Spanish Language Pack (complete and UTF8) for Zen Cart 1.39b

[notageek]

New problem: Except for a one-product category which displays correctly, the category names will not save. Saving text translated in Google leaves a single capital letter where the product name should be.

The category names displayed with correct accents until I changed the odd characters (ANSI?) to appear correctly in the Admin>Categories.

English category names still show as intended.

Notageek

[torvista]

are you copying and pasting from google?

and if you write it by hand?

[notageek]

Somehow I thought version 1.3.9 of Zen Cart had incorporated the utf-8 and did not need the original tutorial from 4/2/08 here
forum/showthread.php?t=93439&highlight=utf8+collation+change.

I solved all but one of the category name problems by going to that tutorial's .pdf instructions at http://www.srw2d.com/sites/default/f...cartV1.3.8.pdf and entering in the utf-8 and utf8 as directed into the includes/languages/english.php and admin/includes/languages/english.php files.

(Why must we use sometimes utf-8 and sometimes utf8?)

So I have several categories which now show properly with accents.

However, one of the category names did not previously save in Spanish, and still does not. It's nearly identical to 4 other categories.

One category with no accents has always saved properly in Spanish.

I do not know how to enter accented characters manually, so I try to find a similar character to paste if I am entering by typing. Generally, I copy and paste from Google Translate.

Notageek

[notageek]

I should mention, as it now occurs to me, that the missing category does have a blank square where the category icon should be, but no title and no icon, although both title and icon show up in English. This particular category has always displayed in that manner, unlike the other categories which at least displayed their icons.

I will try to reload the category and products.

Regarding the .pdf tutorial just mentioned, it should be noted that the thread discusses that the .pdf instructions regarding alteration of the query file are no longer valid.

Notageek

[torvista]

this page gives enough options how to do it.
http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/typing.htm

its a pain using ALT+a-number-on-the-numeric-keypad if you are using a laptop, in that case it's maybe worthwhile getting an external keyboard with accents/setting it as a spanish layout.

category icon - if ZC cant find the image and the alt text is wrongly encoded, you may get this.

[notageek]

I'm out of ideas for troubleshooting why the Spanish catergory and subcategory titles do not save in Admin.

At first, some did, and a few self-populated the Spanish category titles.

I checked PHPMyAdmin and found 2 categories that were saved with blank titles but actually had category numbers and were identified as "Language 2." I therefore typed the names directly into those categories and they now show up in Admin.

I also found 6 subcategories with the exact same name of CD+G, as in my early attempts at making categories I had several categories with CD+G as a subcategory. I renamed these so each subcategory name was more descriptive. That had no effect whatsoever on the not-saving problem. Those sub-categories do show up in my store and did save.

I might like to try creating my categories in PHPMyAdmin but am uncertain if this is a sound approach. I would rather know what is happening. Also, I am not sure of which tables to change.

I also could try going live with the Spanish Language Pack and see if that corrects the problem and, if so, I could exchange the online database and cart for the current WAMP cart.

I had a small success in using Easy Populate, once I had downloaded my products and seen the file structure with the added 3 columns for the Spanish v_product_name_2, v_product_description_2, and v_product_url_2. I added those fields to my products_description table in PHPMyAdmin using language 1 fields as a model, and successfully uploaded the Spanish descriptions along with the English descriptions.

Maybe one approach would be to try to modify the Easy Populate file to incorporate the Spanish category, or purchase Easy Populate Advanced 1.2.5.4, to see if this makes the category names become accepted and saved.

I thought of re-uploading the Spanish Language Pack. I could save the modified language files elsewhere and start fresh and see if the titles save again. If I do this file-by-file, perhaps the erroneous file could be identified.

Do any of the above possible approaches seem appropriate? Does one seem more promising than another?

Thanks for any comments.

Notageek

[torvista]

I'm out of ideas for troubleshooting why the Spanish catergory and subcategory titles do not save in Admin.

I think you started to create categories before you added the second language.
You can see in the database table categories_description that there is no field assigned for the second language for the problem categories. You would expect the admin to give you an error message when you try and save the text to the non-existent field but it does not.

You can insert the missing fields in the database manually or use the admin to create a new category, move the products and delete the old category.

To do it in Admin:
1) Note down the number of the problem category.

2) Create a new version of the problem category (eg: same name with “new” on the end) and note down the number.

3) Go to one of the products in the problem category and click on copy

4) Open Multiple Categories Link Manager

5) Use this option:
Copy ALL Products in a Category as LINKED Products to another Category ...
and link the products in the problem category to the new category using the numbers you noted down.

6) Now use this option so the linked products in the new category become the master ones
Reset ALL Products in the selected Category to use the selected Category as the new Master Categories ID ...
They are now all linked to the old category

7) Now use this option to break the link and so remove the linked products from the old category
Remove ALL Products in a Category that are LINKED Products to another Category ...

8) Now you can delete the problem category

[notageek]

Torvista,

I checked PHPMyAdmin to make a list of the needed versus existing categories.

I was able in PHPMyAdmin to compare the 2nd language titles with the 1st language titles, so I could have a checkoff list of the categories I need to create. There are 50 subcategories without Spanish category names and 1 category without a Spanish category name.

In considering whether it might be just as easy to add the categories by way of PHPMyAdmin, I had to consider the question of how Zen Cart would identify subcategories with identical names, if they exist (such as my 5 CD+G categories that I renamed with unique names, mentioned above).

This led me to look at the products_to_categories table, which has 20 pages, and it became apparent that, if I were to make changes via PHPMyAdmin, I would have to match categories and subcategories in that table, which would be a huge task.

So, with that realization, I will give the changes a try as you recommend, through Admin.

I will let you know how things turn out when I tackle this soon.

Thank you very much for the recommendation.

Notageek

[notageek]

My mistake: Regarding the above post, the products_to_categories table does not relate subcategories to categories.

If there is no subcategories_to_categories table, how does Zen Cart know under which category to place a subcategory?

Perhaps it's an academic question in the case of a language pack, because the category numbers are identical, and only the language number changes. But that does not seem right.

I probably will try making a subcategory or two in PHPMyAdmin, as well as trying the Admin method, since this is a test cart.

Perhaps I will find out by experience whether or not just adding to the categories_description table in PHPMyAdmin would be an incomplete MySQL process. I have a feeling that it might be. Otherwise, it seems a simpler and faster way to go.

Notageek

[torvista]

Perhaps I will find out by experience whether or not just adding to the categories_description table in PHPMyAdmin would be an incomplete MySQL process. I have a feeling that it might be. Otherwise, it seems a simpler and faster way to go.

I would agree on both counts, maybe someone higher up the Zen Cart-knowledge-chain could confirm that adding a missing category language_id field and entry directly in phpmyadmin is all that is required or that doing it in admin adds other mysqlical (sic) stuff we know nothing about...