Adding Multiple Language support and Fixing
issues with slovenian symbols on Squirrelmail Web Mail on
Linux
No doubt
Squirrelmail Web
Mail is one excellent piece of software you can use on top of
Qmail mail server.
However as with every piece of software you face issues every now
and then.
The issue that a colleague of mine has encountered at the Company
where are work is was caused by a broken character encoding of some
of the slovenian letters like the
Slovenian "c" and Slovenian
"s".
Besides that I've noted that the basic
Squirrelmail
installation I have previously done, some time ago was
missing the all languages squirrelmail internationalization
pack.
I revealed the missing
Squirrelmail
internationalzation by going to Squirrel Web mail's
installation directory
/var/www/squirrelmail/locales/ and
listing the content of the directory.:
The locales directory listing displayed only 4 files
README.locales, index.php and timezones.cfg as well as a
directory containing the default encoding configured to
squirrelmail
The file README.locales explains thoroughly how to install all of
the available translation languages to squirrelmail.
If you feel uncertain / informed on what you do I suggest you read
The
documentation available on Internationalization on Squirrelmail's
website
Anyways here is how for the lazy ones step by step walk
through:
debian-server:~# mkdir /root/locales/;
debian-server:~# cd /root/locales/
debian-server:/root/locales# wget http://bit.ly/bKbrid"
debian-server:/root/locales# tar -zxvvf
all_locales-1.4.18-20090526.tar.gz
The above commands will download all locales for the 1.4 generation
stable release of Squirrelmail.
Note that it's would be a good idea to download the latest
all_locales on
squirrelmail's download
webpage .
Now you will have in your
/root/locales/ the following
directory structure.
all_locales-1.4.18-20090526.tar.gz COPYING.locales images/
locale/ TRANSLATORS
ChangeLog.locales help/ install* ReleaseNotes.locales
version
To install all the locales addons to squirrelmail to achieve
internationalization of your Web mail you'll have to invoke the
install script which can be seen from the above file
list.
debian-server:/root/locales# ./install
Please enter path to your squirrelmail installation:
/var/www/squirrelmail/
Above in the prompt urging you to enter a directory enter the
location to your squirrelmail installation in my case as shown
above it's
/var/www/squirrelmail
That's all now all necessery files will be merged with your
squirrelmail installation directory.
Now you can safely remove the
/root/locales squirrelmail
internationalization installer files
debian-server:~# rm -rf /root/locales
However there is one more vital step to partake to assure Slovenian
Symbols as well as other character encoding written in the UTF-8
standard will appear in your email communcation in squirrel web
mail.
You'll be required to change
Squirrelmail's Default
Language
debian-server:/var/www/squirrelmail# ./configure
SquirrelMail Configuration : Read: config.php (1.4.0)
---------------------------------------------------------
Main Menu --
1. Organization Preferences
2. Server Settings
3. Folder Defaults
4. General Options
5. Themes
6. Address Books
7. Message of the Day (MOTD)
8. Plugins
9. Database
10. Languages
D. Set pre-defined settings for specific IMAP servers
C Turn color on
S Save data
Q Quit
In the above screen Choose:
10. Languages The following
screen will Appear.
SquirrelMail Configuration : Read: config.php (1.4.0)
---------------------------------------------------------
Language preferences
1. Default Language : en_US
2. Default Charset : iso-8859-2
3. Enable lossy encoding : false
R Return to Main Menu
C Turn color on
S Save data
Q Quit
Here you'll need to change the variables:
2. and 3..
There
Default Charset variable should be changed to
utf-8 as well as the
Enable lossy encoding variable
should be switched to true.
If you wonder what Enable lossy encoding does
please read the
Supported Charsets documentation section on Squirrelmail's
website
The description for Lossy Encoding on the above link is:
Lossy Encoding - allows charset conversions when the output
charset does not support all symbols used in the original email
charset.
Hopefully this will solve your issues with broken Slovenian
encoding in Squirrelmail and will add internationalization support
in your Squirrel Web Mail.
If use the commend form and inform me about the issues you
encounter and I'll try to help!