I want to do a quick-n-dirty Japanese translation just for the frontend, since my site is running Joomfish. (Perhaps later I can make an official one, but that has some complicated issues because the three major Japanese Bible translations have different names for many of the books.) But the language file is very long, including many repeated terms (e.g. I have seen MESSAGE TYPE at least three times so far just at a glance) and many terms I can't translate without seeing the usage context. If I want to just focus on the frontend for now, how far down in the file do I need to go? It's obvious that the early part of the file is frontend and the latter part is backend (at least I hope the division is that clean), but where is the "dividing line"? I am not currently implementing all the frontend features (all the different types of lists, etc.), so I can't easily just check and see that all the labels change.

There wasn't much organization to the language files. We are still hoping for someone to lead up that effort. Best thing would probably be to do as you suggest - change what labels you know you need on the front end into a Japanese xml file - create the proper name for it and plop it into it's language folder. Sounds like you know how to do that stuff.

Tom

Actually I've never done a Joomla translation before, but I thought I knew how it works. But my changes are not appearing, so I guess this thread is turning into an actual support issue. Not only do I not see my Japanese labels when I change languages, but I don't even see a customization that I made to my English file. Several of us who use the site (including the pastor!) think that "Select a Teacher", etc. is confusing and should say "All Teachers" or something like that, to reflect what is being shown in the list (yes, I know that "- select a whatever -" is standard Joomla terminology, but visitors to the site are not Joomla administrators). So I made the following change to my .../language/en-GB/en-GB.com_biblestudy.ini file:

But I'm not seeing the new text on the frontend. Do I need to do more than just edit that file?

Any thoughts on this? I'm about to launch my site, but I still don't know how to control the labels in the component. I'm not seeing either the little changes I made in the English language file or the Japanese language file I created. Can someone please help me?

Here is how I managed to change the language file.

Edit the file /languages/yourlanguagetag/tag.com_biblestudy.ini

In my case it is: /languages/en-GB/en-GB.com_biblestudy.ini

This will affect the site strings. There are some untranslated strings. You can see them by going to the global configuration | System and turning on Debug Language.

To see which strings have not been translated, also turn on System Debug. Look at the Bible Study listing. Below all the SQL queries you will see the language files loaded and also any untranslated strings. This makes it easy to edit that language file.

On the admin side, then. Keep the system in debug mode and open up the study listing page. You will also see the language files used there and untranslated strings.

In my case it is: administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_biblestudy.ini AND administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_biblestudy.menu.ini

The menu.ini file mainly handles the menu items from the Components drop down.

I was able to change strings in my site using this method.

Translated strings will have bullets on either side, untranslated strings will have ?? on both sides.

To add a string, edit that .ini language file and add STRING TO TRANSLATE=Translated String

We are still in need of someone to handle the translations for com_biblestudy - it's just too much for the developers. So anyone willing - HELP!

Tom

I did as you recommended, but it's still a mystery. I'm working on debugging the English first, since there are less variables than with a new language file (I suspect whatever problem I'm having with the English would also be the reason the Japanese doesn't work). The languages/en-GB/en-GB.com_biblestudy.ini is the file I edited previously to change "SELECT A BOOK=Select a Book" to "SELECT A BOOK=All Books" (and the others like that). The file definitely says "SELECT A BOOK=All Books". And with Debug Language turned on, the select boxes have dots on either side of "Select a Book", so why doesn't it change the text?