- From: Web Applications Working Group Issue Tracker <sysbot+tracker@w3.org>
- Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 23:51:19 +0000 (GMT)
- To: public-webapps@w3.org
ISSUE-80: Runtime localization model for widgets [Widgets] http://www.w3.org/2008/webapps/track/issues/80 Raised by: Josh Soref On product: Widgets Below is a discussion I had with Josh about the localization model for widgets. Josh identifies an issue that may affect localization at runtime that may be overcome by having the widget engines dynamically change folders when it can't find resources. timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: how do localized folders work anyway? Sent at 12:01 AM on Sunday timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: oh, it's hidden in <base folder> me: you put folders that follow the "lang-place" pattern into a folder called "locale". The UA looks for a folder that matches the user's locale prefs timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: i'm not quite sure i understand or like that imagine i have 100 images and only want to localize 2 if base-folder means that i have to copy the whole set, i'm unhappy me: no, just make all your refs absolute. it's no problem timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: no, definitely bad that means i have to know in advance if i need to localize a path instead of just having 1 locale that needs to localize a file me: yes. But it supports multiple models of localization. So the model is quite flexible. timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: supporting a virtual mapping would have been better :( me: we can always change it if you have a better proposal timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: i guess the simplest question is would you ever have a localized file foo.bar and want access to the original unlocalized file timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: i claim no me: no, you wouldn't the idea is that you only localize what you want. timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: yeah so, in my model, instead of 'base folder' a localized file i18n/en-GB/index.html appears as /index.html if the UA selects en-GB me: I'm sure we are thinking of the same thing here, but now I'm worried I've done this wrong. timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: (so searches go first to i18n/en-GB/ and then to /) if index.html has <img src="flag.png"> me: flag.png gets resolved to i18n/en-GB/flag.png timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: then whether it's /index.html, or /i18n/fr-FR/index.html if the UA locale is fr-FR, it first looks in /i18n/fr-FR/flag.png and then /flag.png yeah, but that's not what i want it's a disaster me: no, it only goes to one location timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: yeah, that sucks. you end up w/ millions of included files in dozens of locales because only one needed an override or you have to fork each html file just to make something happy me: hmmm I'm not convinced... I thought I had sorted this out I need to do some tests timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: we have a VFS, and our UA has a cache, which means having it try two paths won't hurt (and it's a readonly VFS, so if i do <img src="images/flag.png"> and my locale doesn't have /i18n/fr-FR/images/, then the UA can skip the check for the file there and go straight to /images/flag.png Sent at 12:12 AM on Sunday timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: basically, when people try to localize, they often end up forking html files. and often they create stale versions w/o noticing me: I kinda get where you are going, but it seems like the behavior is kinda unpredictable. I'm kinda seeing the problem now. timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: it's fairly easy to make a tool to show which version of a file would be used me: does it matter that you dont need to have a html file in the localized folders? that way you only need to branch when you need a special layout timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: if all i have is /index.html and it has <img src="flag.png"> then it should search /i18n/fr-FR/flag.png then /flag.png having to branch html files is dangerous me: ah! /me gets it now :) timeless.bmo1@gmail.com: note that i switched from en-GB to fr-FR as my locale :) me: ok, that should be easy to specify. it's just a minor extension to what we already have kinda fallback behavior
Received on Monday, 2 February 2009 23:51:28 UTC