[drupal-devel] [bug] Localize date formats

pancho drupal-devel at drupal.org
Sun Mar 13 14:55:27 UTC 2005 

Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/11623

 Project:      Drupal
-Version:      4.5.0
+Version:      cvs
 Component:    base system
 Category:     bug reports
-Priority:     normal
+Priority:     critical
-Assigned to:  Goba
+Assigned to:  pancho
 Reported by:  Goba
 Updated by:   pancho
 Status:       patch
 Attachment:   http://drupal.org/files/issues/dateformat.patch.zip (14.91 KB)

************************
DATEFORMAT-PATCH PACKAGE
************************
by pancho at suenderhauf.net
2005-03-13 03:07
This 'DateFormat' patch package only works with the latest CVS version
of Drupal 4.60 RC.
This 'DateFormat' patch package applies the following changes:
1.
It introduces a more flexible system of standard date and time formats
which helps both users and developers while staying 
backwards-compatible. We often see special date formats be used in
modules, which is only second best, as these can neither 
be adapted by the user nor localized. More flexibility allows the
developers to use the built-in format functions wherever 
possible.
Changes in detail:
- The standard date formats used to be combined date&time-formats. This
is now split into separate date formats and time 
formats, to allow dates and times to be rendered in a more flexible
way.
- Still it's backward compatible: the combined formats - while
deprecated - still exist.
- A "Tiny" format is added to the "Small", "Medium" and "Large"
formats.
2.
It enables Drupal to show e.g. German and Hungarian date formats (with
a colon as separator), which was _not_ possible 
before.
3.
It prepares both the Drupal system and module developers for the
upcoming locale_dateformat module. This module will fully 
localize date and time formats according to the localization of the
current user. The locale_dateformat module will be 
available within the next weeks.
I'm always happy about suggestions and criticism, if constructive. You
can either write a comment on www.cvs.net or an email 
to pancho at suenderhauf.net.
Bye, Pancho
-------------
INSTALLATION:
-------------
The package contains two patches for the latest CVS versions of Drupal
4.60 RC, both of which should be applied:
1. common.inc (patch for v.1.429)
2. system.module (patch for v.1.197)
There are no changes in database structure.


pancho



Previous comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 15, 2004 - 19:52 : Goba

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/Drupal-translate-date-formats.patch (1.99 KB)

Currently if I set a date format for the site, then it will be used with
all interface translations. Different languages however have different
needs when presenting dates. The Hungarian date format does not allow
the day name to be the first and it calls for a dot between the hour
and minute (yes, a dot not a colon). This means that Drupal ships with
no suitable date format for Hungarians. Also none of the Hungarian date
formats will be suitable on an English interface, while none of the
English date formats are acceptable on a Hungarian interface on a
bilingual site.
The only option is to make date formats translateable. Since these are
dynamic t() calls, extractor.php needs to be extended to include the
date formats shipped with drupal in the pot output, so translators will
get them (much like we do for some numbers and day names). I will take
care of extending extractor.php, once this patch gets applied.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 15, 2004 - 20:00 : Goba

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/Drupal-translate-date-formats_0.patch (1.99 KB)

Well, the t() needs to be called on the date format set by the admin, so
I needed to fix three t() calls. Updated patch attached.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 15, 2004 - 20:01 : killes at www.drop.org

*g* I recall that there was a time when you didn't like this approach.
Anyway, I fully endorse it and would like to see it in 4.5. There is
also no suitable data format for German in core. And yes, that's a bug
not a feature request.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 15, 2004 - 20:05 : Goba

Yes, I didn't like it, because these are dynamic t()s. But since the
selected format always needs to be presented in the actual language, it
needs to be dynamic by nature. We have some of these dynamic t()s
already, handled specially in extractor.php.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 16, 2004 - 00:07 : Steven

I like this idea a lot, but I don't like the simplistic "wrap it all in
t" feature. There are instances where format_date output is intended
for script output. Changing those date formats would mean a bug in the
code or UI (for example the way a node date is specified and parsed).
Only those strings that are intended for user consumption should be
translated. That's why I think we need a more specialized date handling
component. It would deal with stuff like variations ('show hour/hide
hour'), long/short variations (we need to review the usage of
small/medium/long), as well as localizing them.
We would need to revise the formats shipped with Drupal, but this gets
tricky. For example would we only ship US-style AM/PM date formats with
core? Should we only have M/D/Y ordering, or also D/M/Y ordering? If we
move the time format settings to locale (where they do below, in
principle) we might get a drop in usability: moving from a simple
selection box, to requiring the whole localisation framework 'just to
switch from 12 hours to 24 hours'.
In some parts of the world, there is only one format for dates (e.g.
chinese/japanese 2004年10月16日 1時00分). For them, the only
variations are long vs short (whether to show the year, the time, etc),
in other parts of the world all bets are off and people use what they
like.
This would mean that if we provide a default set of formats, and let
them be translated through PO files, some languages might require more
items than provided and some languages would have to use duplicates to
fill all available options. On top of that, there is no guarantee that
format #3 in French matches format #3 in German, so you'd need to be
able to specify this per language.
Ideally, we would let a language define any number of date formats, and
let the user choose one of those per language. We could also provide a
custom option where you enter your own date format, for the realy picky
ones.
The question remains: what do we do for sites without locale enabled?
We can't go to requiring locale just to switch the date on a
non-localized site. In that case, perhaps we could do this:
- Have locale.module deal with date formats when it is enabled. Have a
per-language format setting, selected from a language-specific,
po-defined date format list.
- Have system.module implement a 'localization' admin menu item if
locale.module is /not/ enabled. This page carries the old selector,
which acts like a simplified version of locale's format selector, with
the list we current have in Drupal (i.e. variations of 24/12hours,
d/m/y, y/m/d, m/d/y, ...). To prevent confusion, we add a link to
system.module's version of the localization page, which instructs users
to enable locale.module for full localization abilities).
I know it sounds a bit weird (we certainly don't do this anywhere
else), but it would be consistent in terms of UI (the date format is
"localization" no matter how you look at it) and keep both
non-localized site admins and localized site admins happy, without
sacrificing too much ease of set up.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 16, 2004 - 10:34 : Goba

Steven, you say:
"/There are instances where format_date output is intended for script
output. Changing those date formats would mean a bug in the code or UI/
"
But the current approach is to translate the month and day names in
every case, so format_date **already** assumes that the date it outputs
is for human consumption and not for machines. So changing the order of
the fields in user date formats should not hurt. Sure it might not be a
useability dream, but it does not hurt.
By the way, adjusting date formats based on user language is only a
small piece of localisation not covered by Drupal core yet. I need to
use one mission statement and site name in all languages, and even my
primary and secondary links need to have the same text in all site
languages, since they are not translateable. If we are about to find a
generic solution for locale covered settings, we need to take these
into account too.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 29, 2004 - 01:10 : Steven

""so format_date *already* assumes that the date it outputs is for human
consumption and not for machines."
"
What I mean is changing the placement of the date components (day,
month, year). For numerical dates which are parsed by a program, this
will introduce bugs. I'd much rather have a cleaner date format
selection method integrated with locale.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 29, 2004 - 14:19 : Goba

Steven, the custom date formats are not translated, only those selected
by the admin. And the admin can select date types with spelled out
month/day names at any level, so they are not machine parsable anyway
in the current Drupal version. **This patch does not introduce bugs.**
I admit it does not look good, but there is no system for locale
dependant admin settings yet.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 29, 2004 - 16:05 : Steven

I'm saying we do need such a system.
With your patch, the format that the admin selects in language A will
not necessarily match the one in language B. We should go for
locale-defined formats with a locale-neutral list to fallback on.

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