Language-sensitive Item Group

1 Initial Problem

At the time being, ILIAS does not yet support the presentation of content in the repository according to the language a user has selected. But this would be highly appreciated at least on installations with "international" users who are speaking different languages (e.g. the ILIAS Information Center). Users would easily find the content they can understand or that is offered for them - and would not see content they can't understand.

One option would be to teach all containers that they check the language set for an object in its metadata and show only those contents that match to the user's interface language. But this would require to extend LOM metadata (where language settings could be made) to all repository objects. And it would not work for those contents that are not available in the user's language but should be presented nevertheless.

Another option would be that all repository object types offer a setting where authors/admins can be defined for which user languages this content should be visible/readable. This would be a multiple-select to allow the selection of several user languages for one content. But again, this would require changes to all repository objects - and last but not least also to all repository plugin objects.

2 Conceptual Summary

A much easier - and probably more reasonable - way could be to delegate the entire handling of showing content according to the actual user language to a kind of layer within each container. And this layer is the Item Group. It would be sufficient to make the Item Group language-sensitive and to decide within the Item Group's settings for which user language the IG should be visible/readable - and for which not.

The following example should give an idea of this feature:

• A category should present a set of file objects to users from different countries. Activated user languages are English, Spanish and German.
• Some file objects exist in all three languages, others only in English.
• For each of the supported languages there is one Item Group. All file objects are assigned to at least one item group. Those file objects that exist only in English are also assigned to the German and Spanish item group.
• Item Group "EN" contains all objects in English language. The setting for language-sensitivity is set to "English".
  • Effect: A user with user language English will see item group "EN" and the embedded file objects - but no other item group.
• Item Group "SP" contains all objects in Spanish language, but also some file objects in English for which no Spanish alternative is existing. The setting for language-sensitivity is set to "Spanish".
  • Effect: A user with user language Spanish will see item group "SP" and the embedded file objects - but no other item group.
• Item Group "DE" contains all objects in German language, but also some file objects in English for which no German alternative is existing. The setting for language-sensitivity is set to "German".
  • Effect: A user with user language German will see the item group "DE" and the embedded file objects - but no other item group.

Language-sensitivity has only an effect on users with VISIBLE and READ permissions. If a user has EDIT SETTINGS, language-sensitivity is ignored. Otherwise a tutor or author could not edit item blocks in other languages than the current user language.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

• Item Group » Settings

3.2 User Interface Details

The existing Settings screen of an Item Group has to be extended by a checkbox and a selection of supported languages on this installation.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

none

4 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

5 Contact

• Author of the Request: Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]
• Maintainer: Killing, Alexander [alex]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

6 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• item Industrietechnik GmbH, Hesse, Joel [Joel_Hesse]

7 Discussion

Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt] Why not use sections for this? Sections already know a lot of tricks when to show themselves and are the weapon of choice for this issue. Please consider

Großkopf, Katrin [katrin.grosskopf] Do you mean using section as a workaround for having language-sensitive item groups and do you think we do not need language-sensitive item groups? 

I have a local server with ILIAS 5.4.0. Inside a section of a content page, I can not add a resource list. The entry "Insert Resource List" is missing in the dropdown.

Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]: please skype me

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 09 MAY 2019: Sections are not the right component for this requirement. The dedicated object in ILIAS to cluster and group repository objects is not the section but the item group. That's what sections are made for.

The purpose of sections is to display page content, e.g. text or media. You are right that sections already allow to configure when and to whom the section content is presented. But that is made to have one page container element that support such configurations and to keep such settings away from other page elements (and therefore to reduce implementation and maintenance efforts).

And last but not least, letting sections control the language sensitive presentation of repository items would always require additional steps compared to the scenario above. You need to create a section for each supported language and then add a item group for every language. And it requires always to work with the page editor. When going in this direction it would make more sense to enable the item group component to listen to the language of a multilingual page when embedded in the page contentand only to appear when the related language is selected by a user. This is currently not the case. Item groups ignore the language setting of the page content. But then again, the item group component has to be extended in this direction, not the section element within the ILIAS page editor.

Sesterhenn, Fabian [sesterhenn], 01. AUGUST 2019: What about the title of the item group? AFAIK this cannot be translated yet to multiple languages like the title of a category can. I think this is needed as well, for a lot of situations. For instance: We are going to use the new tile display for our repository root starting with 5.4. There we will use item groups to group the categorys. We will need to display the title of the item groups, but can't translate them yet (DE + EN are enabled on our installation).

Hesse, Joel [Joel_Hesse] 21.08.2021: item groups are ready for multiple languages now. (see Multilingual Title for Item Groups ). I would like to push this idea.

The filtering of object blocks would be a good solution for the currently missing possibility of ILIAS to offer SCORM modules in multiple languages.
(Background: Many authoring tools, such as Articulate Storyline, do not offer the possibility to translate SCORM modules into multiple languages. )

If an object block contains several SCORM modules for which the language is defined via the object's metadata, filtering by language allows only the SCORM modules in the user's language to be viewed. It is important to me that one can still define an alternative language. For example, if Italian is set as the user language, English content should also be displayed if no Italian content is available.

Please contact me for funding.

Bromberger, Norbert [bromberger], 21.08.12021: I think this is a good idea. This would definitely complete the multilingualism in ILIAS.  

8 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.