(new) gnucash website architecture question (translation)

[Derek Atkins]

Hey,

So I'm working with Josh on the new website stuff.  Neil did
a lot of work to php-ify the website, using php gettext for
website translation, where the site is translated on-the-fly
using php and gettext-style message catalogs.  This is probably
just find for the main website content which is quazi-static.
However I'm not convinced this is the right architecture for
the news.

An open question is how to translate the news.  One approach
is to use the same php translation mechanism as the rest of
the site, where each news item is a standalone ".phtml" file
and the news-script just pulls them together into date order.
With this approach anytime a new news item is added the website
gettext catalogs need to be extended.  On the other hand, news
files that retain the same text (paragraphs) as previous news
files will start out partly translated.

The other approach is to use the same method that the old site
uses.  Each news item is in a .txt file (which is actually html)
and each language gets a directory a .txt files for the translated
news items.  Anytime you add a new news item you need to fully
translate it into its own .txt file and store it in the locale
news directory.  In this architecture, the news script will
pull the files into date order and let any translated file
take precedence over the untranslated file.

With the second approach the news translations are atomic;
you just upload the translation and the news-script will pick
it up.  You don't need to build a new message catalog and then
translate it.  On the other hand each news item must be fully
translated, even if only a single word changed.

One benefit of the .txt-style approach is that we can wrap
the news into a standard wrapper.  With the .phtml approach
each news item must have its own wrapper and be aware of changes
to the website architecture (e.g. the location of the news_item
icon).

I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I'd like to hear
from:

a) Chris Lyttle, because you're the one who generally creates
   the news items
b) Christian Stimming, because you're the lead translator

Comments?  Suggestions?

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available