Some description labels do not change to selected language unless Delta Chat closed and executed again

[gerryfrancis]

• Platform (linux/mac/windows):
  Windows 8.1 Pro.

• Delta Chat Desktop Version:
  1.3.3-1.10.0.

• Expected behavior:
  Delta Chat translates all English description labels to the previously selected language.

• Actual behavior:
  Delta Chat does not translate all English description labels to the previously selected language.

• Step to reproduce the problem:
  -- Select a different language than English (e.g. "Deutsch" for German).

• Screenshot:
  -- This is the result when "Deutsch" (German) is selected:
  

• Remark:
  -- After Delta Chat is closed and executed again, the description labels show the texts in the previously selected language.

[Simon-Laux]

At first glance I can't reproduce this on linux, maybe its an issue that appear only on windows?

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux That is strange. Unfortunately I cannot test on Linux. As you can see at the screenshot, the only description label that is translated in German is "Suchen".

[Simon-Laux]

Did you find anything interesting in the logfile?

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux No, unfortunately not, just this:

"2020-05-14T11:06:20.410Z"	"main/menu"	"INFO"		"rebuilding menu with locale de"
"2020-05-14T11:06:21.373Z"	"main/state"	"INFO"		"Saving state to C:\\Users\\PC_USER\\AppData\\Local\\DeltaChat\\config.json"

[Simon-Laux]

After Delta Chat is closed and executed again, the description labels show the texts in the previously selected language.

So german just doesn't work for you at all or is it fixed after a restart?

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux It is fixed after a restart.

[Simon-Laux]

Okey, lets debug this then.

1. start deltachat from the commandline (powershell or conhost/cmd.exe) with the argument -- debug
2. This should open deltachat and the developer console and log all debug messages.
3. Change the language and look for extras.getLocaleData in the dev console.
4. Save the message varible to the global scope:
   
5. after the message variable is copied to temp1 run

Object.keys(temp1).length

in the dev-console. This counts how many language strings were sent to the fronted.
What does this number say?

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux Maybe I am stupid, but I cannot get the console by running DeltaChat.exe -- debug . :( (I am testing with the final version 1.3.3, has the console been withdrawn from it?)

[Jikstra]

It's:

1. cd C:\Program Files\DeltaChat (not sure about the exact path)
2. .\DeltaChat.exe -- --debug or .\DeltaChat.exe --debug currently dont have a windows system around but one of them should work

[gerryfrancis]

cd C:\Program Files\DeltaChat (not sure about the exact path)

@Jikstra Quite strange, on my Windows machine Delta Chat is installed in C:\Users\PC_USER\AppData\Local\Programs\deltachat-desktop . So this app is limited to the current user who installed it. (However, I do not know if it is intended to be this way, but that is a different story.)

.\DeltaChat.exe -- --debug

@Jikstra Hooray, you have nailed it! :)

What does this number say?

@Simon-Laux This number says 595 .

[Simon-Laux]

that's the right number so the problem must be somewhere else...

[gerryfrancis]

I have found out that the texts in the global three-dot menu (on the right) are not affected and changed to the previously selected language. This would limit the issue to the texts located in the main window beyond the top menu bar.

[Simon-Laux]

The the top menu bar is controlled by the main process, which also sends the language data to the front-end process. The thing you checked was whether the front-end process received this data. So we can say the problem most likely lies in applying the new data.

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux To me it looks like the process of refreshing the text labels is stopped after the first one, which is "Suchen". Maybe that helps.

[gerryfrancis]

Thanks, I will test the fix in the upcoming release! 👍

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux I am reopening this, because it seems that not all labels have been caught:

(Started in English and switched to German, tested in version 1.10.0.)

[Jikstra]

@gerryfrancis you need to reselect a chat, then they should go away. Those are the strings we need to put into the core and the core gives back to us. We would need to refetch & rerender everything so that they get replaced with the translated strings. As they are not too many I think it's okay for now.

[gerryfrancis]

you need to reselect a chat, then they should go away.

@Jikstra After changing the language from English to German, I reselected "Device messages" and "Saved messages", but they stay as they are in the chatlist. Do you really think this is a core issue? (I should mention that translations for "Device messages" and "Saved messages" are available.)

[Simon-Laux]

as @Jikstra said those strings come from the core. also those chats are mostly hidden bellow in the chatlist so its ok for now.
There are more important things to do right now than fixing this mini cosmetic bug that only appears right after the user changes their language.

[gerryfrancis]

@Simon-Laux As long as Delta Chat runs the system language (which did not work out in the past, but now it does), it is OK. When there is enough time left, we can fix this one, of course.

[Simon-Laux]

Let's put it into project resurrection then.