Article How do I translate my community?

Telligent Community supports translating the majority of the text rendered by the platform. User-generated content, however, is not supported for translation. 

What Language Packs are Available?

  1. Spanish [es-ES]
  2. German [de-DE]
  3. Italian [it-IT]
  4. Japanese [ja-JP]
  5. Chinese (Simplified) [zh-CN]
  6. French [fr-FR]
  7. Brazilian Portuguese [pt-BR] 
  8. Dutch [nl-NL]

Enabling a New Language

A new language can be enabled by copying an existing language. Telligent Community is provided with text for US English, so the following steps use that as the base language:

  1. Navigate to the Languages/ folder.
  2. Copy the en-US folder to a new folder, named with the language key and locale string (for example, fr-FR for French).
  3. Edit the language.xml file and add a <language /> node after US English for the new language using the same key used in step 2 and note the appropriate state for directionality via the isRightToLeft attribute, for example: 
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    <language name="Français" key="fr-FR" isRightToLeft="false" />
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  4. Apply these changes (the new folder and edits to the languages.xml file) to all web nodes and the job service.

This will enable the new language to be used within the community. The files within the new language's folder should be translated as they will be in the source language (in this case, US English).

Editing Translations

Translations exist in a few locations:

  1. Functionality that exposes translatable items exists within Administration > Translation > TRANSLATABLES. For each item in this list, the Translation and Templates tabs will identify the text strings that can be adjusted. Change the target language using the drop-down to the language to be translated. When complete with each item, click Save to commit the translation changes.
  2. Widgets expose their text translations within Administration > Interface > Widgets. For each widget in the widget list, the Resources associated with the widget can be translated. Change the target language using the drop-down to the language to be translated. When complete with all widgets, commit the changes from the Staged Changes > ... > Publish All.
  3. Themes expose their text translations within Administration > Interface > Themes.  For each theme, the Resources associated with the theme can be translated.  Change the target language using the drop-down to the language to be translated.  When complete with the theme, commit the changes from Staged Changes > ... > Publish All.
  4. Site terms can be translated within Administration > Translation > Terms. Change the language filter to the language to be translated and edit each term for the language.
  5. Platform-defined text is located within the Languages/ folder within a sub-folder with the key of the language. Changes made to these files should be applied to all web nodes and the job service.

Exporting Translations

Translatable text can be exported from the following locations:

  1. Functionality/plugin translations can be exported from Administration > Translation > Plugin Translations by clicking Export Resources. This will export all translations for functionality/plugins. The resulting XML file can be edited to apply to a different language or target only a single language via manual editing.
  2. Theme translations can be exported from Administration > Interface > Themes by clicking the Export Resources link. The resulting XML file can be translated via manual editing.
  3. Widget translations can be exported from Administration > Interface > Widgets by clicking the check icon above the widget list, then Select All Visible, then Export Resources. The resulting XML file can be translated via manual editing.
  4. Automation translations can be exported from Administration > Automations > Automation Studio by clicking on ... and then choosing Export All Resources. The resulting XML file can be translated via manual editing.

Note that terms and platform-defined text cannot be exported. They need to be manually edited or copied.

Importing Translations

Exportable translations can be imported back into Telligent Community:

  1. Functionality/plugin translations can be imported in Administration > Translation > Plugin Translations by clicking Import Resources.
  2. Theme translations can be imported in Administration > Interface > Theme Studio by clicking on the Import button and selecting the appropriate resource file and publishing via the Stated Changes list.
  3. Widget translations can be imported in Administration > Interface > Widgets by clicking the upload/import icon above the widget list. Imported translations will be staged for review and publishing via the Stated Changes list.

Note that terms and platform-defined text cannot be imported. They need to be manually entered or copied.

Installing a Language Pack

Telligent provides language packs for several languages. Once you have obtained a language pack, it can be installed using the following steps:

  1. Create a new folder with the name of the language code of the language pack you are installing (for example, for US English "en-US") inside the Languages/ directory of your Community installation (each web node and job service).
  2. Copy the contents of the language pack into the folder you created. 
  3. Open Languages/languages.xml and add a <language /> node for the language you just created. The name is a friendly name of the language. The key is the language key of the language you created, and the name of the folder the language pack is stored in. Use isRightToLeft to identify the directionality of the language.  Apply this change to every Community installation (each web node and job service).
  4. Run the siteterms_{language}.sql script on your database.
  5. Recycle the community's application pool).
  6. Log into your site as administrator.
  7. Navigate to the Theme Studio (Administration > Interface > Theme Studio) and click the Import icon and upload the Theme-Resources.xml in your language pack folder.
  8. Navigate to Widget Studio (Administration > Interface > Widgets) and click the Import icon and upload the Widget-Resources.xml file in your language pack folder.
  9. Review and select the widget resources you want to import and click the Import button. 
  10. After being imported, the affected widgets will show up in the Staged Changes area of Widget Studio for review. Review and publish any changes you want live for your users.
  11. Navigate to Administration > Translation > Plugin translations.
  12. Click Import Resources and upload the Plugin-resources.xml file from your language pack folder.
  13. Click Import Resources.
  14. After the import is complete, click Save. Now, you are ready to go and select different languages for your users, or let them select the language.

Setting the Default Language

The default language for anonymous users and new users can be selected by going to Administration > Site > Identification Options and reviewing the value for Default Language. When changed, be sure to click Save to commit the change.

By default, the language of anonymous users is detected by the Anonymous User Language Detector functionality based on the language list provided by the visitor's web browser. If the browser's language cannot be matched to an installed language, the default language is used.