MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

net-carver · 2008-06-18 16:41:55

Caterina

Sounds like you forgot to overwrite Txp’s txplib_db.php with the one from the MLP pack. The mlp version has the missing function that it’s complaining about.

lonelytraveller · 2008-06-18 16:52:58

net-carver wrote:

Caterina Sounds like you forgot to overwrite Txp’s txplib_db.php with the one from the MLP pack. The mlp version has the missing function that it’s complaining about.

How can I do that? I supposed (but I’m probably wrong) that that operation was done by the wizard. But I cannot even access the wizard! Is there any other way?

lonelytraveller · 2008-06-18 17:15:58

Ops, sorry it was a silly question, I just took it from one of the other sites where I installed MLP successfully. Now I can access the content tabs, ran the wizard and everything works.

Thanks for replying so quickly and many many thanks for the wonderful work you’ve done, MLP is a great!!!

net-carver · 2008-06-20 16:36:48

lonelytraveller wrote:

Ops, sorry it was a silly question, I just took it from one of the other sites where I installed MLP successfully. Now I can access the content tabs, ran the wizard and everything works.

No problem. Glad to hear that solved the issue for you.

net-carver · 2008-06-20 17:07:06

All

Anyone want to try out the latest?

As this has a new url re-write routine and feed handler, please consider this an unstable development version. It includes all the fixes for items marked ‘Done’ in the latest MLP Updates post.

If you want to try this on a clean install just follow the usual instructions contained in the download zip file.

How to upgrade…

If you intend trying out this version on an existing site please take note of the following points…

Backup the contents of your textpattern/lib folder
Backup your DB
Switch the site to Debugging — this is important if you want all the new strings installed.
Upload the files from the zip
Upload Graeme’s library plugin and activate it
Upload the l10n plugin code and activate it
Visit Content > MLP > Preferences tab and make sure all preferences are listed correctly.
Switch the site back to Live or Testing as needed

The plugin help text has been updated so you’ll see new tag attributes and preferences explained there.

Let me know how it goes but remember — this is a test version!

maniqui · 2008-06-21 18:28:08

Hi Steve,
thanks for this new version.

I’m willing to try it on a site running TXP 4.0.6 and the latest MLP.
There is just one thing that makes me fear: on this site, I’ve installed MLP before you make it a requirement to have MySQL > 4.1.
In other words, this site is still running on MySQL 4.0.18-standard-log and I must say both TXP and MLP (both in latest stable versions) work flawlessly (at least, I haven’t had any big issue that I could notice).

So, as I said, I’m willing to try this latest unstable version, but… will the MLP check if MySQL > 4.1 during an upgrade process?

——

Steve, I will report again an issue I’ve already posted, but this time I will try to explain it better, because I realized that this issue could lead to a big problem related to SEO .
First, let me state the big problem (if I’m not wrong) with this issue: URLs seen as duplicated content

On TXP + MLP (l10n-0.7.650) installation, two languages on public side (/en/ —default— and /es/):

If I point the browser to:
http:///www.site.com/section/english-article-url-title <- although the lang chunk (/en/) is missing, this URL works on a MLP site only for an article url-titled as english-article-url-title and if it belongs to the default/main language.
In other words, both http:///www.site.com/section/english-article-url-title and http:///www.site.com/section/en/english-article-url-title are working and that could hurt SEO.
In fact, on a Google SERP for a site running MLP, there are some results that list some site URLs without the language chunk (/en/, /es/). example.

First time I noticed that both URLs work I thought: “great, both urls work”. Until now, that I realized this issue could be a problem for SEO.

If I point the browser to:
http:///www.site.com/section/spanish-article-url-title <- this one doesn’t work (returns a 404). It’s missing the (/es/) part of the URL, and spanish isn’t the main (default) language.
FYI: that URL will work only if the site visitor has already visited the site and have a cookie with the language set to spanish. But we can’t expect that someone clicking on an e-mail link has already visited our site before and the cookie is still there.

In this case, the behavior seems to be correct: that URL doesn’t exist and it returns a 404.

——
Now, let me think loud about that issue and how MLP should/could address it.
It would be great if MLP could rewrite URLs so if someone points a link (both an external link, being it from Google or any other website, or an internal link) to a valid, built-in and standard TXP URL (example: http://www.site.com/section/article-that-exists), MLP will take care and rewrite that URL to the one corresponding to the article language.

Some examples:

1. Someone links to an article using an standard built-in TXP URL: http://www.site.com/section/an-english-article-that-exists.
Being that the article exists, MLP rewrites the URL to: http://www.site.com/en/section/an-english-article-that-exists.
¡Perfect! Right?

2. Someone links to a section that exists: http://www.site.com/section/
Here, I don’t know what could be better: to rewrite it to the browser default language or to the MLP default language.
In any case, what should be avoided is both URLs working: http://www.site.com/section/ and http://www.site.com/en/section/ (ideally, the former should be redirected to the later, or discarded/return a 404).

——
Steve, sorry for this long post, and I hope what I’ve written makes sense for you.
Maybe, you have already think about this, and even better, you have already addressed this in the latest unstable development version that I’m willing to test :D

Thanks for your hard work.
(and sorry for my english)

net-carver · 2008-06-22 07:48:16

Julián

Hey, thanks for the post. I think I understand your SEO point and don’t anticipate too much trouble getting around it.

Regarding your worry about the MySQL version — I think you should be fine as the code only does the check on running the Install wizard. As you won’t be doing that, it should be ok. Just to be sure, please backup your DB and your files.

lee · 2008-06-22 11:41:25

Hi Steve, I have a site whose initial content is in French and admin in English and I’ve just installed the stable version of MLP on top of it. Thing is Content/MLP is showing the French articles listed under English (GB) and the public site of the site is showing /en but showing the french articles.

What to do?

Best regards
Lee

net-carver · 2008-06-22 13:40:18

Lee

ok, when you run the MLP install wizard for the first time it uses the language setup in your site preferences as the default language of the public site. In this case, your language was set to English even though your articles were in French. The result is that all the (Fr) articles were marked as English during the install and English was setup as the default site language.

For future reference, the way to do it is…

Install the site default language from Admin > Preferences > Languages
Select the correct language that matches the site default.
Install the MLP Pack
Run the install/setup wizard
Setup all the site languages in the Content > MLP > Preferences tab.
Now you can set the Admin > Preferences > Languages back to whatever default you prefer but it won’t really matter as the MLP Pack gives every admin user the choice of which language to use admin side.

So in your case, you should have installed French and chosen that as the admin language before doing the MLP install.

How to fix your site…

Backup your DB if you haven’t done so already.
Run the MLP cleanup wizard from Content > MLP > Wizards. NB: Make sure you check the “Drop the `l10n_lang` and `l10n_group` fields” & “Remove localised content” options on that page before running the wizard.
Install French from Admin > Preferences > Languages.
Switch the admin language to French.
Run the MLP Install wizard again.
Check all is ok.
Switch the admin language back to English.
Edited to add: Delete the site’s PHPSESSION cookie (else your browser will tell the site you want to read in English!)
Edited to add: Make sure the new default language is setup as a preferred language in the headers your browser sends to the site. (If you don’t, your browser will still ask for the site in English — and get it — before it defaults to French)

Hope that helps.

Last edited by net-carver (2008-06-23 06:17:26)

maniqui · 2008-06-22 14:54:15

net-carver wrote:

Hey, thanks for the post. I think I understand your SEO point and don’t anticipate too much trouble getting around it.

Steve, thanks for your quick reply and thanks for take this point into consideration.
Yes, the SEO point is one of the points.
I’m particularly more concerned about other plugins/users/TXP-itself creating links to “a standard built-in URL for an existing articles which then, when clicked, won’t work and return a 404.

If possible, redirecting (a 301 permanent redirect) would be the best way to go.
It would be beneficial even for sites that started as a single language site and then moved to a MLP setup. Any link “already out there” which points to an old URL (an URL without the language chunk) will work if properly redirected.
And my particular problem with the Postmaster plugin (which output article URLs “ignoring” that MLP is there) will be nothing.

I haven’t tested yet if zem_redirect pro plays well with MLP and so, if it does a proper redirect of a wrong url to the correct one.

lee · 2008-06-22 15:54:15

Hi Steve, Thanks for the instructions. I tried them twice but it made no difference. I’ve sent you a login to the site – hope that’s OK.

Regards
Lee

net-carver · 2008-06-23 06:22:03

Lee

your site is fixed. But please take note of items #8 and #9 in the post above. If you don’t do that, you’ll still see English as your default language (even though it isn’t the site’s default.)

Hmm. I think I have a few ideas for improving this behaviour now.

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#781 2008-06-18 16:41:55

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#782 2008-06-18 16:52:58

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#783 2008-06-18 17:15:58

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#784 2008-06-20 16:36:48

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#785 2008-06-20 17:07:06

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

How to upgrade…

#786 2008-06-21 18:28:08

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#787 2008-06-22 07:48:16

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#788 2008-06-22 11:41:25

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#789 2008-06-22 13:40:18

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

How to fix your site…

#790 2008-06-22 14:54:15

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#791 2008-06-22 15:54:15

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

#792 2008-06-23 06:22:03

Re: MLP - The Multi-Lingual Publishing Pack

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