Hi y'all! Two days ago we installed the latest LimeSurvey using the ComfortUpdate. We use LimeSurvey in German, primarily with a population that doesn't speak English. We had hoped that the many incomplete translations would go away with the update - but it got worse!

How is it possible that we find English text all over the place, in the frontend, in the backend, in the admin interface, in the normal GUI, everywhere, although  translate.limesurvey.org/projects/limesurvey-6/ says that German in 100% complete?

Examples:

• "You have exceeded the number of maximum access code validation attempts. Please wait 10 minutes before trying again."
• "Create a new survey from scratch. Or simply copy or import an existing survey."
• "Manage survey administrators"
• "Share survey"
• "Help" and "Script" (tabs next to the Question when writing a question)
• "Save as default values"
• "Launch the survey as this participant"
• "If you used an identifying access code to access this survey, please rest assured that this code will not be stored together with your responses. It is managed in a separate database and will only be updated to indicate whether you did (or did not) complete this survey. There is no way of matching identification access codes with survey responses."

Some of these things have been there for multiple versions! Seriously, I cannot recommend LimeSurvey to my (academic) colleagues for any other language than German.
I'm actually willing to help in the translations, but when it says German is 100% complete, although clearly it isn't, then the issue runs beyond mere translations.

Regards,
Michael

MERose wrote:

Seriously, I cannot recommend LimeSurvey to my (academic) colleagues for any other language than German.
 

LOL !
Seriously ! What other free like a beer choice you have ?


Else : If you have the last version : please report the issue community.limesurvey.org/bug-tracker/
Maybe someone lost the gT function here.

DenisChenu wrote:

MERose wrote:

Seriously, I cannot recommend LimeSurvey to my (academic) colleagues for any other language than German.

 

LOL !
Seriously ! What other free like a beer choice you have ?
 

We don't care if 0 costs or not. We happily pay for services, which we do. We'd pay more if we got even better products/services.
But the answer to your question is Qualtrics.

Qualtrics is not free.

Else : did you report the issue ?

Hi,
I do not see these phrases not translated.
Some of your examples regarding the German translation.
1. Create a new survey from scratch. Or simply copy or import an existing survey."
   
2. If you used an identifying access code to access this survey, ...

3. "Help" and "Script" 


So this seems to be an issue on your side.

Joffm

Bug issue bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=19893#c81640 has been confirmed.

I don't know how we arrive at a different text for some places. Like I said, we use the latest version through the ComfortUpdate, but at least some of these texts have always been English.

So I tried to switch the language to something completely differently: English, Afrikaans, Cantonese. Nothing changes.

I have to change the default language in , right? What might be the issue?

German is a tricky one, because there are more than 1 "German".

1. German 100%
2. German → German (Informal) 100%
3. German Easy 73%
4. German Austria 0%

So depending on the version of German used, this can have an impact as well.

And of course there can be bugs.

And: All these translations are done by volunteers to the project. Anyone can help to keep the translations up to date or to improve them.

From time to time, new strings are added and it can take a little bit until they are fully translated. Depending on how active the respective language community is, it can also take longer.

E.g. I thought the Brazilian portuguese translation was up to date, because I went through it just a couple of weeks ago. But now it is just at 99% and I'll have to have a look at this to get it back to 100%.

But, keep in mind, just because the translation status says it is 100% complete, this doesn't mean that these translations have already made it into the latest version of Limesurvey. This just means that in the translation platform everything is translated. So it might take a couple of days until the next update to get recently translated strings into the software itself.

Limesurvey, as an OSS project depends on volunteers, in the forum, regarding translations, regarding bug reports and testing, regarding basically everything.

So instead of going about a rant, it would be great to actually help the community to make LS better (like you did with a bug report). And yes, there are alternatives out there that have a lot more resources and budget.

But as Joffm highlighted, this might actually not be a general bug (because the strings seem to work for him, but rather something specific for your installation).

First of all, what is your exact version of LS and what is the language that you have set for the interface?

In case you refer to me by "ranting". I wasn't ranting - instead, I offered help and state that we transfer money to LS. What more can we do?

The opinion in this forum seems to be: You don't pay, so don't complain.
I find this utterly wrong. I develop open-source software on my own. My aspiration is to achieve perfection; I thought that was common among OSS developers.

Our version is LimeSurvey Community Edition Version 6.8.2+241203 (like I said: We applied the ComfortUpdate on Saturday), and the language is plain German (I now see that in my first post I used "English" as frontend language, which is wrong). I tried other Germans this morning, no change. (BTW: The idea of an Austrian German is ridiculous - this is not like British English and American English.)

The opinion in this forum seems to be: You don't pay, so don't complain.
I find this utterly wrong.

No, you might have gotten the wrong impression. I am probably one of the biggest "complainers" here. But it seems like the way you approached this didn't get over too well.

But yes, I think "complaining" is probably not seen very well. This doesn't mean that you can't mention that something is going wrong. It might have just the way this was transmitted might have gone down the wrong way for a few of us.

But we Germans (I assume you are German) tend to have this issue, especially when using a foreign language. So my "criticism" of your "complaining" might have also been harsher than it was supposed to be.

My aspiration is to achieve perfection; I thought that was common among OSS developers.

I think this is a very noble cause, but I guess a lot of us have been over this, because it is just not possible. I don't know the OSS you are developing, but over the years I have learned that the complexity of LS makes it almost impossible to achieve perfection. Also, but not only, because requirements and usecases are so vastly different between the users that we see in the forum, that Limesurvey will never be perfect for everyone.

Our version is LimeSurvey Community Edition Version 6.8.2+241203 (like I said: We applied the ComfortUpdate on Saturday), and the language is plain German (I now see that in my first post I used "English" as frontend language, which is wrong). I tried other Germans this morning, no change. (BTW: The idea of an Austrian German is ridiculous - this is not like British English and American English.)

It is always good to have the actual version, because while 6.8.2 IS currently the most recent version of Limesurvey LS6, next week it might be not.

In any way, it is strange that your version of Limesurvey is the latest, yet Joffm sees these strings translated with the same version. During the Comfort Update, did you get any error messages?

From which version has the update been made? Within the LS6 branch or from an earlier branch like LS5 or LS3?

Also, did you clear the asset cache in Limesurvey and the browser cache?

I just checked with the first two strings that you have posted were missing and none of them appears in the translation files.

So it is highly likely that the developers did not include those strings in the translation files, just like Tibor said in the bug report.

So thank you for reporting, because only a bug reported can be fixed.

(BTW: The idea of an Austrian German is ridiculous - this is not like British English and American English.)

There are a lot of languages out there that are probably used very little. But as long as they are maintained by someone who feels it is necessary, I am totally fine with it. Usually these languages later disappear over the years when versions change, because someone needed the translation for one or two projects and later they move on and do not continue to use Limesurvey and maintain the translation. So to the bottom end you'll find a lot of languages that are missing a lot of strings to be translated.

Now, Austrian has some changes and while the Austrians will surely understand the "normal" German, I don't see why not offering this. There are some expressions that are different. And: this might not only be relevant for the actual backend or front end, but if you want to provide a version of the questionnaire with different expressions that adapt better to your austrian participants, it allows you to provide a slightly altered questionnaire to them, otherwise they would have to use the "German" one.

Had the case probably 20 years ago, where our client wanted a German version for the Swiss (a different survey platform though). And it was not Schwitzerdütsch, but German for the Swiss. Main difference was "dass" vs "dass mit scharfem S" (not on my keyboard, sorry ). It cost them more, but they really found it important to adapt the questionnaire. As I said, different people, different needs.

But obviously the person who wanted the Austrian German version isn't too motivated either, because the translation progress is at 0%.

For some part : i think i have an explanation

See bug report : bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=19893#c81650

We need to show "Not translated string", because this string (editable by super admin) send to the translation function.
We show tyhe non translated string in the manager, not elsewhere.

i didn't talk for

• "You have exceeded the number of maximum access code validation attempts. Please wait 10 minutes before trying again.""