Episerver Languages

Note:  Episerver Languages is an add-on for the Episerver Digital Experience platform. It requires a separate installation, but no additional license. Contact your system administrator to find out more. See Episerver World for technical information.

The Episerver Languages add-on manages languages and translations of content on multi-lingual websites. After you install the add-onA plug-in or module, developed by Episerver or its partners, to extend the capabilities of Episerver. Add-ons are available from the Episerver Add-on Store inside Episerver., you can add Episerver Languages as a gadget where you can activate new languages for your website, manage language branches, and work with translation.

The gadget provides an overview of the language setup for your sites, and you can compare language versions when translating content. It also has a built-in feature for automated translation of content, based on a third-party plug-in.

Note:  The master language is the language in which the first version of the content is created. See Working with multiple languages.

Activating a language

Before you can create content in a language, a system administrator needs to add and activate it on the website.

1. Select Manage Website Languages from the Episerver Languages gadget options.
2. Click the link for a language in the list. If a language is missing in the list, you can add it.
3. Select Enabled to activate the language. Under Access level, you can provide access rights for a specific editor group, such as French editors, to work with the language. A language is available to the Everyone group by default.

   

4. Click Save to close the Manage Website Languages dialog box. The language is activated on the website and appears in the Episerver Languages gadget, but it is not yet available for content creation.

Enabling a language for editing

This step may need to be repeated, depending on the language setup for different page branches on your website. For example, you may want to enable a language for a page branch where the language was disabled previously for some reason. A disabled language appears dimmed in the Episerver Languages gadget.

By default inheritance from the parent page, the language is available for usage throughout the page tree structure, until changed. This means that when enabling a language for a parent page, the language is enabled also for subpages.

1. Expand the page tree navigation in the left hand pane and select the page from where you want the language setting to apply.
2. In the Episerver Languages gadget, select the language you want to activate.
3. In the context menu, select Enable editing for [language].

   

Enabling languages for editing can also be done from the Manage Editable Languages for this Page dialog available from the lower left part of the Episerver Languages gadget. This is also where you define fallback and replacement languages for the website. These settings are described in more detail in the user documentation for Episerver CMS.

Viewing available language versions for a specific page

1. Select a page from the page tree in the left pane. Language status displays in the Episerver Languages gadget. Dimmed languages are not enabled.

   

2. Click Create to open a page that has no content in that language yet.

Viewing the parts of the website that are in a selected language

1. Select a page branch from the page tree in the left pane.

   

2. Select the language to view in the Episerver Languages gadget. The site reloads and pages that exist in the selected language are displayed in the navigation.
3. To see pages that do not exist in the selected language, right click in the navigation pane and select Show Content not in [language] option from the gadget settings. Pages that do not exist in the selected viewing language appear in italics; replacement or fallback languages (if applied) also appear.

Translating content

Translate a page that was activated for editing as follows:

1. Select the page in the master language to be translated in the page tree.

   

2. Click Create in the Episerver Languages gadget and select any of the following translation options:
   • Auto-translate from master. Content is automatically translated. This option is available only if you have the auto-translate component properly configured on your website. See also: Configuring auto-translation.
     Carefully review the result before publishing.
   • Duplicate master content. Copies content from the master language for you to manually translate.
   • Start with a blank page. Creates a blank page with the title from the master language. You add translated content manually.
3. Add translated content as appropriate.
4. Review and publish the page according to the publishing flow in Episerver CMS.

Note:  New language versions are draft versions, which you need to manually review and publish.

Translating blocks

Translate the content in a block as follows:

1. Select the block you want to edit as described in Blocks, and select Edit.
2. Select the language you want to translate the content to and click Translate in the notification bar.

   

3. Edit the content in the new language as described in Translating content.

Replacing content with the master language

If you created content in a language other than the master language, you can replace the translated content with the master language content.

1. Select the translated page in the page tree.
2. Select the language you want to replace.
3. Select Replace Content in the context menu, or select Auto-translate from master or Duplicate master content.

   Note:  To use the auto-translate option on your website, your system administrator needs to configure the gadget.

4. Confirm the action by clicking Replace Content.

   Warning:   You cannot undo this action.

Creating a page in a different master language

To create a page that exists only in a specific master language:

1. Select the desired target language in the Episerver Languages gadget (or the Sites tab in the navigation pane).
2. Expand the page tree navigation in the left hand pane and select the parent page where you want to create the new page.
3. Select the page type to be used and enter a page name.
4. Review and publish the page according to the publishing flow in Episerver CMS.

Comparing language versions

You can view a side-by-side comparison of two pages in a language version and master language version, which helps you review auto-translated content, or manually translate content.

1. Select the page to translate, in the page tree.
2. Select the desired translation language and the Compare with [master language] option in the Episerver Languages gadget.

   

3. Edit the content in the selected language. You cannot edit the master language page from here.
4. Review and publish the page, or click Close Compare or Replace Selected Content.

   

Deleting a language version

Delete a language version for a page as follows:

Note:  You cannot delete the master language version, which is the first language in which the content was created without deleting the entire page.

Importing and exporting XLIFF files

You can add a content item (such as a page or block) to a translation project by drag and drop and via its context menu.

After adding content to a project and publishing the translation project via the Publish menu, a zip file containing all XLIFF format content is downloaded, which you can send for translation.

When you complete the translations for a project, upload the file (in zip format) to the server to import contents back. The action is also executed via the Publish menu of the Project view. After you upload the packages to the server, they are imported automatically by a scheduled job. If you want to manually start that process, go to admin view > Import Translation Package, and then start it manually.

• A notification to the user appears in the user interface after importing a translation package.
• The translation folder is located under module root to store uploaded translation packages.
• The translation process affects only draft versions.

ITranslationPackageExporter and ITranslationPackageImporter are interfaces used for import and export of translation packages to a project. The default implementations are XLIFFTranslationPackageImporter and XLIFFTranslationPackageExporter.

Export translation project

After you create a translation project, you can add content to it from the Languages context menu:

An Add to translation dialog box appears with options to add content to your translation project.

• Add all children. Get all references to the descendent of the content and add to project.
• Add related contents that need translation. Add all related content items in the content to the project.
• You can combine these two options. If items included in the translation project are already part of another project, you are notified of this.

After you finish adding content to your translation project, go to the project view and download the translation package via the Publish menu:

A zip file containing all XLIFF format contents is downloaded and you can send the package for translation.

Import translation package

When the translations for the project are done, you can upload the file (in zip format) to the server and import content back. The action is executed via the Publish menu in the project view.

Select Upload Translation Package(s), and a dialog box appears to let you start uploading.

After you upload the packages to the server, they are automatically imported by a scheduled job. If you want to start that process manually, go to admin view > Import Translation Package > Start manually.

A notification is also sent to the project owner that the translation project was imported.

Manage Add-on Setting moved to admin view

The Manage Add-On Setting menu item was removed from the gadget and is found under Language Manager in admin view instead: