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Provide a user interface to switch language for interactive map labels
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Description

Summary
With the localization efforts by the team currently responsible for maps comes increased visibility into the potential languages a map can be presented in. Currently the maps use a set decision tree to determine which language to display labels in. First the wiki language, then fallback languages, then local (geographically speaking) language. What if users of the map could select from a list of languages to render the map tiles in a specific language. Acknowledging, of course, that not every label will be available in every language and that some selections would result in zero visual change.

Description
Provide an interface to allow users to select from a list of languages. This should probably be when a maps is full-screen only as to not clutter the viewport for embedded maps,

When a language is selected, the Wikimedia maps switch the "lang=" attribute to the new language selected. The map is re-rendered with the new language. Labels that are available in the map view are now rendered in the newly selected language.

Optional: provide a way for users to revert the map to the 'default' language setting as when the map was first viewed.

Note: The team currently responsible for maps has a defined scope and timeline. I am not suggesting they prioritize this feature over current work. This task is to document the interest for potential future work.

Original idea from AlasdairW: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Travellers%27_pub#Maps_in_the_language_of_your_choice—you_can_try_it_now_on_testwiki

Event Timeline

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald Transcript

The Universal Language Selector is a great interface the community is already familiar with for switching languages and could easily be used for this. Demo of what this could look like with ULS: https://jsfiddle.net/planemad/Lcvp5p7x/

Vvjjkkii renamed this task from Provide a user interface to switch language for interactive map labels to xydaaaaaaa.Jul 1 2018, 1:13 AM
Vvjjkkii triaged this task as High priority.
Vvjjkkii updated the task description. (Show Details)
Vvjjkkii removed a subscriber: Aklapper.
CommunityTechBot raised the priority of this task from High to Needs Triage.Jul 3 2018, 1:49 AM
Mholloway edited projects, added Maps (Kartographer); removed Maps.

Patches welcome but the WMF maps team won't be making further language improvements in the near term.

TheDJ changed the subtype of this task from "Task" to "Feature Request".Apr 12 2020, 1:41 PM