Localization Overview
Localization and Buttons
Localization and Performance Tuning
Resources
Part or all of any Web Crossing site is localizable, meaning the user interface can be translated into as many languages as desired, or the site can remain in a single language, but you can edit the terminology as you wish. For example, if you're in Quebec, you could have a dual French/English site, and let users choose their language of choice at registration. Or if you have primarily English-speaking visitors, but want to change all the instances of the word "discussion" to "topic" instead, you can do that.
There are two methods of adding languages or editing language strings. If you prefer to work with a spreadsheet to do the editing or translation, and convert your work into a template when you're finished, use the Localizer template. Complete instructions are in the Localizer.tpl file itself in your templates directory.
The other method is to use the Add Language and Edit Language screens in the Localization Manager menu. First choose your language "code" - constructed from a two-letter ISO standards-based language prefix, an underscore, and an ISO-standards-based two-letter country code. The Add Language page has links to reference documents so you can construct the appropriate code. You also must fill in a "friendly" name for each language, which will appear in the user interface where a language choice is available.
You'll also want to select an appropriate character set to be served as a meta tag on each page. Please note that the charset is a sitewide setting, so select a character set which supports all the languages your site offers as options.
To Edit language strings using the web forms, first select the language to be edited, and then the project name. Default server files and plugins each have a language strings file. If you want to see, for example, just the strings in a given project with the word "discussions" in them, type that into the keywords blank. Without any keywords, the entire list of strings is returned, 100 to a page.
When you've finished making your changes, you need to save the results. A temporary save saves the new strings in server memory for immediate use. However, if the server is restarted or the file cache is reset, the changes will be lost when strings are read into memory from the template files. So to permanently save strings, use the Permanent Save button to write your changes to the files.
The best strategy if you have several pages of changes, perhaps in different projects, is to use temporary saves while you're working, and then when you're ready to commit your changes, use the Permanent Save button.
Adding a language also permanently saves all the existing strings in memory to template files. When a new lanaguage is added, the default site language (English, unless you've manually edited the language configuration files) is copied to the new language strings. You can edit these at your leisure, either with the language forms or by editing the template file directly.
You'll also want to make sure to set an appropriate font face for your languages, and perhaps change the default date formatting. See the resources for details.
You'll need to create a button directory inside /Images for each non-English language you want to support. For example, /Images/fr_CA/b1 for French Canadian /b1 buttons in French. These will be served to users who have a language preference of fr_CA, for French. You can just copy the English buttons initially to get started, if you wish.
This allows you to easily keep track of your localized buttons.
If you need button templates from us to make localized buttons we can send you Fireworks-compatible button templates for most button sets. Email sales@webcrossing.com to request them.
Localization and Performance Tuning
Using localizable templates creates a slight decrease in performance. For most sites, the difference will be negligible. However, if you're running a large, busy site or one where peak performance is a critically-important issue, you will want to balance localization needs with performance needs.
Using the Localization and Performance Tuning page (found in the Localization Manager menu), you can:
If you need more information about localization or how the different settings impact performance, or what files are affected, see the Developer WCMS SDK page for details.
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