CKD-Zen-Cart Japanese Pack

This is the thread for the CKD-Zen-Cart Japanese Pack. This pack at version 1.0 is for Zen-Cart 1.3.8a and will be updated for new Zen-Carts to come, Updates from here on out will be swift and easy to do. We had produced an updated language pack that was beta for 1.3.7 but that pack was based a good portion on the 1.3.02 pack from the people at zen-cart.jp. We have since changed most features of the pack, that we feel will be easier to grow and update, thus we are starting the pack at 1.0. The current pack from Zen-Cart.jp is still based on the code from 1.3.02, many updates and improvements in the core code have taken place since then, and we feel that Japan or people who use Japanese, should not be left behind. With that we announce the release of this Pack. We at Crystal Koi Design currently use this pack for our customers, but I decided to take my spare time and give the code for everyone it is currently hosted on my site and may be moved to the download section after some time.

I will try to help as many people as I can to update their carts from previous Japanese packs, but I do this part in my spare time, so please understand and if others can help out that, would be great.

The recommended way is to use UTF-8 for your whole cart. You can do this by fallowing this tutorial [here]

After this, install the pack and from their you can go on to options such as the pull down zones for Japan in English and Japanese.

I hope everyone likes this, and let me know on here or on my site if you find errors.

Regards,

CKD

Sorry I forgot to add the documentation for address order format, it is up now.

Address Order

Regards,
CKD

(FROM PREVIOUS FORUM POSTING)

You need to turn the language sidebox on, that will add the flag. You should also install the language under the localization menu.

make any necessary changes

Name: Japanese

Code:ja

Image:icon.gif

Directory:japanese

Sort Order: (1 or 2 which every you want)

I also make slight modification to the icon.gif to make more obvious when used on white background. I just outline with grey 1px stroke. Nothing special.

Have noticed how my new cart CSS is no longer fixed width design. Now it is variable width (the center column stretches) and some of the colors and stuff are all unexpected. So I'm gonna have to do some new formatting. No biggie, it's work. Honestly, I like this stretchy center column more then the fixed. Someday I'll learn how zencart works and understand what and why things are happening.

This is my first language install and I'm a confused with currency in general. I want to show either US dollars (default for this cart) or Japanese Yen. My cart should have default English. That's why I want US dollar as default. But payment is made with PayPal so I want to have the PayPal account to automatically convert non-japanese payments to Japanese Yen (my friend who will use this store is in Japan and she is Japanese). I'm kinda confused with this whole thing. Would someone with good understanding explain how I will want to set up Zencart and what I need to do with regart to this Language pack install. I mean, seems like I should set up "Localization -> Currencies" and add Japanese Yen somehow. Never done that before so I'm requesting guidance there too.

Note: I was in admin and went to Japanese define language (never did that before) and then tried to open the Payment modules page and got a bunch of PHP warning messages. Think that was an issue for 1.37 version of your language pack? Can I just do all admin stuff in english mode? Will want to install some other modules, such as shipping modules too. Are there any shipping modules available for the japanese postal system?

Having trouble following your directions for Japanese/English Pull Downs

1. Note to enable drop downs you'll want to change to:
   "admin -> configuration -> customer details -> Always display as pulldown?" set that to true and then press update.

OK I DID THAT

2. Copy the directed section of Javascirpt (not the section just below which contains another function).

NOW AM CONFUSED WITH WHICH FILE(s) TO MODIFY

3. CKD-Multi-Lingual-PullDowns/includes/modules/pages/ ????? /blankfile/jscript_addr_pulldowns.php

There are 3 folders and each of them have /blankfile/jscript_addr_pulldowns.php

@pingping

You bring up very good issues, thanks. This is exactly what I wanted. Doing this stuff all the time, I sometimes forget to cover this stuff.

Let me work up some pages to cover all your issues.

As for your payment area, it looks like I missed some language files. I will check that out.

Sorry about this, but again, thanks a lot for the quality feedback. I will address all the issues later today.

Regards,

CKD

@pingping

I updated the pulldown documentation and the file pack. That should help with two of the problems. As for yen $ issue, I will cover that when I get more time today.

Also, note that some of the Japanese shipping and payment modules are from the old pack, so they might not work, or might have problems. I left them for future development.

I got that first template file done, but started 2nd (= 3rd) and having trouble following directions. You say:

1. Login with a test account
2. Go to My Account->View or change entries in my address book.
3. Fallow the previous English and Japanese steps as before, but this time use the blank template file in address_book_process folder.
4. Save that file to the CKD-Multi-Lingual-PullDowns/includes/modules/pages/address_book_process/ file, also the good thing about this one is it is the same for the ..../checkout_shipping_address folder. So save it there too.

So I created a test account and logged into it. Then went to that page. Here I'm confused. I did "View Source" and don't see any javascript or anything that I would want to copy? What exactly is being copied to the new file? And I presume some stuff from the View Source when page is Japanese language mode, right? Please clarify exactly what is to be copy/paste.

Thanks. Will ask for pricing Payment Explanation next week.

@PingPing

Thank you so much for going through this. It really helps to have someone like you to point out all the little errors. I think I have addressed them all. Please see the updates.

Japanese Pack updates

Zen-Cart Japanese/English Pull Downs updates

Let me know if you find anymore things that don't work, or you don't understand, and again, thanks for the quality feedback.

Regards,
CKD

Did your directions including new stuff and found no more tough complications. All seemed to work OK. So now it seems to work at first glance. Thanks so much for the effort and making this all available to Zen Cart users.

I'm gonna tell my Japanese friend to open a PayPal account and will try to have her use PayPal Express Checkout. Perhaps she'll want to use one of those other Japanese payment methods? You know how popular they are in Japan, I don't. Please feel free to educate wrt your experience.

Regarding shipping I don't know how best to handle that. Could you think about the japanese shipping modules and inform. If best to arrange shipping completely outside ZenCart please mention that too. In my demo store had USA address and was able to set up USPS and FEDEX modules. Seemed cool. But she has Japan address and doubt those would be good (perhaps FEDEX for international shipping option?). You know what's better in Japan. Feel free to educate.

Please accept my sincere appreciation for your work and responsiveness. I owe you coffee for sure. Next time in Japan will invite you to Starbucks for some of their crank. PingPing out.

@PingPing

Thanks alot for your input. It really helped me to see what the average user needs. Paypal is a great option, also, I use bank transfer and C.O.D. options too. All my payment methods have been custom made for customers needs. I will in the future try to add some shipping/payment modules for Japan. Don't have the time to do that right now, but if its something you need now, you can contact me and we could do it through my business.

I like to help, but it takes time, and that isn't much that I have right now outside of work. For shipping, look at your zones options and do more research on here. Just remember that with English and Japanese zones like you have, you will have to set each zone 2 times in the zones settings so it works in both languages.

Good luck,
CKD

Now if anyone out there would like to help with a Sagawa shipping module please contact me!

In going through the old Sagawa shipping module, I see it doesn't use the size or the product. Maybe it was a plan, but it was never used.

So I am thinking a new product property would have to be used for size and then maybe a % for items being added together and then use the zones. Man, I really don't like this company! :censored:

Anyways, if someone wants to collaborate on something like this, hit me up, I would love the help. Anyone..anyone...anyone...:cry:

Heads up - I started adding 1st category name and found simple issue. When I went to save the Category name it appeared to be chopped off as if database table didn't have long enough field size. So I checked the table:categories_description using PhpMySql and sure enough it was set by default at varchar(32). I upped that value to varchar(64) and tried again. Success! So looks like the UTF-8 encoding may be issue for names that were previously no problem with latin encoding. I think (guessing) UTF-8 encoding takes like 3 latin (database) characters for each UTF-8 character. Not sure, guessing. It's something people should keep in mind if they find their names aren't being saved in database or not showing correctly. Just increase the field size in database table. FYI, using Google Translate to grab the Japanese (nice tool) kanji translation. The Google Translate page is UTF-8 encoded.

@PingPing,
Good tip on that! It is a common problem. I will do some testing with this when I get time and add some more tips to the tutorial.

Be careful with all the translation tools, as they tend to mess up, I have never seen a translation tool that is never out of beta for Japanese. I have a friend that made a good plugin for FireFox to look up Japanese text.

You can check that out here.
http://perapera.wordpress.com/

The google one looks better than the babelfish one, you will get some funny things with tools that try to translate everything, so just make sure someone can check it over.

PingPing, I must say thanks, and I am sure everyone will agree, that you have been the ultimate test user for the pack so far. Keep the input coming, and I will try to address everything in time.

Regards,
CKD

I'm humbled by your kind words. The Rikaichan FF addon project was renamed, huh. Didn't know that. Thought the guy who makes Tomato firmware (mod to Buffalo wifi Router) was doing that, do you know him. Wow. You are super resource! I will have to email you one of these days to add you to my professional rescource directory.

For another dictionary translation tool, just recently grabbed portable (no install required) windows version of StarDict (http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.708). It is handy for many languages. Just download the ones you need and add to the folder. It also has that "scan" mode. But I was copy the kanji from http://translate.google.com and paste into the search area of StarDict and see what that indicates. My nihongo is super-sukoshi, yukyuk. I looked at Rikaichan and was worried it might be hog on browser which is already hog.

You are the man for creating this language pack! I'm just beginning user, learning. The girl who will use my ZenCart store appears to have some new japanese language only store on some japanese language store portal. Don't know much about them. She is busy and maybe like most people not interested in the whole create & maintain a store. She's artist, not programmer. Seems like using Zen Cart with your japanese language modul (and future other language like chinese and korean) in UTF-8 is definitely the way to go! Much more control. Keep up the good work. ByeBye

So the pack has been out a while, and I would like to see feedback if there is any?

Also, what would you like to see next for a tutorial on how to do? This way I can know where to go next with the documentation.

Regards,
CKD

Hi CKD...wow you could have saved me some time, if only my deadline wasn't already past! I had a client ask for a JA front-end EN back-end cart, and after researching chose to upgrade the old 1.3.0.2 version manually. Other than some time lost re-organizing the address input and display, it's worked out OK so far, but I'm sure I'm missing out on some functionality (prefecture dropdowns and UTF8 encoding for two) that your packs seem to offer.

You and / or folks who use your packs may want to be aware of a simple problem that can throw errors when PayPal express checkout is used. The details are posted here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96338

I look forward to implementing your work in future installs!

@prd
Sorry you didn't see this before hand. I will get it into the download section when I can. I just wanted some input before hand and as you can see, I have not recived much of that.

Regards,
CKD