[interchange-i18n] Internationalizing Foundation

[Dave Jenkins]

Mike Heins wrote:
 > 1. Internationalized pages -- should we start fresh and have a pages_i18n
 >  directory in addition to the default US-centric pages? How about
 > templates/regions and templates/components?

That would be good.  Would these templates be available as separate RPM
files?

 >
 > 2. Product database structure. There are several options:
 >
 > a. One big table with new columns description_de, 	  description_nl,
 >  etc. This is my least favorite.

No.  I've worked to translate such websites-- more often than not, our
Spansih translator would get confused and enter the descriptions in the
French column, the German would put her texts in the Spanish, etc.  Too
confusing.
 >
 > b. Separate tables for each language, with empty fields falling 	
 > through to the default products. Basically, this means
 >
 > 	    Locale de_DE ProductFiles products_de products Locale 	 nl_NL 
ProductFiles
 >  products_nl products
 >
 > 	  etc.
 >
 > c. Separate tables *not in ProductFiles* with product 	  description
information.
 >


That should work.  It should be clear very early on which database I (as
a language-specific translator or product manager) wish to edit.  For
example: as the Japanese translator for a site, I should come into the
Admin UI, select my UI language, select which Db I want to work on
(jp_JA, *_jp) and proceed through the products section.  All fields
would contain the default texts, which I would then update into Japanese.

 > 3. Pricing -- should we provide easily selectable ability to maintain
separate prices for each currency or should we concentrate on
 > PriceDivide.

Hmmm... That could go either way.

 >
 > 4. Checkout forms -- should we build a different form for each
 > locality, or try and do one big form?

One big form becomes unwieldy.  It may make sense for us as developers,
but not for the customer.
I would vote for separate forms for each locality (along with the
separate templates).