One of the software's key features is the ability to present all text on the site in multiple languages, to increase international sales. Customers visiting the site can choose which of the installed languages they'd like to view the content in, and their setting will be saved between visits.
The software does not actually do live translations. Store admins must install '
language packs' with pre-translated versions of all of the text on the site (English comes pre-loaded of course), and the software displays the appropriate language pack depending on the customer's selection.
See below for information on creating language packs.
Installing a new Locale
IMPORTANT: Make sure you back up your existing /images and /skins folders before installing new language packs! (/images and /App_Templates and /App_Themes folders for ML9/MultiStore)
1 - Once you have purchased or created the language pack, copy the string file (xls file) to the /web/StringResources folder
2 - Copy the template file to the /web/skins/skin_# folder ( /App_Templates/Skin_# folder for ML9/MultiStore )
3 - Copy the images to the /web/skins/skin_1/images folder ( /App_Themes/Skin_#/images folder for ML9/MultiStore )
4 - Log into the admin site and go to Configuration → Localization → Locale Settings
5 - On the Manage Locale Settings page, click the "Add New" button and fill in the fields below to create the new locale
NOTE: If your locale is going to use a different currency than USD, make sure that the currency is published before creating the new locale. See here for details on doing that.
| Field Name | Description | | Name | This is the locale's name for use within the admin site. This must be a valid .NET locale name, in the format of aa-AA. |
| Description | This is a label for the locale, which customers will see when choosing which language to view the site in (French, Spanish, etc). |
| Default Currency | If you have multiple currencies published on your site, you can associate one of them with this locale so that when customers change to this language, they see prices in the associated currency. |
| Display Order | This controls the order languages will be listed in the pulldown menu customers use to change languages. |
6 - A confirmation message will display indicating that the new locale has been added. Click the "Edit/Upload" link to upload the new string file
7 - Select the new locale from the dropdown list on the left, then click "Load/Reload from Excel File on Server"
8 - If you have loaded strings for this language in the past, choose to "Replace Existing" or "Leave my modified" strings based on personal preference. Replace existing will overwrite all existing strings with new values. Leaving modified strings will skip over values that you have edited.
9 - Click the "Reload Preview" button, then the "Begin Reload Processing" link
10 - Verify that the upload process completes successfully and displays a "Done" message (scroll to the bottom to check). The new locale is complete!
Creating a Language Pack
Before you can install a new locale, you have to create the translated files. There are 3 parts to this:
Strings
The strings resource file (which is just a simple Excel spreadsheet) contains almost all of the text that is seen on the site, both on the admin site and the front-end. Translating these values allows the software to display that text in other languages than English. Within the root folder (/web, by default), there is a StringResources folder, which contains these strings files.
To create a new language, make a copy of the strings.en-US.xls file and rename it for your new language (for example strings.es-MX.xls for the Spanish language). The values in the file then all need to be translated to the new language, as shown below:
Images
If any of the images on your site contain text, you'll want to make translated versions of those as well, and the software will use those if a customer changes locales. For example, the 'matchingcategories.gif' image contains text that should be translated - a copy of the image called 'matchingcategories.es-MX.gif' with Spanish text will show for any customers who have chosen that locale:
Template
The final step is translating any text in the template.ascx (template.master in v9) file, so that when the customer changes locales your links, headlines, etc will change as well. The modified template should be named with the locale as images were:
template.ascx → template.es-MX.ascx
template.master → template.es-MX.master for v9.
NOTE: For v9 software, set the Global Config (Configuration - Store Maintenance): AllowTemplateSwitchingByLocale to TRUE
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