: 
  174: \subsection*{Legacy code with <languageblock>}
  175: 
  176: Some old problems might contain the \textbf{<languageblock>} tag. This tag is
  177: deprecated and it is discouraged to use it. The functionality is different to
  178: <translated>. It does not fully support the practical needs for offering
  179: multilingual problems. If you adapt such a problem for your own purposes, it
  180: is recommended to replace <languageblock> by <translated> as described above.
  181: