Article Manager add language problem

[Hawking]

I'm running osCMax v2.0.4 on a WAMP server.
PHP v5.2.11
MySQL v5.1.36
Apache v2.2.11
I posted this question over on oscommerce addin support forum but at the risk of getting my fingers whacked I'm double posting here because Article Manager is "built in" to osCMax and my problem may have relevance in both places.
So, ....
I'm setting up a store under WAMP before going live and have been adding articles using the built in Article Manager 1.2b. Anyways, I then added a new language and noticed that all the articles and topics that I had added previously do not show up under the new language.
In Admin I can go to those articles and edit them and when I do that it shows an extra place to put the article in the new language. It previews OK, but then when I click update, it doesn't add anything. I can go right back into Edit and everything I just wrote for the new language is gone.
Everything works good if I add more articles (now that the language is installed). All new articles will show up in the new language. It's just that everything that was done prior to installing a new language doesn't show up in the new language and I can't see any way to add them. Actually, I can see how you are supposedly able to do it, it's just that it doesn't work.
Anyone have any idea about this?
Thanks.
Hawking

[michael_s]

I just partially confirmed this behavior. Make sure that you also have translations in place for the categories.

When you say it doesn't do anything, does the page just refresh? Does it take you back to the article listing?

I confirmed that when I did not already have the categories translations in place, it would not insert the article translation for me. I am going to go back and test more thoroughly, but I wanted your input as to what is actually happening to you.

[Hawking]

Michael,

If I go in and edit a topic or article that existed before installing the new language I see the extra boxes and editors for the new language. If I then add content to them and click "Preview" I see the new updated content and everything is as I entered it. If I then click "Update" it takes me back to the article listing.
If I then go back in to edit the same topic or article, everything I just put in for the new language is gone and they don't show up when I refresh the website either.
Using phpAdmin I looked at the database and I can see the articles there and was thinking there might be a way to copy the existing ones and add the new language indicator in the proper cell. I really don't know squat about sql or databases so my explanation of what I am thinking is I'm sure lacking. Anyways, if you look in the database it'll hopefully make more sense.
Thanks for the quick reply,
Hawking

[michael_s]

You need to also confirm that you have also entered in descriptions for your categories in the other languages BEFORE you try to add the translation for the articles.

I am not seeing the behavior you are though - where the content disappears. I will do some more testing on this to see if I can narrow it down and find a solution or workaround.

[Hawking]

Prior to running into this problem I didn't have any category descriptions. I've just now added two category descriptions and they work for all the installed languages. I then went back to the Article Manager and it's behavior is still the same as before. In that any content I try to put in for the language that wasn't installed prior to writing the original article just disappears.
If I'm understanding you properly, the fact that I didn't have any category descriptions prior to adding the articles may be causing this problem I'm seeing when I added the new language.
I'll try adding another language now that I have some category descriptions and see if I get the same behavior with the new language.
Thanks for the help.
-- Hawking

[michael_s]

Just to be clear, these are not Product category descriptions...

What I am talking about is :
Article Category Titles and Descriptions for each language.

You have categories for your articles and these must have their alternate languages defined first for the name of the article category and descriptions.

[Hawking]

Aha! Ok, that's what I was calling Topics if I understand you right.
I wasn't being clear with the terminology, I apologize. It's the Article Categories and Descriptions that were added first when I only had 3 languages installed. I then installed a 4th language and I couldn't get the original Categories and Descriptions to show up in the new language even though when I edited them it was giving me the option to add new content under the 4th added language.

You're saying that this is the way it is? If I make up a bunch of Article categories and descriptions today and then add a new language tomorrow, those article categories and descriptions won't be available to the new language?

It seems strange because the editor gives me the place to do that, it's just that it throws it away.

In the original install, I had english, german, and spanish included. I made up a number of Article Category Title and Descriptions. On the screen where you do that I had 3 boxes for the Topic Name (one for each language), 3 for the Topic Heading Title, and 3 html editor windows. I put in the content and everything worked well for all the 3 languages. I then added swedish. I then went to edit the category title and descriptions and when I did that the screen showed 4 Topic name boxes, 4 Topic Heading Title boxes and 4 html editor windows, one for each of the 4 now installed languages. The 3 sets for the original 3 installed languages still had their original content in them. The 4th set (for swedish) was empty. I went ahead and added content to those for the swedish language. Clicked "Preview" and everything look good for all 4 languages. I then clicked "Update" and it took me back to the article listing page which is titled "Topics/Articles"
At that point I had assumed that the Article Category Title and the Description for swedish that I had just entered in would show up when the page was in swedish mode. It didn't.
I went back into the Article Manager to edit the same category title and description that I had just done and everything that I had put in for the swedish language was gone.

You're saying that I must have a language installed PRIOR to adding an Article Category Title and Description or it won't show up in that language. If that's really how it is, I'll work around it. The only reason I'm questioning it is because the editing function of the Article Manager lays things out in a way that implies otherwise.

I'm not trying to be disagreeable here and I really appreciate your help, I am just trying to prevent running into problems in the future. It would kinda suck if I had made up a large list of article categories and descriptions only to find out they couldn't be included into a future language addin.

--Hawking

[michael_s]

You're saying that this is the way it is?

No, I am still trying to figure out what exactly you are doing. What is the new language you installed? Maybe I can install it on a test site and see for myself what the issue may be.

I agree, it should allow you to simply add the new translation after the language is added and now that I have a clear understanding of your procedure to hit the issue, I will try to reproduce it.

Let me know what language you have installed in addition to the defaults.

[Hawking]

I installed the Swedish pack from here osCommerce Community Add-Ons
The default installed languages were English, German, and Spanish.

The Swedish pack didn't come with all the files that were included with the default languages in my install of osCMax 2.0.4 so I copied the ones that were missing from the English directories into the Swedish directories to make sure the Swedish language had all the required files even if some of them weren't translated yet.

Gotta go now so I'll check back here tomorrow. Thanks for your help.
--Hawking

[Hawking]

I forgot to mention another thing I did.
For both catalog/includes/languages/svenska.php and admin/includes/languages/svenska.php I did a line by line compare with the english.php of the same directory for all the mods, etc. that were in the english.php that were not in the svenska.php
I copied those lines into the svenska.php files.

--Hawking