Animatsiya.net - new features: Localization, Bulgarian site, easy site translation, bugfixes
Hello, loyal Animatsiya.net visitors! It's been a while since the last official update!
For the past few weeks, I've been working hard on some new features for the site (that's why the frequency of updates gone down). Check them out, and please let me know if anything's broken!
1) LOCALIZATION
On the left sidebar of the site, there is now an option to "Only view films accessible to speakers of [language]". By default, this is enabled, and the "language" (which can be changed) is set to the default language of the website - on the main site, English. What this means is that you will only be shown films that are accessible in the language you've chosen - i.e. that have subtitles in that language, or have major amounts of dialogue in that language, or are wordless. So if you're a speaker of French, you can select "fr" from the dropdown menu, click "Update", and the selection of films on the front page will be changed to only those accessible to a French-speaker. They will be listed in the order that they became available in French (so if a film was added to the site 2 years ago, but somebody added French subtitles only recently, it will be near the top). The introductory text on the main page (saying how many films are available) is also updated depending on the language.
Not just the main page is updated: if you browse the list of directors, you'll only see the ones who have at least one film on the site accessible in your language. Same for studios, genres, animation techniques, decades, series. If you go to any particular list of films (from a director, studio, genre, decade, etc.) you'll only see the accessible ones, but the top of the list will have text that tells you how many others are on the site that still need subtitles (e.g. "5 listed out of 7 in database (2 films still need French subtitles)." - you can also click to see just a list of the inaccessible films). Most film lists (with the exception of directors' filmographies, which are listed chronologically) can also be sorted by "Availability" - the date that the film became available on the site in your language. It's the date on the upper right of the film info box.
Once you actually open a film page, the default subtitles will be in your chosen language, if they exist.
If you uncheck this feature, the website will just show all films, like it did before. The localization setting lasts only once you're on the site, and will reset once you leave. However, you can add parameters to the URL to get a shareable link to a particular setting.. adding "&allfilms" will turn localization off.
Some examples:
"animatsiya.net/?localization=fr" - set localization to "fr"
"animatsiya.net/director.php?directorid=226&localization=de" - see all films by director with ID 226 (Vladimir Popov) accessible to a German-speaker (also, localization will be set to "de", until you change it)
"animatsiya.net/studio.php?studioid=1&localization=fr&needsubtitles" - see all films from studio with ID 1 (Soyuzmultfilm) that still haven't been subtitled in French (also, localization will be set to "fr", until you change it)
"animatsiya.net/decade.php?1940s&allfilms" - see ALL films on the site from the 1940s (also, localization will be turned off, until you turn it on again)
P.S. For English, there are a few films interpreted as "inaccessible" which actually have hard-coded English subtitles in the video. I'll need to do something about that later.
2) BULGARIAN SITE
On the upper right of the site, there is now a Bulgarian flag. Thanks to translation work by Zhukorop (Жукороп), you can switch back and forth between a localized English and Bulgarian version of the website. Not everything is translated yet, but most of the site should be usable. All the film names are translated, and the director names are automatically converted to Bulgarian spelling rules. Film/director/studio descriptions are disabled on the Bulgarian site for now, the FAQ and DIY pages are not yet translated, and adding content can mostly only be done on the English site for now.
But I've worked on the backend to make it simple to update the translation in the future, and to add more languages. This brings me to the third major addition:
3) EASY SITE TRANSLATION
Under "Submit", there's now a "Site Translation" option that can be used by anyone with a user account who would like to help translate the whole site into another language. This is a pretty major undertaking and I expect only a few people will be interested - my initial motivation was to make it easier to work with Zhukorop on the Bulgarian site (it was a real chore pasting texts back and forth). But now that it's here, it can be used to quickly add other languages as well. It's designed to both make the translator's work really easy, and the make the Admin's work easy as well, so that a new translation can quickly be added and tested (and just as easily removed).
Basically, you select a language, then a list appears of all English text that needs translation, sometimes with an explanatory comment in light grey text beneath it. Anything that needs translating will have a bright-red box on the right. You type your translation into the text area on the right, then "Submit" (either "this" text, or "all" texts, for convenience). Once a text is submitted and turns green, it is saved to the server. You can log out at any time, and later resume from where you left off. There are a bunch of other details that you can read about on the page.
Once a translation looks ready to test, it will be added as an option to the site (unofficially at first).
P.S. I should add, since I didn't officially mention it before, I added the "Add Multiple" page to the site, which can be used to quickly find and translate the titles of wordless films that haven't yet been translated into some language. Some animatsiya.net members have been making good use of it.
4) VARIOUS BUGFIXES
a) Regular users can now delete their own comments & PMs, instead of asking an administrator to do it - use the red "X" on the upper right of one of your comments (reported by Жукороп)
b) You can now include paragraphs and BBCode markup in your profile "About" section (reported by Тихон)
c) Several bugs fixed on the "Add Subtitle" page:
The "Load video + subtitles preview" button on that particular page now actually works (a previous update broke it)
The video site now cannot be changed on that page (it should never have been possible, as it's only there to preview the subtitle)
The video is now always the "default" one, not a random one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Please let me know, here or by contacting me directly through the site, what you think, and whether anything broke. There are more exciting features to come, but I'll speak of them when once they're ready...
For the past few weeks, I've been working hard on some new features for the site (that's why the frequency of updates gone down). Check them out, and please let me know if anything's broken!
1) LOCALIZATION
On the left sidebar of the site, there is now an option to "Only view films accessible to speakers of [language]". By default, this is enabled, and the "language" (which can be changed) is set to the default language of the website - on the main site, English. What this means is that you will only be shown films that are accessible in the language you've chosen - i.e. that have subtitles in that language, or have major amounts of dialogue in that language, or are wordless. So if you're a speaker of French, you can select "fr" from the dropdown menu, click "Update", and the selection of films on the front page will be changed to only those accessible to a French-speaker. They will be listed in the order that they became available in French (so if a film was added to the site 2 years ago, but somebody added French subtitles only recently, it will be near the top). The introductory text on the main page (saying how many films are available) is also updated depending on the language.
Not just the main page is updated: if you browse the list of directors, you'll only see the ones who have at least one film on the site accessible in your language. Same for studios, genres, animation techniques, decades, series. If you go to any particular list of films (from a director, studio, genre, decade, etc.) you'll only see the accessible ones, but the top of the list will have text that tells you how many others are on the site that still need subtitles (e.g. "5 listed out of 7 in database (2 films still need French subtitles)." - you can also click to see just a list of the inaccessible films). Most film lists (with the exception of directors' filmographies, which are listed chronologically) can also be sorted by "Availability" - the date that the film became available on the site in your language. It's the date on the upper right of the film info box.
Once you actually open a film page, the default subtitles will be in your chosen language, if they exist.
If you uncheck this feature, the website will just show all films, like it did before. The localization setting lasts only once you're on the site, and will reset once you leave. However, you can add parameters to the URL to get a shareable link to a particular setting.. adding "&allfilms" will turn localization off.
Some examples:
"animatsiya.net/?localization=fr" - set localization to "fr"
"animatsiya.net/director.php?directorid=226&localization=de" - see all films by director with ID 226 (Vladimir Popov) accessible to a German-speaker (also, localization will be set to "de", until you change it)
"animatsiya.net/studio.php?studioid=1&localization=fr&needsubtitles" - see all films from studio with ID 1 (Soyuzmultfilm) that still haven't been subtitled in French (also, localization will be set to "fr", until you change it)
"animatsiya.net/decade.php?1940s&allfilms" - see ALL films on the site from the 1940s (also, localization will be turned off, until you turn it on again)
P.S. For English, there are a few films interpreted as "inaccessible" which actually have hard-coded English subtitles in the video. I'll need to do something about that later.
2) BULGARIAN SITE
On the upper right of the site, there is now a Bulgarian flag. Thanks to translation work by Zhukorop (Жукороп), you can switch back and forth between a localized English and Bulgarian version of the website. Not everything is translated yet, but most of the site should be usable. All the film names are translated, and the director names are automatically converted to Bulgarian spelling rules. Film/director/studio descriptions are disabled on the Bulgarian site for now, the FAQ and DIY pages are not yet translated, and adding content can mostly only be done on the English site for now.
But I've worked on the backend to make it simple to update the translation in the future, and to add more languages. This brings me to the third major addition:
3) EASY SITE TRANSLATION
Under "Submit", there's now a "Site Translation" option that can be used by anyone with a user account who would like to help translate the whole site into another language. This is a pretty major undertaking and I expect only a few people will be interested - my initial motivation was to make it easier to work with Zhukorop on the Bulgarian site (it was a real chore pasting texts back and forth). But now that it's here, it can be used to quickly add other languages as well. It's designed to both make the translator's work really easy, and the make the Admin's work easy as well, so that a new translation can quickly be added and tested (and just as easily removed).
Basically, you select a language, then a list appears of all English text that needs translation, sometimes with an explanatory comment in light grey text beneath it. Anything that needs translating will have a bright-red box on the right. You type your translation into the text area on the right, then "Submit" (either "this" text, or "all" texts, for convenience). Once a text is submitted and turns green, it is saved to the server. You can log out at any time, and later resume from where you left off. There are a bunch of other details that you can read about on the page.
Once a translation looks ready to test, it will be added as an option to the site (unofficially at first).
P.S. I should add, since I didn't officially mention it before, I added the "Add Multiple" page to the site, which can be used to quickly find and translate the titles of wordless films that haven't yet been translated into some language. Some animatsiya.net members have been making good use of it.
4) VARIOUS BUGFIXES
a) Regular users can now delete their own comments & PMs, instead of asking an administrator to do it - use the red "X" on the upper right of one of your comments (reported by Жукороп)
b) You can now include paragraphs and BBCode markup in your profile "About" section (reported by Тихон)
c) Several bugs fixed on the "Add Subtitle" page:
The "Load video + subtitles preview" button on that particular page now actually works (a previous update broke it)
The video site now cannot be changed on that page (it should never have been possible, as it's only there to preview the subtitle)
The video is now always the "default" one, not a random one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Please let me know, here or by contacting me directly through the site, what you think, and whether anything broke. There are more exciting features to come, but I'll speak of them when once they're ready...