Default Language of SOGo

Ganzjahresgriller

Unfortunately, I haven’t really found a solution to set the default language for the SOGo frontend. Any idea here?

D4niel

What did you try already? According to the official documentation you have to set SOGoLanguage in sogo.conf: https://www.sogo.nu/files/docs/SOGoInstallationGuide.html#_general_preferences

Maybe SOGo is also smart enough to detect the language from the default language of your browser, but I don’t know for sure.

Turab

No, this doesn’t work. I have newly installed a Mailcow instance, changed SOGoLanguage in the configuration matching an available language in SOGo docs, restarted the whole stack of Mailcow; but still the UI comes in English.

D4niel

Turab Don’t forget that this setting is marked as “U” for user setting. Configuring this won’t overwrite the settings of existing accounts.

Turab

I am not looking into the settings of the existing accounts. The login page should be viewed in default language I think. I can’t manage to do it. The login page always loads in English.

Ganzjahresgriller

@Turab: same here. The settings in the sogo.conf have no affect

Turab

@Ganzjahresgriller and that seems the case for about 7-8 years. I find it interesting for all these years no one actually cared about this. This washes away the whole idea of being multi language for a software. There is a settings variable in a configuration file which has no effect for years. So why not removing that setting altogether?

D4niel

The language of the login page is derived from the default language setting of your browser.

Turab I find it interesting for all these years no one actually cared about this. This washes away the whole idea of being multi language for a software. There is a settings variable in a configuration file which has no effect for years. So why not removing that setting altogether?

I still feel like you’re using that setting wrong. Did you read the docs? https://www.sogo.nu/files/docs/SOGoInstallationGuide.html#_preferences_hierarchy
SOGoLanguage is a user preference. It’s not a system preference, hence it won’t affect something like the login page, just new accounts = users.

Turab

I know that it checks the accept language header from the browser but it doesn’t remember the user selection ever. It always defaults back. It is in deed the better approach to detect language of the user’s browser and adapt accordingly BUT it is odd to not remember the user’s selection and force fall back to another language. Coming back to the link you gave to docs: it states that the user selection has the utmost priority; well, the way it behaves now, it is not. Although the user selects another language during login, although the user sets their language preference differently in their account, SOGo still falls back to the browser language as soon as the user logs out. It is still the same user, it is still the same browser; per the docs, it should remember the user’s selection until a further change or the clearing of the cookies.

D4niel

Turab per the docs, it should remember the user’s selection until a further change or the clearing of the cookies

SOGo only stores user settings in the database. So it can only match your default language if you’re logged in. SOGo doesn’t store the language selection in any cookie, so it won’t have an affect on the login page. So the docs are technically correct.

Turab

That’s where I disagree. The same user is using the same computer with the same browser. So disregarding and not remembering the user’s selection is not wise and as I said, washes away the idea of being multi language. The way it is designed now is contradictory to its own idea: it wants the user’s selection come first; but it disregards it in the first place.

Think about it this way: SOGo thinks it would be user friendly to detect the user’s browser language so that it might most probably match the language the user actually wants to use. SOGo values the user preference so much that it tries to understand what user would want, before the user knows. So far so good. Then the user decides that the browser’s language is not actually the language they want to use. Then SOGo, which was doing all this for user friendliness, disregards this preference of the user and in a way it tells the user “no, which language you wanted to use is not important, your browser is more important than yourself, so get out of the way, I and your browser are getting along better, I did all this not to satisfy you but your browser only”. Does that make sense to you?

I don’t say it stores any user preference in cookie, I say it must. I don’t say this is a bug, I say this is a great design flow.

D4niel

Turab That’s where I disagree.

I mean that’s not really something to agree or disagree. I’m just saying how it works, not that I think it’s a good idea 😉
The advantage is probably that you don’t need one of those annoying cookie banners on your login page to store preferences in someones browser.

But after all we’re probably discussing this in the wrong place, since this is SOGo and not mailcow-related. If you want your feedback to reach them, this is probably the right place: https://www.sogo.nu/support.html#/community

Turab

Thank you for your opinions.

D4niel I’m just saying how it works, not that I think it’s a good idea

That’s exactly why I said I don’t say it’s a bug or I don’t claim it’s working incorrectly; I just said the logic behind it is wrong. It is designed wrong.

D4niel But after all we’re probably discussing this in the wrong place, since this is SOGo and not mailcow-related

You are absolutely right. I just shared my opinion not because I thought it was Mailcow’s fault, but only because;

1- This is what it means to be a “community”.
2- Maybe people, i.e community could have known something I didn’t.

D4niel but you can also try another GUI like Roundcube:

I am not very up for it to be honest. I have read it somewhere before, I don’t know why but nearly all of the open source webmail clients are looking like from the previous century.

D4niel

Not sure why I can’t edit my post, but you can also try another GUI like Roundcube: https://docs.mailcow.email/third_party/roundcube/third_party-roundcube/

No idea if it has the required function tho.