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

[notageek]

Torvista,

Thanks for pointing out my omission of the override in identifying the spanish.php directory. My active spanish.php file is indeed in includes/languages/MYTEMPLATE/spanish.php.

I use a free HTML editor, Coffee Cup, for lots of php file editing because it is pretty user friendly, sometimes lets me see a preview, and will save a file that is already in .php, although it does not give me that election in the "save as" bottom-of-file box.

I also use Notepad++, generally for editing .sql or Excel files. I checked on the web how to save in utf-8 because I do not have that option at the bottom in a "save as" format, and came upon the following which applies to my version of Notepad++:

When I go to:
>File
>Save as
>Save as type ---- It shows many file types but not "UTF-8 without BOM"

To me it appears there are two areas you need to select "UTF-8 without BOM" being:

1) >Click on "Format"
>Select "Encode in UTF-8 without BOM"

2) >Click on "settings"
>Click on "Preferences"
>Click on "new document/open save directory"
>Select "UTF-8 without BOM"

I made the above 2 changes from the "Format" and "Settings" tabs in the header location. I opened a fresh spanish.php file from includes/languages/MYTEMPLATE/spanish.php, and re-saved, but got the ? in place of o and e with accents.

I searched the web for some sort of chart of characters with accents, but found nothing so far, so I copied some accents in the spanish.php file, from the words Información and términos, so the verbiage from my Zencart_Zen template is changed thus:

Para crear una cuenta, por favor, introduzca sus datos de facturación y como aparece en su tarjeta de crédito.

and

Por favor Entrar a continuación.

It now renders correctly.

So it appears that if I use a translator such as Google Translate, I will need to somehow locate a source of code for the accented letters and replace those one-by-one, or morpheme-by-morpheme (e.g., cion = ción).

Is there some term I should be searching for that would help me discover a chart of such accent codes?

Or am I on the wrong track?

Thanks.

Notageek

[torvista]

Notepad++
Although it shows the encoding in use at the bottom of the page, there is no "save as." option related to encoding.
Encoding changes are done via
Encoding->Encode in UTF-8 without BOM.

I think your questions about encoding are not really necessary, I have not had so many problems getting it to work.

These are my checksteps:
1) the file is now encoded as utf-8 as indicated in notepad++.

2) the offending phrase is written correctly in the file with the accents and no odd characters.

To be completely idiot-proof regarding overrides, I put a marker in the offending phrase, like "here" at the start, to have no doubt the file I have open is the one providing the text I have a problem with.

3) View the page in the browser and check the encoding as delivered to the browser is utf-8: this should be in the head section

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

If the characters are still corrupted, then I don't know, and someone else needs to input something here.
(I have deliberately not mentioned the connection to the database requires defining as utf-8 as I don't think it matters in relation to the language defines.)

[notageek]

Torvista,

I read your response as saying "crédito" should look like "crédito" in Notepad++.

However, those odd codes are in every place where there should be an accented letter in my override file.

I asked myself: Have I changed things by saving spanish.php from Coffee Cup which is an HTML editor?

That appears possible. I checked the default file which is the original spanish.php file, and it has the correct appearance you describe, with no odd codes.

So, I recreated my override file in Notepad++.

My "? in lieu of accented letter" problems disappeared and all text renders correctly now. The web page source code reads utf-8.

I so much appreciate your helping me to work this out.

If I discover the remedy to the box_heading problem, I will let you know.

Notageek

[torvista]

If you have a file that looks correct (Notepad++) and change the encoding, you will see the accented characters change and you`ll have to retype/correct them.
If however you copy or cut all the text, then change the encoding, then paste the text back it, it will all look the same but be in the new encoding, requiring no changes on your part.

So, if there is any other characters being rendered incorrectly, it must be the encoding of that particular language file.

Regarding your BOX_HEADING, if there are CONSTANT_NAMES being shown instead of text, then there is no spanish language defined for that CONSTANT_NAME.

You need to search (I use Windows GREP) for that constant define (assuming an english one exists) and create a spanish equivalent, ensuring that the source file is utf-8.

As everyone who replies here, the hope is that you only have to describe a solution once, then its there for anyone else.

[notageek]

I have had no success using GREP or the Developer's Tool Kit to find terms on my WAMP test site. My searches continually find nothing, and searching on the bottom box in the Developer's Tool Kit times out.

I did solve the BOX_HEADING problem by copying all the files from the following directories to the corresponding spanish directory and translating those files:

includes/languages/english/extra_definitions/MYTEMPLATE/

includes/languages/english/extra_definitions

includes/languages/english/MYTEMPLATE

I copied language from the templates provided with the Spanish Language Pack where I could, and used Google Translate for the material unique to my site.

Since Notepad++ defaults to ANSI, many times I had to redo files and cut and save again in UTF-8 without BOM, but in the end the Login page is fine and the box headings are correct, and the cut and re-paste procedure works when question marks turn up in the text.

I hope this update is helpful.

Notageek

[notageek]

Hi. I'm seeing a ? wherever an accented letter should appear in my category names.

Does anyone know where or how to correct this? My PHPMyAdmin lists the names correctly in the categories_description table.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Notageek

[torvista]

The category name as stored in the database is not the same, or not being passed as the same charset as that expected by the browser.

1) Just to be sure, you HAVE defined the db_charset as utf-8 as explained here..?
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153582

2) If 1) is in place, does the category name appear corrupted in the admin?

3) when you edit the category name in the admin and save it, does the problem remain?

4) in phpmyadmin - select the database - what collation are the tables?

[notageek]

Torvista,

I created the /includes/extra_configures/my_db_charset.php and admin/includes/extra_configures/my_db_charset.php files as instructed in the link above, and wrote in utf8 as the character set.

This solved my category name problems which now show the accents correctly.

Your help has been indispensable and wonderful. Thank you.

Notageek

[notageek]

Just a footnote, I spoke too soon being happy that the accented letters displayed correctly in my category list. However, on checking the Admin, they did display with the odd characters and I did need to delete those and replace them with new translations. At that point, the Admin was also correct.

My tables are in utf8 collation.

Thanks.

Notageek

[torvista]

since you had not changed the charset previously, you will probably find everything accented will require re-entering..

glad you got it sorted in the end,
regards
Steve