English language took over default language! How to reverse it? v. 2.2

[osposposp]

Hi.

 

I set up v. 2.2 in the mid-2000s for my online bookshop. I added another language, Icelandic, and then deleted English (to avoid having to make duplicate descriptions for every single item listed). The files and folders for English were left on the server. In 2009 I sold the database to another bookshop. They recently asked me to re-install the English as they have a number of foreign customers.

 

However, when I re-installed English in Admin -> Languages the English version took over! Icelandic was clearly defined as default but is now inaccessible. No other changes were made at the same time. I have now deleted the English from Admin -> Languages but it is still functioning as the default language and I have no way of choosing/installing Icelandic, that is listed as the default (and only) language. When I echoed $language on the product_info.php page the result was "english". (I did try to delete the Icelandic with the English version still there and then add it again; no help in that either.)

 

I now also have no access to the products through the website as there are no item descriptions for the English version... 

 

When I initially set the database up I made numerous changes (mostly adding fields to describe books better), so an upgrade will not be possible. The database itself has run without any problems through the years.

 

What I need to do is to re-install Icelandic as the default language, but I can't do it through the admin interface! What is the best way to go about changing the language definition?

 

 

[Jack_mcs]

In admin, click on the administration link and there will be a dropdown to switch the language. Though if it only shows English you will probably end up editing the database to fix it. If you know the language ID for Icelandic, then you can force that language to load in the admin/includes/application_top.php file. Search for where the language is set.  If you are not going to use a language, all files for it should be deleted since being present can cause a few problems.

[osposposp]

Hi Jack_mcs.

 

Thank you for your reply. We decided to take the easy way out and copy the database backup from the day before over the whole thing. Good to know in the future, though, about the admin/includes/application_top.php file.

 

One thing definitely missing: When you delete a language there needs to be a warning that all records associated with that language will be deleted. Should be obvious, but when you are in panic mode, trying to figure out why things have gone wrong, it could prevent people from deleting all the data by deleting a language!

 

What we are really looking for is to offer only the user interface for clients in different languages, so having do create duplicate records for every single item doesn't really make sense. So we won't be trying to add the language through admin again.

[Jack_mcs]

Google has a package that you can add to the shop that will translate the pages to a large number of languages. I haven't looked at it some time but, as I recall, it worked well.

[osposposp]

Thanks. I will look at that.