Language pack installation and uninstallation

Over 100 language packs are available for an administrator to install on your LMS site in ‘Language packs’ in the Site administration. Simply select the languages you require from the list of available language packs and click on the “Install selected language pack” button.

Multiple language packs may be selected for install by holding down the Apple or Ctrl key whilst clicking on the language packs.

Installing many (20+) language packs has almost 0 impacts on LMS performance.

Multiple language packs may be uninstalled, once selected, by clicking the ‘Uninstall selected language packs” button.

Language packs and manual download

Language packs are a work-in-progress since new language strings are added for new features in each new version of LMS. Lang packs can be manually downloaded. The page also lists the percentage of language strings translated in each language pack.

Parent language packs and child language packs

Certain language packs (a child language pack) contain only the modified language strings from their parent language, rather than a complete set. Thus, it is necessary to install the parent language pack too. These language packs are:

• ca_valencià (which requires ca)
• de_du, de_kids and de_comm (which require de)
• en_us, en_ar, en_kids (which require the default en)
• es_ve (which requires es)
• es_ve, es_co (which requires es)
• es_mx_kids (which require es_mx)
• fil (which requires fi)
• fr_ca (which requires fr)
• he_kids (which requires he)
• ja_kids (which requires ja)
• lt_uni (which requires lt)
• no_gr (which requires no)
• sv_fi (which requires sv)
• wo (which requires fr)

Note: If your site uses a child language pack (see the list above), if you use the Multi-language content filter, you need to be very careful about how to use it.

Manual language pack installation

In general, the easiest way to install additional language packs is from within LMS. However, it is also possible to install a language pack manually by downloading the zip file and unzipping it to a directory called lang in your lmsdata directory.

Language pack updates

• Language packs can be updated via Administration > Site administration > Language > Language packs.
• You can see which language packs have updates because they are listed in both ‘Installed language packs’ and ‘Available language packs’.
• To update all installed language packs (except English and any local language packs) click the ‘Update all installed language packs’ button.
• For sites with a large number of language packs installed, to update just a few installed language packs at a time, select the languages from the ‘Available language packs’ list and click the ‘Install selected language pack(s)’ button.
• The English language pack is updated automatically each time the site is upgraded.
• As most language packs are a work in progress, it is a good idea to update them regularly.

All installed language packs are updated as a scheduled task. By default, the task is run daily.

Language pack failure to update

• Language packs cannot be updated if your LMS hosting company sets cURL to use IP6.
• Basically, the symptom is this in the Available language packs area:

(Failed to connect to 2400:cb00:2048:1::6814:ef: Network is unreachable)

• And this fix is add this to your lib/filelib.php file in the right place where curl is set (around line 1250 in M 3.1).

$options['CURLOPT_IPRESOLVE'] = CURL_IPRESOLVE_V4;

LMS cannot connect to download.paradisolms.net

This can happen if:

• You configured over-zealous security restrictions in your server. Check that your server can contact the download.paradisolms.net server.
• The download.paradisolms.net server is down and if you try to manually download the language pack, it fails too. Please try again later.
• Your internet service is faulty 🙁

Inside a language pack

A standard LMS comes with an English language pack only. It is installed in lmsdata/lang/en.

The English language terms (or ‘strings’) for the main (core) LMS features such as administration, roles etc, are stored in lang/en. Language files relating to modules, blocks, and other plugins are stored with the files of that particular plugin. So if you wanted to see the language strings for the badges block, for example, you would look in blocks/badges/lang/en. If you wanted to see the language files for the workshop module, you would look in mod/workshop/lang/en.

If you install another language pack, you will then get a folder such as lang/fr which would have French translations of LMS terms. Unlike with English, other language packs such as lang/fr will contain all translations along with the main core terms so you would find see for example the badges strings in lang/fr/block_badges.php and the workshop strings in lang/fr/workshop.php.

These files (which all end in .php) contain short phrases, often called “strings”. Strings may contain a placeholder (between the curly brackets below). This placeholder is replaced with the chosen words from the language pack when the string is displayed. The term between the square brackets is called the ‘string identifier’ or the ‘string name’. Examples:

$string['addnewcourse'] = 'Add a new course';
$string['hidesection'] = 'Hide section {$a}';

If a string hasn’t been translated, then LMS will use the parent language or the original English version. Thus, you might see an LMS site where some terms have been translated into a language but others still display in English.

Can I personalize language strings per theme?

Not directly, but you can use new local (child) language packs to achieve different courses behaviors/looks

Changing the look of a course

You can have a course with a different theme ‘and’ a different child language pack. You will then have personalized language strings in the only course that uses that particular theme.

Changing the behaviour of a course

• If you do not want a user to see any reference to grades when he/she finishes a lesson, by editing the correct text string, it is possible to replace “Your score is 9 (out of 10)” with “Be sure to get your certificate”. Or change “Congratulations – end of lesson reached” to “We hoped this lesson helped you”. See how to change the end of lesson page display.
• You can have several different courses, each using a different (child) language pack and each one showing personalized language strings.

Can I install one particular language pack and supplement the missing translations using a second (related) language pack?

• Short answer: No 🙁
• But you can use the Language customization tool. If you do make your own translations, please consider contributing your translated strings to the language pack maintainers, so that your language pack can grow.

Can I make a language pack for kids?

• Yes.
• The current existing language packs for kids are:
  • de_kids (which require de)
  • en_kids (which require the default en)
  • he_kids (which requires he)
  • ja_kids (which requires ja)

• If you want to make a language pack for kids in a language different from the ones listed above, use the following method:

• • Install the (en_kids) English for kids language pack in your local LMS server
  • You will have to edit 10 files (which are stored in the lmsdata/lang/en_kids folder).
  • You can use Notepad++ or any other text editor, but avoid using MS Word or MS Notepad.
• Start with langconfig.php and choose your main language as the parent language
• When you have finished translating all the strings, you can request a new language pack to the person administering all LMS language packs.
• Upload into AMOS the 10 files in your lmsdata/lang/en_kids folder
• Remember to keep updating and expanding your new language pack

Why has my language pack suddenly forgotten some translations?

See the following image showing (Insignias) a properly translated Spanish language string (green rectangle) and an untranslated English language string (red rectangle) for ‘Badges’ plus a mixture of translated and untranslated strings with a language pack that should have 100% of the core strings translated.

If you try to update your language packs you will get a message indicating ‘Update of ‘xxxx_old’ language pack skipped.

Read the following section for the cause and the fix.

Why do I have a language pack named xx_old’ that I never installed?

Sometimes you may find (see image below) that your server has, in addition to your usual language packs (eg, en, es_mx), an odd-named language pack with an _old name ending (eg, es_mx_old), that -obviously- cannot be updated.

• This came from an incomplete automated language pack update because the lang pack update fails in the middle of the process.
  • The update first renames the existing lang directory so that it has the _old suffix and then it tries to unzip the new one.
  • If unzipping is successful, the old directory is removed.
  • Check that the ZIP PHP extension is OK in the Environment.
  • If your server has languages other than English, the language packs update process will need to download all the corresponding language packs, which will take some time. If you have a low-speed internet provider, you could get a script timeout error. To prevent this, you will need to edit the server/php/php.ini file and change the line that has ‘max_execution_time = 30’ into ‘max_execution_time = 600’.
• There may also be a language pack that has mixed languages, like ‘English (es_mx)’, that obviously cannot be.

• You must uninstall all strange-looking language packs and re-install your usual language packs.