Episerver Languages

The Episerver Customer-Centric Digital Experience Platform contains many features to support you in your daily work. Depending on how your solution is set up, some features described in this documentation may not be available to you. 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-onPlug-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.

Image: Episerver Languages user interface

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 gadgetSmall application component that is responsible for its own rendering and behavior, accessible from the dashboard or the panes in the Episerver user interface. A gadget can contain functionality that you can use within the gadget interface or link away to other products integrated in Episerver (for example, a direct link to CMS / Pages where you can use the classic editing view features). 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.

    Image: Manage website languages

  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].

    Image: Enabling editing for other languages

Enabling languages for editing can also be done from the Manage Editable Languages for this Page dialog box 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.

    Image: Selecting a page

  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.

    Image: Selecting a page branch

  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.

Connecting to the auto-translation service

  1. Subscribe to Azure, if you have not done so already.
  2. Register Translator from Cognitive Services.

    Image: Registering Translator

  3. Configure the auto-translate component in Episerver Languages.
    1. Go to Admin > Config > Tool Settings > Language Manager.

      Image: Configuring the auto-translate component

    2. Translator Provider. Select Cognitive Service Translator.
    3. Subscription Key. Enter the Microsoft subscription key (Key 1) from the Azure subscription service.
    4. Subscription Region. Enter the Location value from the Azure subscription service.
    5. Click Save.

Translating content

Translate a page that was activated for editing as follows:

  1. Select the page in the master languageThe language in which the first version of content is created. to be translated in the page tree.

    Image: Selecting the page to be translated

  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 languageThe language in which the first version of content is created. 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.

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.

    Image: Translate button 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 languageThe language in which the first version of content is created., 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.

    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.

    You cannot undo this action.

Creating a page in a different master language

To create a page that exists only in a specific master languageThe language in which the first version of content is created.:

  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 languageThe language in which the first version of content is created. 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.

    Image: Selecting translation language and Compare with button

  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.

    Image: Comparing two languages side-by-side

Deleting a language version

  1. In the page tree, select the page from which you want to delete a language version.
  2. Open the Versions gadget, and select Show Content in [master language] Only in the gadget options and then the desired language.
  3. Select Delete All [language] Versions in the context menu. If other pages link to the page you want to remove, a dialog box shows the pages that are in this language and requests you to remove them.
  4. Confirm the deletion.

You cannot undo this action.

You cannot delete the master languageThe language in which the first version of content is created. version 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 content 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:

  1. Create the page in the master language.
  2. In the page tree, select the page from which you want to translate. The Alloy Plan sample site page is used in this example.

    Image: Select page in the page tree

  3. In the Language gadget, click Create next to the language you want to translate.

    Image: Click Create

  4. Select the Duplicate English content menu item. You also can start with a blank page.

    Do not publish the page during this step.

  5. Select New Project from the Project menu at the bottom of the browser to create a new project for the translation.

    Image: Create new project

  6. Give the project a name.

    Image: Entering a name for the new project

  7. Select the new project from the Project menu.

    Image: Select new project

  8. After you create the new language content, select Add to Translation Project. An Add to translation dialog box appears.

    Image: Add to translation project

  9. Specify the content you want to add to your translation project.

    Image: Specify translation content

    • Add to translation project. Select the project you want to work with.
    • Add all children. Get all references to the descendent of the content and add to the project.
    • Add related content that needs a translation. Add all related content items in the content to the project.

      You can combine children and related content, included in the translation project. If they are already part of another project, you are notified of this.

  10. After you finish adding content to your translation project, go to the Project menu and click Overview.

    Image: Click Overview

  11. Select Options > Download Translation Package. A zip file containing all XLIFF format content is downloaded and you can send the package for tool translation.

Import translation package

 After all the files are translated, compress them into one zip file that does not include any folders.

Image: Zip the translation

  1. When the translations for the project are done, in project view, select Options > Upload Translation Package(s) to upload the file (in zip format) to the server and import content back.

    Image: Upload translation package

    Image: Uploading translation

  2. 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.

    Image: Start import manually

    Image: Import Translation Packages scheduled job

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

Image: Notification in user interface

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.

Image: Manage Add-on setting was moved