Translating Finding Aids ?

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audeale...@gmail.com

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Jan 18, 2021, 4:12:03 AM1/18/21
to AtoM Users
Good morning,

I am testing an new installation of AtoM on a Linux server, which comes with really helpful functionalities, like generating Finding Aids. It works great but I wondered if it would be possible (via a template or otherwise) to translate the finding Aids (field titles) and maybe to style them differently?

Our archive website exists for now only in French and it would be fine to be able to publish finding aids also in French - or in the language of the interface.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help,

With best regards,

Aude

Dan Gillean

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Jan 18, 2021, 9:23:50 AM1/18/21
to ICA-AtoM Users
Salut Aude, 

The labels in the finding aids are hard-coded in the XSLT, a stylesheet that transforms the XML output into the PDF finding aid. Fortunately, Les archives de la Ville de Montréal has created French versions of AtoM's XSLTs, and they are available on our wiki, with some instructions on how to replace the default English ones. See: 
One thing to note: 

The 2.6 release includes a few minor style enhancements for the finding aids that improve the usability of them. A summary of the changes can be found on the related development issue ticket (#10591), and include: 
  • Increased logo size on Coverpage.
  • Removal of "Rules for Archival Description" from Coverpage.
  • Altered "generated by" on the Coverpage to read "Generated by <publisher> on <date>".
  • Table of Contents now only has links to Series and Subseries. Removed TOC links to files and items.
  • Removed PDF book mark for files and items.
  • Change the label "ID" to "Reference code".
These have NOT been added to the French versions available on our wiki at this time. 

If you wanted to try to implement them yourself (i.e. if you feel confident working in a text editor and making changes to the French XSLTs, you can see the changes made in the English ones in this commit: 
Additionally, note that the instructions on the wiki were for an older release if you are using a newer version of AtoM (with Ubuntu 18.04 and PHP 7.2), then the command to restart PHP-FPM will be: 
  • sudo systemctl restart php7.2-fpm
Let us know how it goes - and if you do successfully implement the cosmetic updates, please consider sharing the updated XSLTs with us, and we will add them to the wiki for others! 

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him


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audeale...@gmail.com

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Jan 19, 2021, 8:51:11 AM1/19/21
to AtoM Users
Dear Dan,

Thanks a lot for your very helpful and detailed answer! That's a very good news :-)
I have edited the xlst, you will find them in attachment - if it can help the community (only the first 2 ones, because the modification on the third is not needed, "Reference code" was already fine in French ("cote")), but will probably have to wait a little bit to test them because I have to ask the IT department to make the swap via the command line.

Best regards,

Aude
ead-pdf-inventory-summary.xsl
ead-pdf-full-details.xsl

Dan Gillean

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Jan 20, 2021, 9:57:36 AM1/20/21
to ICA-AtoM Users
Thank you for sharing these, Aude! 

I will try to test them as well when I have time. If you have the opportunity before I do, please let me know how it goes. If you report that they work well in your environment, I will add them to the wiki for others. 

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

audeale...@gmail.com

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Jan 21, 2021, 11:11:23 AM1/21/21
to AtoM Users
Hi Dan,

Actually, they work, but there are 2 things to correct :

1) the translation from the english and date presentation is not perfect (see printscreen) - this could be better expressed in French.
2) title for restricted access (seen printscreen)  - but I do not see where to correct this.

Best regards,

Aude
ToDo_templates.docx

Dan Gillean

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Jan 22, 2021, 1:58:47 PM1/22/21
to ICA-AtoM Users
Hi Aude, 

I have added a copy of your XSLTs to the wiki, with notes about the current state, and a copy of the explanatory image you provided. You can see them in the note in this section: 
Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

audeale...@gmail.com

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Feb 5, 2021, 10:46:21 AM2/5/21
to AtoM Users
Thanks a lot, Dan!

Mark Custer

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Jun 4, 2021, 7:38:30 PM6/4/21
to ica-ato...@googlegroups.com
Total aside to the immediate question, but I'm curious if there would be interest in the AtoM community in developing a sort of "Internationalized EAD cookbook" for creating PDFs (or ePUBs, or the like)?  The XSLT files could be refactored to utilize a different approach, for instance, that would make maintenance for translations easier to manage and share.  Just a thought, in case there would be interest in such a project, especially in light of the fact that EAD itself will be initiating a revision process starting later this year.

Also, from what it looks like, both AtoM and ArchivesSpace share a very similar approach to the creation of staff-side PDF files (not that just that, they share the same author!).  Neither currently have the ability to reference translation files, but if something like the EAD Cookbook (https://saa-ead-roundtable.github.io) were reborn as a shared infrastructure, why not? 

If so, the PDF accessibility question raised here, https://groups.google.com/g/ica-atom-users/c/RLnUV2RDW-8/m/Zm6KjmG9AAAJ, could be addressed at the same time.  The first step is just to turn on the accessibility features now provided by Apache FOP (e.g. https://github.com/YaleArchivesSpace/EAD3-to-PDF-UA/blob/master/fop.xconf#L30), but there is a lot more that can be done in that regard, including the addition of bookmarks, etc. 

Mark





Dan Gillean

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Jun 9, 2021, 9:35:37 AM6/9/21
to ICA-AtoM Users
Mark, I think this sounds like an amazing idea, and I would love to see members of our community engage with such an undertaking!

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

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