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Currently in kiwitrees (and webtrees) languages are always listed using the “local” name for each language in it’s own translation:

It’s been that way since Greg introduced the current language system at the very start of webtrees’ move from PGV. I’ve never been 100% comfortable with it, but there were never any complaints and as I don’t use any languages other than English on my own site I have left it the same in kiwitrees.

However, on the webtrees forum this has just been asked:

Is it possible to have a ‘mouseover’ the language names, giving the names of the language in the manager’s language? I have a Thai user who does not speak English well and I have had to guess at the Thai language for his login.

It has prompted me to consider a change in kiwitrees. Not for the imminent release (3.2.3) but perhaps the next. Apart from the obvious “leave it as it is” choice I see two options, and would welcome any one’s thoughts on this.

1. As requested in the above quote, leave the display as it is, but provide a hover-tip (mini popup when you hover over the name) of the language in the viewer’s translation.
2. Completely change the list so all the names are in the viewer’s language

I am assuming this would apply to the Language selector drop-down on all pages, plus a couple of select lists on the administration area (Family tree configuration and user settings).

The programming effort required is the same for both, and quite small. Probably no more than 20 minutes work for me. The biggest task falls to our hard-working translators, as a list of all languages (I would include many more than currently available to avoid adding random ones later) would need to be translated be each translator, about 60 items in total.

There are a couple of practical considerations:

• I’m not sure how good it will be having a hover-tip attached to something already in a hover based drop down list.
• Hover-tips don’t work on phones / tablets etc. (touch devices).
• The translations will only work where the language has been translated for kiwitrees. We don’t have many active translators at present. Only Dutch, German, Danish and the English variants are actively supported at present. So most other language speaking visitors will still get what appears now.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

I only have users using languages whose names are fairly obvious to me so I don’t really have a problem with this. Even though not written in English, most of us having a European language as mother-tongue probably have no problem identifying Deutsch, español, polski, svenska, etc., and I suspect it’s only going to be the last seven on the list that cause most of us to scratch our heads – like the person who raised the problem with webtrees for a Thai user. But I have a feeling that the few of us who find ourselves with users in those language groups, would quickly recognise which of the bottom seven was the appropriate language for those few users and translation would only really have value for someone coming to the problem for the first time. However, if you DO decide to go ahead and do it, I would favour solution 2 (all language names appear in the viewer’s language) as being neater and potentially more helpful, given the mobile device restriction for the first solution.

Ron in France Website: https://clan-davies.kiwitrees.net/ kiwitrees 3.3.11; PHP 8.0.14

I only having danish and english (well atm my language setup page in danish is empty – dunno why – bug perhabs or translation error?) But just telling it is not important to me about the language translation. Most of the danes just use danish and do not afford any time in anything else. They just having the long list in the “langugage drop down” at frontpage.
I have allready looked at the translation and gives me a bit to think about. Some of them I have no clue what we call it “as spoken language” in danish 😀 😀 😀

Regards, Jamie Jaconelli

admin and owner of a user customized version of kiwitrees (contain 3 family trees)

jacoline wrote:

(well atm my language setup page in danish is empty – dunno why – bug perhabs or translation error?)

Translation error I’m afraid. Missing/broken html tag in translation 216.

I’ve fixed it in Transifex, and attached are new .mo and .po files. (Note: these files do not include the new translations related to next release).

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

I did not find that error in the po file – thank you 🙂

Regards, Jamie Jaconelli

admin and owner of a user customized version of kiwitrees (contain 3 family trees)