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

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

are you copying and pasting from google?

and if you write it by hand?

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/files/utf-8-zen-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

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it should be noted that the thread discusses that the .pdf instructions regarding alteration of the query file are no longer valid.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

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.

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

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

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

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

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...

Torvista,

You will be pleased to hear that the simplest solution worked, and then a simpler solution magically appeared.

First, I found the link between categories and subcategories in the PHPMyAdmin categories table, which contains a categories_id plus a parent_id for the category.

Since all categories appeared in that table for Language 1 (English), no entry was needed for Language 2. Therefore, entering a category in the categories_description table was indeed all that was needed to correct the display in the Zen Cart second language category name that wouldn't previously save.

But before making all the additions, I purchased Easy Populate Advanced 3.03, which I read in another thread would upload second language files: zencartbuilder.com

Identifying the path for the uploads file was tricky (found in admin/includes/configure.php at DIR_FS_CATALOG), but after installing, and then downloading the example Easy Populate template and data files, my single main category and 50 sub-categories magically appeared in the Spanish display along with icons which had been missing. There was an incongruity in the top category's missing file name, a capitalization error.

When I had used Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 for my original upload, I had not originally created any of the categories by hand, because 1.2.5.4 usually creates the categories. I now believe that, had I added the Spanish category names by hand, either in PHPMyAdmin or through Admin, version 1.2.5.4 would have been sufficient for uploading products and categories.

In Post 66, I mentioned I had added language 2 capacity to the products_description table in PHPMyAdmin, and now it appears the Spanish category names are easily added to the categories_description table.

Once I had added the language pack and downloaded a sample template, the Spanish descriptions appeared in the downloaded sample file. But so far, the Spanish category name has not appeared in a template download in either version of Easy Populate.

The Advanced program states one must add a column to get the Spanish translation into the second language category name, so in that respect the Advanced version really isn't different from 1.2.5.4. That will take some research to accomplish.

The missing and unsavable Spanish categories seemed a difficult problem. The stunning performance of Easy Populate Advanced 3.03 is really something to shout about. But so is your and Dr. Byte's help which led to the manual solution of this problem and the propagation of other new ideas that have come my way since delving into the Spanish Language Pack. So I am in awe once again.

Notageek

great to see you fixed it, you'll need a new nickname now!

I have examined my data in more detail and it appears my guesses about how the language pack works with PHPMyAdmin are incorrect. Although I had the great results with my categories and images appearing in the cart, and although the Spanish descriptions are all filled in, I can't explain why.

I checked the products_name_2, products_description_2 and Products_url_2 fields I had manually placed into the products_description table and those are empty. I do not know where the Spanish product description is placing itself in the database.

Also, the Store download with Easy Populate Advanced 3.0.3 shows many entries that are missing the Spanish translation or an English product description in the Spanish box. Yet the product shows as expected with both translations in the cart. One example is the product FXMIC, which downloads no Spanish description but has one in the cart. This occurs with lots of hardware products (not all) but no software products.

I am thinking that 1.2.5.4 is still needed for stability of uploads and spreadsheet downloads. I have retained 1.2.5.4 on my WAMP server.

I would really like to know why the Spanish descriptions appear in the cart but are missing from many many hardware products in the download, and would also like to know where the descriptions appear in PHPMyAdmin.

Notageek

(As far as I know, Easypopulate Advanced has long been dormant and unsupported, despite being for sale. Simply from reading about complaints from long ago, I do not get the impression it is to be trusted 100%.
I recommend you try Apsona for an up-to-date import-export experience. They are very responsive in their support too.)

All product and descriptions are in the database, you should be able to search for a snippet of text in there?

I located the Spanish description in PHPMyAdmin. It appears in the same table as the English description, next to the Language 2 title. I can therefore safely delete the columns I added that were parallel to the Language 1 entry.

It pays to look at things afresh.

Notageek

Hi. I am experiencing problems with Notepad++ not correctly saving Spanish words with accents.

I had to go back to using MS Excel 2007 when I discovered Open Office does not do well with accents; I am reading that, with Open Office, you really have to type accented letters in one by one, and that is not feasible if one has many products.

I open my files in MS Excel using UTF-8; then save.

When I pull them up into Notepad++, the files saved with MS Excel (this also happened with Open Office) will be opened as ANSI files. This will happen whether or not I check to make sure Notepad still is set to default to UTF-8 without BOM.

I will then cut the file, change the Notepad++ to UTF-8 without BOM, and paste the file back into Notepad, and save as UTF-8 without BOM. It might look normal, or it might have all the accented characters missing from the file. Sometimes it is correct for a while, and sometimes it is missing the letters right away.

If I save and reopen the file saved with Notepad++ with UTF-8 without BOM, it definitely has all the accented characters deleted from the file.

However, if I open it in MS Excel again, I can see the accented characters in MS Excel.

Does anyone know what is happening? I have been correcting files for a few weeks now, and just lately returned to MS Excel. I was able to compensate for the missing letters with search and replace, for simpler files. But with more complicated descriptions, that is a losing battle.

Thanks for any comments.

Notageek

I assume these are CSV files generated by easypopulate advanced?
Have you tried these sort of manipulations using a CSV generated from another source, ie Apsona?

I must admit all my CSV import/export is for pricing and stock, I never touch the descriptions.

Torvista,

Thanks for responding. These are tab-delimited files generated by Open Office and MS Excel 2007.

I think this question is starting to go off topic from the Spanish Language Pack, in that it is more related to possible incompatibility of Notepad++ and MS Excel/Open Office.

Thank you for advising of Apsona. Perhaps I will try that once my site is up and running. I believe that, as Apsona is menu-driven, it won't advance my knowledge of Zen Cart, which is my current focus.

Notageek

Just to set the record straight on my Post #76, on going through the process described in Paragraphs 1-3, that process works and is correctly described. Excel files, even when opened in Excel with UTF-8, always save as ANSI and always need to be cut from Notepad++, and pasted after changing Notepad++ format to UTF-8 without BOM. Then the file will be compatible with a UTF-8 site.

I somehow must have deviated from that process to come up with my errors. Not to give Open Office a bad report, my problems there may have related to the unknown erroneous process, so my discouraging report on Open Office given above may be unreliable.

Notageek

antes que nada gracias por la traduccion, la he instalado en la version 1.3.9, pero he notado que cuando doy click en el menu check out me manda a una pagina en blanco, esto no sucede si tengo seleccionado el idioma ingles, solo cuando esta seleccionado el idioma español, la url es http:playerasbiker.motoclubsmexico.com, ojala puedas ayudarme con ese detalle, debo mencionar que recien estoy conociendo zencrat

saludos