Talk:Manifest files

Manifest information on adding dashboards needs to be added. See https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/31397

Confusing description regarding languages element

The given description for the languages element (<languages><language tag="...">..</language></language>) is confusing to me. It sounds like in recent versions of Joomla, it is enough to specify the "language" folder to copy to the extension folder. From my experience however, this is not enough; in the linked case, onlyadding the separate "<languages>" element (without the folder attribute, as mentioned following the sentence "Note that both ways can work together.") actually makes the translations within a language folder in the extension folder work reliably.

The text following the example code for the languages element ("The advantages of this solution are the following...") I also find confusing: If I understand it correctly, adding the languages element enables files in the top level language folder (put there either by the extension itself or by the user) to override language strings from the language folder in the extension; and that this is not possible if the languages element does not exist.

But nowhere is it explained what the languages element with its sub-elements actually is really good for in this case. Why is this information needed, and why is that "advantage" only available if the element exists? The file names need to follow a fixed naming scheme anyway, right? Supposedly, Joomla only checks the root level language folder if the languages element exists? But from the bug report linked to above, I can rule out that this entry is just there to make Joomla also check the root languages folder; it apparently at least also somehow affects the loading/processing of files inside the extensions directory.

I have neither the time nor the knowledge to check this in the Joomla code unfortunately (that's why I'm posting here instead of changing the documentation directly; but I do suspect that for making translations reliably work, both a "languages" folder copied to within the extension directory, as well as the "languages" element, are actually required / best practice; and using anything else (is probably not well-tested and) can lead to unforseen consequences.

Munchkin (talk) 15:14, 28 November 2023 (CST)

FYI The handling of manifest files mainly concerns Joomla! extension developers. The Joomla! Programmers Documentation was started for this group. It is not yet complete, but is constantly being developed.
Unfortunately, I can't help you personally, but I have forwarded your message to Mattermost. If you are not already registered there, it is a good idea to do so now.

Max123kl (talk) 03:29, 29 November 2023 (CST)