#189880 by keith.smith based on initial suggestions from O Govinda: much better help texts and descriptions for locale module, actually explaining its extended feature set in Drupal 6.

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 15 deletions

diff --git a/modules/locale/locale.module b/modules/locale/locale.module
index 45d2a8ebf..c48a87cad 100644
--- a/modules/locale/locale.module
+++ b/modules/locale/locale.module
@@ -32,33 +32,44 @@ define('LANGUAGE_RTL', 1);
 function locale_help($path, $arg) {
   switch ($path) {
     case 'admin/help#locale':
-      $output = '<p>'. t('The locale module allows you to present your Drupal site in a language other than the default English. You can use it to set up a multi-lingual website or replace given <em>built-in</em> text with text which has been customized for your site. Whenever the locale module encounters text which needs to be displayed, it tries to translate it into the currently selected language. If a translation is not available, then the string is remembered, so you can look up untranslated strings easily.') .'</p>';
-      $output .= '<p>'. t('The locale module provides two options for providing translations. The first is the integrated web interface, via which you can search for untranslated strings, and specify their translations. An easier and less time-consuming method is to import existing translations for your language. These translations are available as <em>GNU gettext Portable Object files</em> (<em>.po</em> files for short). Translations for many languages are available for download from the translation page.') .'</p>';
-      $output .= '<p>'. t("If an existing translation does not meet your needs, the <em>.po</em> files are easily edited with special editing tools. The locale module's import feature allows you to add strings from such files into your site's database. The export functionality enables you to share your translations with others, generating Portable Object files from your site strings.") .'</p>';
+      $output = '<p>'. t('The locale module allows your Drupal site to be presented in languages other than the default English, a defining feature of multi-lingual websites. The locale module works by examining text as it is about to be displayed: when a translation of the text is available in the language to be displayed, the translation is displayed rather than the original text. When a translation is unavailable, the original text is displayed, and then stored for later review by a translator.') .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('Beyond translation of the Drupal interface, the locale module provides a feature set tailored to the needs of a multi-lingual site. Language negotiation allows your site to automatically change language based on the domain or path used for each request. Users may (optionally) select their preferred language on their <em>My account</em> page, and your site can be configured to honor a web browser\'s preferred language settings. Your site content can be created in (and translated to) any enabled language, and each post may have a language-appropriate alias for each of its translations. The locale module works in concert with the <a href="@contenthelp">content translation module</a> to manage translated content.', array('@contenthelp' => url('admin/help/translation'))) .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('Translations may be provided by:') .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<ul><li>'. t("translating the original text via the locale module's integrated web interface, or") .'</li>';
+      $output .= '<li>'. t('importing files from a set of existing translations, known as a translation package. A translation package enables the display of a specific version of Drupal in a specific language, and contain files in the Gettext Portable Object (<em>.po</em>) format. Although not all languages are available for every version of Drupal, translation packages for many languages are available for download from the <a href="@translations">Drupal translation page</a>.', array('@translations' => 'http://drupal.org/project/translations')) .'</li></ul>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('If an existing translation package does not meet your needs, the Gettext Portable Object (<em>.po</em>) files within a package may be modified, or new <em>.po</em> files may be created, using a desktop Gettext editor. The locale module\'s <a href="@import">import</a> feature allows the translated strings from a new or modified <em>.po</em> file to be added to your site. The locale module\'s <a href="@export">export</a> feature generates files from your site\'s translated strings, that can either be shared with others or edited offline by a Gettext translation editor.', array('@import' => url('admin/build/translate/import'), '@export' => url('admin/build/translate/export'))) .'</p>';
       $output .= '<p>'. t('For more information, see the online handbook entry for <a href="@locale">Locale module</a>.', array('@locale' => 'http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/locale/')) .'</p>';
       return $output;
     case 'admin/settings/language':
-      $output = '<p>'. t('Drupal provides support for the translation of its interface text into different languages. This page provides an overview of the installed languages. You can add a language on the <a href="@add-language">add language page</a>, or directly by <a href="@import">importing a translation</a>. If multiple languages are enabled, registered users will be able to set their preferred language. The site default will be used for anonymous visitors and for users without their own settings.', array('@add-language' => url('admin/settings/language/add'), '@import' => url('admin/build/translate/import'))) .'</p>';
-      $output .= '<p>'. t('Drupal interface translations may be added or extended by <a href="@import">importing</a> an existing translation, by <a href="@search">translating everything</a> from scratch, or by a combination of these approaches.', array('@import' => url('admin/build/translate/import'), '@search' => url('admin/build/translate/search'))) .'</p>';
-      $output .= '<p>'. t('To quickly add additional languages to your site, a number of <a href="@translations">contributed translations</a> are available.', array('@translations' => 'http://drupal.org/project/translations')) .'</p>';
+      $output = '<p>'. t("This page provides an overview of your site's enabled languages. If multiple languages are available and enabled, the text on your site interface may be translated, registered users may select their preferred language on the <em>My account</em> page, and site authors may indicate a specific language when creating posts. The site's default language is used for anonymous visitors and for users who have not selected a preferred language.") .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('For each language available on the site, use the <em>edit</em> link to configure language details, including name, an optional language-specific path or domain, and whether the language is natively presented either left-to-right or right-to-left. These languages also appear in the <em>Language</em> selection when creating a post of a content type with multilingual support.') .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<p>' .t('Use the <a href="@add-language">add language page</a> to enable additional languages (and automatically import files from a translation package, if available), the <a href="@search">translate interface page</a> to locate strings for manual translation, or the <a href="@import">import page</a> to add translations from individual <em>.po</em> files. A number of contributed translation packages containing <em>.po</em> files are available on the <a href="@translations">Drupal.org translations page</a>.', array('@add-language' => url('admin/settings/language/add'), '@search' => url('admin/build/translate/search'), '@import' => url('admin/build/translate/import'), '@translations' => 'http://drupal.org/project/translations')) .'</p>';
       return $output;
     case 'admin/settings/language/add':
-      return '<p>'. t("You need to add all languages in which you would like to display the site interface. If you can't find the desired language in the quick-add dropdown, then you will need to provide the proper language code yourself. The language code may be used to negotiate with browsers and to present flags, etc., so it is important to pick a code that is standardized for the desired language. You can also add a language by <a href=\"@import\">importing a translation</a>.", array("@import" => url("admin/build/translate/import"))) .'</p>';
+      return '<p>'. t('Add all languages to be supported by your site. If your desired language is not available in the <em>Language name</em> drop-down, click <em>Custom language</em> and provide a language code and other details manually. When providing a language code manually, be sure to enter a standardized language code, since this code may be used by browsers to determine an appropriate display language.') .'</p>';
     case 'admin/settings/language/configure':
-      return '<p>'. t('The language used to display a web page is determined with a negotiation algorithm. You can choose how this algorithm should work. By default, there is no negotiation and the default language is used. You can use path prefixes (like "de" and "it" for German and Italian content) with different fallback options, so you can have web addresses like /de/contact and /it/contact. Alternatively you can use custom domains like de.example.com and it.example.com. Customize path prefixes and set domain names on the <a href="@languages">language editing pages</a>.', array('@languages' => url('admin/settings/language'))) .'</p>';
+      $output = '<p>'. t("Language negotiation settings determine the site's presentation language. Available options include:") .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<ul><li>' .t('<strong>None.</strong> The default language is used for site presentation, though users may (optionally) select a preferred language on the <em>My Account</em> page. (User language preferences will be used for site e-mails, if available.)'). '</li>';
+      $output .= '<li>' .t('<strong>Path prefix only.</strong> The presentation language is determined by examining the path for a language code or other custom string that matches the path prefix (if any) specified for each language. If a suitable prefix is not identified, the default language is used. <em>Example: "example.com/de/contact" sets presentation language to German based on the use of "de" within the path.</em>') .'</li>';
+      $output .= '<li>'. t("<strong>Path prefix with language fallback.</strong> The presentation language is determined by examining the path for a language code or other custom string that matches the path prefix (if any) specified for each language. If a suitable prefix is not identified, the display language is determined by the user's language preferences from the <em>My Account</em> page, or by the browser's language settings. If a presentation language cannot be determined, the default language is used.") .'</t>';
+      $output .= '<li>'. t('<strong>Domain name only.</strong> The presentation language is determined by examining the domain used to access the site, and comparing it to the language domain (if any) specified for each language. If a match is not identified, the default language is used. <em>Example: "http://de.example.com/contact" sets presentation language to German based on the use of "http://de.example.com" in the domain.</em>') .'</li></ul>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('The path prefix or domain name for a language may be set by editing the <a href="@languages">available languages</a>. In the absence of an appropriate match, the site is displayed in the <a href="@languages">default language</a>.', array('@languages' => url('admin/settings/language'))) .'</p>';
+      return $output;
     case 'admin/build/translate':
-      $output = '<p>'. t("This page provides an overview of interface translation on the site. Drupal groups all translatable strings in so called 'text groups'. Modules may provide additional to the 'built-in interface' default, to separate strings used for other purposes, allowing you to focus your translation efforts on the groups of text you care most about. For example, a translation team could choose not to fully translate a text group that includes less important data, being still able to ensure that built-in interface is always fully translated.") .'</p>';
-      $output .= '<p>'. t('To quickly add additional languages to your site, a number of <a href="@translations">contributed translations</a> are available.', array('@translations' => 'http://drupal.org/project/translations')) .'</p>';
+      $output = '<p>'. t('This page provides an overview of available translatable strings. Drupal displays translatable strings in text groups; modules may define additional text groups containing other translatable strings. Because text groups provide a method of grouping related strings, they are often used to focus translation efforts on specific areas of the Drupal interface.') .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('Review the <a href="@languages">languages page</a> for more information on adding support for additional languages.', array('@languages' => url('admin/settings/language'))) .'</p>';
       return $output;
     case 'admin/build/translate/import':
-      return '<p>'. t('This page allows you to import a translation provided in the gettext Portable Object (.po) format. The easiest way to get your site translated is to obtain an existing Drupal translation and to import it. You can find existing translations on the <a href="@translations">Drupal translation page</a>. Note that importing a translation file might take a while.', array('@translations' => 'http://drupal.org/project/translations')) .'</p>';
+      $output = '<p>'. t('This page imports the translated strings contained in an individual Gettext Portable Object (<em>.po</em>) file. Normally distributed as part of a translation package (each translation package may contain several <em>.po</em> files), a <em>.po</em> file may need to be imported after off-line editing in a Gettext translation editor. Importing an individual <em>.po</em> file may be a lengthy process.') .'</p>';
+      $output .= '<p>'. t('Note that the <em>.po</em> files within a translation package are imported automatically (if available) when new modules or themes are enabled, or as new languages are added. Since this page only allows the import of one <em>.po</em> file at a time, it may be simpler to download and extract a translation package into your Drupal installation directory and <a href="@language-add">add the language</a> (which automatically imports all <em>.po</em> files within the package). Translation packages are available for download on the <a href="@translations">Drupal translation page</a>.', array('@language-add' => url('admin/settings/language/add'), '@translations' => 'http://drupal.org/project/translations')) .'</p>';
+      return $output;
     case 'admin/build/translate/export':
-      return '<p>'. t('This page allows you to export Drupal strings. The first option is to export a translation so it can be shared. The second option generates a translation template, which contains all Drupal strings, but without their translations. You can use this template to start a new translation using various software packages designed for this task.') .'</p>';
+      return '<p>'. t('This page exports the translated strings used by your site. An export file may be in Gettext Portable Object (<em>.po</em>) form, which includes both the original string and the translation (used to share translations with others), or in Gettext Portable Object Template (<em>.pot</em>) form, which includes the original strings only (used to create new translations with a Gettext translation editor).') .'</p>';
     case 'admin/build/translate/search':
-      return '<p>'. t('It is often convenient to get the strings from your setup on the <a href="@export">export page</a>, and use a desktop Gettext translation editor to edit the translations. On this page you can search in the translated and untranslated strings, and the default English texts provided by Drupal.', array('@export' => url('admin/build/translate/export'))) .'</p>';
+      return '<p>'. t('This page allows a translator to search for specific translated and untranslated strings, and is used when creating or editing translations. (Note: For translation tasks involving many strings, it may be more convenient to <a href="@export">export</a> strings for off-line editing in a desktop Gettext translation editor.) Searches may be limited to strings found within a specific text group or in a specific language.', array('@export' => url('admin/build/translate/export'))) .'</p>';
     case 'admin/build/block/configure':
       if ($arg[4] == 'locale' && $arg[5] == 0) {
-        return '<p>'. t("This block is only shown if you have <a href=\"@languages\">at least two languages enabled</a> and you have a <a href=\"@configuration\">language negotiation setting</a> other than 'none', so you have different web addresses for different language versions.", array('@languages' => url('admin/settings/language'), '@configuration' => url('admin/settings/language/configure'))) .'</p>';
+        return '<p>'. t('This block is only shown if <a href="@languages">at least two languages are enabled</a> and <a href="@configuration">language negotiation</a> is set to something other than <em>None</em>.', array('@languages' => url('admin/settings/language'), '@configuration' => url('admin/settings/language/configure'))) .'</p>';
       }
       break;
   }
@@ -239,7 +250,7 @@ function locale_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {
         '#options' => array('' => t('All languages')) + locale_language_list('name'),
         '#default_value' => $form['language']['#value'],
         '#weight' => -10,
-        '#description' => t('Path aliases added for languages take precedence over path aliases added for all languages for the same Drupal path.'),
+        '#description' => t('A path alias set for a specific language will always be used when displaying this page in that language, and takes precedence over path aliases set for <am>All languages</em>.'),
       );
       break;