[4.0] Flags are country flags, not language flags

[Bakual]

When installing a language, the corresponding content language is automatically created and also an image ("flag") associated with it.

However the logic for the language flags applied there is no proper logic at all: The issue is that there exists no language flags, they are country (or district) flags.

When a new official language is created by our translation teams, we manually have to upload a new image matching the new language code. For example for the german dialects this was done in a PR (see #11868).

Original PR was #12014. Feel free to read through the lengthy discussion there.

Summary of Changes

This PR suggest to change the logic and assign the flags based on the country code in our language codes. Eg for de-CH (Swiss German) it would take the image ch.gif instead of de-ch.gif.
To still allow language specific images, it will first look for an existing file with the language code and fall back to the country code.

This PR also removes all now unneeded (since duplicated) files and renames some:

33 files are renamed to their corresponding country code.
75 files are deleted because they were duplicates and are no longer needed.
6 files are renamed to a name which already existed with a wrong image before. Those are si.gif, ca.gif, br.gif, be.gif, at.gif and af.gif. This accounts for a small B/C break for people who used those images before, as they will now change. Solution is simple: The user needs to select the image fresh in the content language.

Testing Instructions

• Install a language and check that the created content languages have proper flags for the language / country they are referring.

Documentation Changes Required

None that I am aware of.

[infograf768]

Clean install from your branch: problems for en-GB

needs change from en_gb to gb in base.sql as well as in update I guess.

INSERT INTO `#__languages` (`lang_id`, `lang_code`, `title`, `title_native`, `sef`, `image`, `description`, `metakey`, `metadesc`, `sitename`, `published`, `access`, `ordering`) VALUES
(1, 'en-GB', 'English (en-GB)', 'English (United Kingdom)', 'en', 'en_gb', '', '', '', '', 1, 1, 1);

[infograf768]

Suggestion:
Set to empty the image if none is available.

		$image = strtolower(str_replace('-', '_',  $tag));

		if (!file_exists(JPATH_ROOT . '/media/mod_languages/images/' . $image . '.gif'))
		{
			// Use country (eg "gb") as the image.
			$image = strtolower(substr($tag, strpos($tag, '-') + 1));
			
			// Set to none if no image is available
			if (!file_exists(JPATH_ROOT . '/media/mod_languages/images/' . $image . '.gif'))
			{
				$image = '';
			}
		}

[Bakual]

Ah, good find. Will do that today!
For updates I would not delete the now unneeded files. If we delete them a lot more users would face a B/C issue which isn't needed at all. So for updates we also don't have to change the SQL.
@wilsonge Is it possible to exclude this folder from your script which collects removed files?

[brianteeman]

By not removing images only on new installs you create a scenario whereby on one site (an upgrade) you select a flag of de_DE.gif and on another site (clean install) you select a flag of de.gif

On the other hand for upgraded sites that have been set to use de_DE.gif and you do remove the image on upgrade then you get a 404 on the image.

[Bakual]

By not removing images only on new installs you create a scenario whereby on one site (an upgrade) you select a flag of de_DE.gif and on another site (clean install) you select a flag of de.gif

Which is no problem. Or do I miss something?

[Bakual]

Updated with findings from JM

[brianteeman]

Which is no problem. Or do I miss something?

I am not a fan of different settings based on an upgrade or a clean install - personal opinion - others may disagree

[wilsonge]

@wilsonge Is it possible to exclude this folder from your script which collects removed files?

Yes. Add it into this array and we are good https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/25559/files#diff-364166631f7d7383b58d579f097b86a2R63

[coolcat-creations]

I tested with Persian which worked but when I try to install for example fr-CA, en-us,... the language packages can't be found ...?

[alikon]

iirc at the moment there are only 3 languages ready for j4
french , german and persian
ping @infograf768 for confirmation

[infograf768]

They are not "ready" for J4. Their 3.9 versions are only available for installing in J4 at J4 install time and through the Install Languages interface.
This was decided quite a while ago, to be able to test multiligual sites and RTL display in J4.

[adj9]

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 9b5da1e

J! 3.9.16

Step

• Multilanguage activation
• Installation of French and Persist, English was already there
• Applying the Patch from the component Your text to link here...
• Creation of Art1 Art2 - eng-UK, Art3, Art4 - persian and Art5 - fre

[obuisard]

There are not enough languages to test this successfully. Ideally, we should be able to install a language available for different countries. For instance, French from France and French from Canada. Depending on the language file installed, we should get either the French flag or the Canadian flag.

[infograf768]

@obuisard
You can install any language by fetching the packs on joomlacode and install as an extension.
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jtranslation3_x/frs/

[Bakual]

You could manually download a package and install that zip like a regular extension.
The list of languages is here: https://community.joomla.org/translations/joomla-3-translations.html. French Canada here: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jtranslation3_x/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=6871

Codewise it is the exact same thing that happens.

[Bakual]

Oh, JM was faster 😄

[obuisard]

Thank you!

[coolcat-creations]

I tested now and I don't understand.
Before the patch I installed de-ch - created an article, applied de-ch to it. The language flag was de-ch.gif, afterwards I applied the patch and installed en-aus, en-us, ... and the image was en-aus.gif, en-us.gif ,... As far as I understood the test instructions it should be us.gif and so on after applying the patch ?

[infograf768]

@coolcat-creations
If you use patchtester, it may not fully work.
I can't also fully apply the patch with eclipse, i.e. the .gif are not renamed and existing .gif to be deleted are not deleted.
The only way in this case to test the PR is to install @Bakual branch https://github.com/Bakual/joomla-cms/archive/40_UseCountryFlag.zip

[Bakual]

Aye, it doesn't delete existing images to keep being backward compatible.
So since de-ch and en-us still exist in your folder, it will take those.
If you manually delete the de-ch or en-us files prior to create the respective language, you should see it pick the ch or us file instead.

[brianteeman]

#28575 (comment)

[richard67]

Maybe I'm a bit late to the party, but I was pointed to this by the bugs and fun at home PR list.

2 questions:

1. How does it come that @adj9 has tested this PR, which is for Joomla 4, on a Joomla 3.9.x? Is there something I'm missing?
2. Is this PR abandoned, or will it be continued? @Bakual : Maybe it needs some decision by a release lead or whatever to see if it makes sense to continue so you know you're not wasting your time? If it's not abandoned you should fix the conflicts, then we could try to find testers.

[astridx]

Because languages don't match national borders, I think this PR is right. I will test it as soon as the conflicts are resolved.

[Bakual]

I still think this PR would be useful. But I certainly don't have time to fix conflicts during the next week. However the conflict itself is minimal and easy to solve as it's only in the postgresql file (which has almost no impact).

A decision would certainly be welcome.

[richard67]

@Bakual I can fix the conflict for you here via GitHub UI. But the conflict shows there has been made an error before with another PR which has been merged. Will have to make a separate PR to fix that.

[richard67]

Conflicts solved.

[astridx]

I tested the following:

1. git fetch origin pull/28575/head:40_UseCountryFlag
2. git checkout 40_UseCountryFlag
3. I deleted everything and run git reset --hard HEAD is now at 794fad4 Merge branch '4.0-dev' into 40_UseCountryFlag
4. composer install and npm ci
5. I checked the icons in build/media_source/mod_languages/images/ and in the media folder for mod_language. For German language I see only de.gif (no de_de.gif, de_ch.gif or de_at.gif).
6. I made a new installation with Persian and Frensh
7. I installed multilingual sample data
8. I opened front end. The icons are fine. (So old way should be fine?)
9. I added German language and everything was fine too.

Then

1. I deleted configuration.php and made a new installation.
2. I made a new installation without any additional language
3. i installed the German language and published the German content language.
4. I created sample data for the German and English language (article, categorie, menu).
5. I enabled the System Language plugin and added the switcher module. The icons are fine.
6. I added a new icon and renamed it to de-de.gif and after that in zzz.gif. Both times I could select the icon via content language and is was fine in the front end

---

System Information
php: Linux astrid-TravelMate-5760G 4.15.0-112-generic #113-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jul 9 23:41:39 UTC 2020 x86_64
dbserver: mysql
dbversion: 5.7.31-0ubuntu0.18.04.1
dbcollation: utf8_general_ci
dbconnectioncollation: utf8mb4_general_ci
dbconnectionencryption:
dbconnencryptsupported: true
phpversion: 7.2.31-1+ubuntu18.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
server: Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu)
sapi_name: apache2handler
version: Joomla! 4.0.0-beta4-dev Development [ Mañana ] 29-July-2020 18:21 GMT
useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:79.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/79.0

[astridx]

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 794fad4

---

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[Bakual]

Merged current 4.0-dev so hopefully tests pass

[ashvini77]

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 7433fd3

---

_{This comment was created with the J!Tracker Application at issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/28575.}

[ChavanAnkitaMahesh]

Tested successfully

---

_{This comment was created with the J!Tracker Application at issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/28575.}

[ChavanAnkitaMahesh]

I have tested this item ✅ successfully on 7433fd3

---

_{This comment was created with the J!Tracker Application at issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/28575.}

[rdeutz]

I am closing this, seems not the perfect solution. Good would be a migration script that let us not have a b/c break. Thanks for the discusion and work on this.

[alikon]

p.s.

RLDQ 👍