Revision of Language Handling in Page Editor

1 Initial Problem

Some feature requests related to the planned ILIAS Page Editor Revision are suggesting to abandon language information for the related page element, e.g. (tbd). Main reasons for these requests are reducing the complexity of the interface and missing benefit of this setting. This shows that the current concept behind the metadata setting for language is not working. But before removing these settings, a general concept for language handling in page content is necessary. This concept should also match with the concept of multilinguality of learning module pages or category pages.

2 Conceptual Summary

The huge advantage of declaring the language for a piece of content in an LMS like ILIAS is, that the system can provide content in the preferred language of each user, provided that the content exists in multiple languages.

An improved language support in page editor content should combine the option to set a language for the page itself (Multilinguality feature) and the metadata information for language (Metadata service).

• The language for a page (and its content) is always set on page level in the "Multilinguality" section. This information is inherited by the Metadata service.
• Page elements themselves have no distinct metadata information about language.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

{Please list all views (screens) of ILIAS that should be modified, newly introduced or removed.}

3.2 User Interface Details

{For each of these views please list all user interface elements that should be modified, added or removed. Please provide the textual appearance of the UI elements and their interactive behaviour.}

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

{If the proposal introduces any completely new user interface elements, you might consult UI Kitchen Sink in order to find the necessary information to propose new UI-Concepts. Note that any maintainer might gladly assist you with this.}

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 Privacy Information

{ Please list all personal data that will need to be stored or processed to implement this feature. For each date give a short explanation why it is necessary to use that date. }

6 Security Implications

{ Does the feature include any special security relevant changes, e.g. the introducion of new endpoints or other new possible attack vectors. If yes, please explain these implications and include a commitment to deliver a written security concept as part of the feature development. This concept will need an additional approvement by the JourFixe. }

7 Contact

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

8 Funding

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

• …

9 Discussion

Hilbert, Mirco [mirco.hilbert], 18.11.2021: From the point of view of accessibility, it is extremely important that you can declare the language not only at the page level but also at the level of a page element (if possible even at the word level). A screen reader uses this meta-information to read the page in the correct language. If, for example, an English citation has been inserted into a German page and there is no way to declare this page element as English, the text may no longer be understandable for a visually impaired user.

Schmidt-Sielex, Wolfgang [WSS], 18.11.2021: I agree to Mirco Hilbert's statement. There is already a feature request for v.9 that describes the need of language declaration at different content levels, although that request still needs some work and discussion before it gets into a Jour Fixe meeting:
Language Settings in User Content

10 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}.