Nick
I have to admit I’m extremely disappointed in the level of support I’ve been receiving from CB (most notable from yourself) lately. To begin with none of the information necessary to create a language override is in contained in the CB Primer Book. On top of that, the information you can track down regarding CB Language Overrides is convoluted, confusing, and quite frankly to a great extent, wrong.
I’m not sure what has happened with CB. If it’s some organizational shift, or concerns moreso of an esoteric nature common to certain individuals. But whatever the case, the support of late has been terrible.
This is highly unacceptable considering the fact that Community Builder touts itself as a community service type organization designed to provide opportunity as well as expansion to those who seek it regardless of their socioeconomic status (put quite simply, I myself – as well as many others – were under the impression you truly wanted to help people and were not solely out for profits, which was part of the appeal of your organization.
But even to the extent that you seek to increase profits, it is not smart business policy to snub those that help supply those profits, as well as offer overall support of what was previously considered a noble enterprise.
Now of course I’m not suggesting you spend 10 min on each question, but I was somehow under the impression that support was part of the service offered in exchange for purchase of a Developer membership (certainly that’s part of the reason we purchased it.) To that end, your response:
“All these are language strings.
Download the latest CB Primer Book and study it. “
Is not support. Neither is it helpful, and neither does it begin to offer a solution; and if it offered a solution it would be the wrong solution.
It is not so much a matter of the wrong solution as it is the tone and manner in which you supplied the non-solution. Most of us have experienced support that has at some point been wrong, but to be wrong and rude on top of wrong is quite simply unprofessional
and unacceptable.
If you are not going to offer support then you should at least offer members their money back. Or better yet, how about taking a few minutes over and above the ten seconds needed to throw out a “Download the CB Primer Book and study it” snub, and offer real support with real answers. It need not be ten minutes, but it cannot be ten seconds and wrong on top of ten seconds.
At any rate, I’ve managed to discover the solution and wish to share it with other community members in hopes of maximizing their time and minimizing their frustrations. While at it, I just went ahead and prepared a quick overview for complete customization. This will help new members and less technical members master the learning curve and customize their sites much much faster and with greater precision.
The tutorial follows:
Personalizing Your Joomla/CB Website and Using Language Overrides
As you know, Joomla and Community Builder both offer tremendous potential when it comes to user specific customization – which of course is part of the reason you select any web-platform and framework. Put quite simply, a web package that cannot be tailored to fit your specific needs is of little value.
So, how to make a Joomla/CB site your site?
Actually, it’s pretty easy.
1) First of all, most of your customization (i.e. titles, descriptions, labels etc.) will take place in the backend dialogues of Joomla and CB which are already preconfigured for the expressed purpose of customization.
2) The remaining items that cannot be personalized via the backend, usually can be customized through CSS or via a template override. You have access to both of these by the way, in the back-end of Joomla. Although, you may need to access the files manually for CB. Also:
3) Finally, the system content that cannot be customized via the first two options can usually be customized through the language override. Joomla already has an automated solution in place which works rather nicely.
In the back-end of Joomla go
a. Extensions -
b. Languages -
c. Scroll down to overrides in field on left
d. Click
e. Click new button
f. On right hand side type the value or text you are looking to change *(be sure to select "value" in drop search option)
g. The search will return various text strings which you will select from to find the appropriate value or text you are looking to change.
h. Locate desired text to change and click
i. Modify text to reflect desired statement in text box field on left underneath Language Constant.
j. Click save and close
CB does not as of yet have an automated solution in place for customizing system content, so the steps will be a little more involved for now.
1. Go to
www.joomlapolis.com/cb-solutions/languages
and select and download the language plugin that corresponds to the language used on your site.
2. Install in CB Plugins as any other plugin. (Ignore the existing default language plugin already present)
3. Then from public_html (or equivalent depending upon site setup) go to:
components/com_comprofiler/plugin/user/plug_cblanguageoverride/language/default_language
4. Copy files:
○ language.php
○ admin_language.php
5. From public_html (or equivalent) go to: components/com_comprofiler/plugin/language/en-gb/cbplugin *(Great Britain language folder is en-gb but others will vary according to language plugin. So look for your particular language installed in place of en-gb and follow accordingly)
6. Paste copied files
7. Amend copied files adding the following prefix:
cblanguageoverride-
Copied files should look like this:
○ cblanguageoverride-language.php
○ cblanguageoverride-admin_language.php
8. Now go into default language plugin:
components/com_comprofiler/plugin/language/default_language
And locate existing language files:
○ language.php
○ OR
○ admin_language.php
9. Open up either:
○ language.php
○ Or
○ Admin_language.php
(depending upon where your desired revision is located)
10. Use search to locate the desired string you’d like to modify.
11. Copy ENTIRE line.
12. Go to newly created language override file
components/com_comprofiler/plugin/language/en-gb/cbplugin
13. Paste copied string into the array function
i.e.
return array(
'REGISTER_TITLE' => 'Whatever text you'd like to change',
);
*(Spit parenthesis with a return and paste copied string in between on line by itself.)
14. Modify pasted language string (small text BETWEEN single quotes (i.e. ‘Whatever text you'd like to change') to reflect desired statement. (i.e. ‘hello’ 'goodmorning' ….etc.)
15. Save and close
With these simple steps you’ll be quickly on your way to transforming your Joomla/CB site into your own personal site, which of course is the point to begin with.
So good luck, and check back if you have any questions. We’ll try and monitor this thread for a few days. But if you follow these instructions you really should have no problems customizing and personalizing your site quickly and efficiently.
*Just a procedural note: basically, what you’ve just done is gone into the language file and change the value (or existing system text) to your own desired text. Although instead of changing the language file directly, you created an Override (i.e. the uploading of language files and the amending and copying to your new language plugin folder) and made the changes there instead.
cheers
nant