How to force all members to use a fixed language?

[thegioiluatsu]

Hello everyone,

I am currently managing a forum using phpBB3 and I have an issue related to language settings that I need some help with.

My forum supports multiple languages, and some members have changed their language preferences through the User Control Panel (UCP). However, I would like to force all members to use a fixed language across the entire forum, regardless of their previous settings.

Is there a way to configure this in the ACP? Or, if not, is there an extension that can help me achieve this?

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

[Mannix_]

Remove other languages to force users to your the one you want ??

[danieltj]

Remove other languages to force users to your the one you want ??

This.

If you don’t want multiple languages then just uninstall all the languages you don’t want. You don’t need an extension for this.

[thegioiluatsu]

Thank you @Mannix_ and @danieltj. I currently have 2 languages ​​and I still want to keep both of them. At the same time, I want members to only use the forum's default language and not be able to set the language themselves in UCP. Please give me new ideas. Thank you!

[warmweer]

Thank you @Mannix_ and @danieltj. I currently have 2 languages ​​and I still want to keep both of them. At the same time, I want members to only use the forum's default language and not be able to set the language themselves in UCP. Please give me new ideas. Thank you!

What's the reasoning/purpose of not allowing users to use their preferred language for the language strings? Surely that can't affect your working on the board?

[danieltj]

Thank you @Mannix_ and @danieltj. I currently have 2 languages ​​and I still want to keep both of them. At the same time, I want members to only use the forum's default language and not be able to set the language themselves in UCP. Please give me new ideas. Thank you!

What are the two languages you have installed out of curiosity? I'm going to assume that one of them is British English (the default).

[SpIdErPiGgY]

I removed the language selector from all templates were it's being used. So now there is only 1 language. EN is active, but not visible to my users.

I think this is the better solution... Remove the en language can cause update problems I guess...

[ssl]

Thank you @Mannix_ and @danieltj. I currently have 2 languages ​​and I still want to keep both of them. At the same time, I want members to only use the forum's default language and not be able to set the language themselves in UCP. Please give me new ideas. Thank you!

What's the reasoning/purpose of not allowing users to use their preferred language for the language strings? Surely that can't affect your working on the board?

I think this is to prevent users from using British English (phpBB's default language) and only being able to use the default language of the board (Vietnamese).
phpBB does not allow this function, the extension request is legitimate

[warmweer]

I think this is to prevent users from using British English (phpBB's default language) and only being able to use the default language of the board (Vietnamese).
phpBB does not allow this function, the extension request is legitimate

OK, but the board's default language can be set to Vietnamese, so all new users will have Vietnamese as language unless they explicitly (on purpose) select British English as language (the first page of registration uses the default language, but prospective members can select another language (if it's installed , which should always be the case for British English).
So basically the extension removes the choice.

Honestly ... British English will only be used if the prospective member actively selects that when registering so the "feature" requested (hiding British English completely) can't even be considered user-friendly.

[Anișor]

You can run this mysql query to change all users default language to english apart from visitors and bots.
From there you can add a restriction (maybe add an if U_ACP) statement to UCP to allow only admins to change their language.

Code: Select all

UPDATE phpbb_users
SET user_lang = 'en'
WHERE user_type <> 2;

[thegioiluatsu]

Thank you very much danieltj, SpIdErPiGgY, ssl, warmweer and Anișor for giving me more useful information.
@Anișor do you mean:

Code: Select all

UPDATE phpbbx7users SET user_lang = replace(user_lang, 'en', 'vi');

I followed your instructions, it's great that all forum members have switched to the default language I want now which is Vietnamese. The reason I want to do this is because I need to revise some English language translations, during which time members can use Vietnamese to access the forum.

[Anișor]

No, Please don’t run that command. Replace in mysql doesn’t work like that.
Instead, run my command with “vi” instead of “en”.

Code: Select all

UPDATE phpbbx7users
SET user_lang = 'vi'
WHERE user_type <> 2;

[thegioiluatsu]

Thank you very much.

From there you can add a restriction (maybe add an if U_ACP) statement to UCP to allow only admins to change their language.

Can you give me more detailed instructions on this issue?

[Anișor]

In styles/your_style/template/ucp_prefs_personal.html
You have the following code:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF S_MORE_LANGUAGES -->
		<dl>
			<dt><label for="{{ LANG_OPTIONS.id }}">{L_BOARD_LANGUAGE}{L_COLON}</label></dt>
			<dd>
				{{ FormsSelect(LANG_OPTIONS) }}
			</dd>
		</dl>
	<!-- ENDIF -->

You can change it to:

Code: Select all

<!-- IF U_ACP or U_MCP --><!-- IF S_MORE_LANGUAGES -->
		<dl>
			<dt><label for="{{ LANG_OPTIONS.id }}">{L_BOARD_LANGUAGE}{L_COLON}</label></dt>
			<dd>
				{{ FormsSelect(LANG_OPTIONS) }}
			</dd>
		</dl>
	<!-- ENDIF --><!-- ENDIF -->

And now only administrators & moderators can see the language option in UCP.
Don’t forget to purge the cache after edits.

[thegioiluatsu]

@Anișor, your instructions are exactly what I needed. My problem has been resolved. You are a great professional. Thank you very much for your very detailed and specific instructions.

I still have one more problem, I hope you can guide me on how to solve it. You can see my issue here: viewtopic.php?t=2655988