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Multi-Language Platform
Many people doesn't speak English, so, It seems to me that it is necessary having a multi-language option. In my case I would like to count with Spanish.
ID
244
Category
Customization
Author

Alexander Sepe
Date Created
1/31/2009 5:14:24 PM
Date Updated
4/13/2022 3:34:44 PM
Status
In Development
Score
370
Promoted By
Luison LassalaLinnetteIngrid Zambrano
Ivan PapishRafael Muñizcalvin peters
terry chengjecki elbazIsaac Dai
Jeff AibelLeandros PapadopoulosJohn D’Amelio
Daniel LuzAlfredBin Xia Zhang
basenineJorge SoláAndrew Hobbs-Ray
Alexandre CunhaDesmond Beatty (Conc)Robert Gustavsson
Dean EberlyRon ThomassenTon Jense
Jan SchoonDesmond BeattyRick Cogley
Francois GaronDaniel Vazquez GerPhilipp Matuschka (MMB)
Liquid RapidRick CogleyDonJ-Adi Marketing Expert
Christof SulzerIngmar GroppeAlfredo Bravo
Alexander Sepe
Comments
Rick Cogley 7/2/2010 5:01:46 PM
It would be a plus, to be able to have UI elements in native language. I would imagine that a form could be created somewhere by ForeSoft, for people to contribute to translations, centrally. I know we would do the Japanese. Even having the basic UI elements in native language, would be helpful.

For instance:

| id | element | English | Japanese | Spanish | German | French | ...
| 1 | var_save_btn | Save | 保存 | ...

One challenge is grammatical order and cultural expectations. For certain elements on the screen, in English we would say [This: X] but in Japanese it might be [X number of This's].

That being said, the Admin UI is OK (for us) in English. I imagine computer people are used to having Admin UIs in English, here and there.

Where I would really like the multilingual ability, is in the User UI side. I can replace display strings with Japanese if I need to, but, this is hard-coded. I can force Japanese for Table Names, View Names, Dashboard elements and so on, but what I would like is, to have a way to assign a name depending upon language. Perhaps the first-entered language is English.

It would be good if there were an option to attach a string for Language X or Language Y, to each label, where I need the ability to automatically switch. Then, when user A logs in with "English" as their setting, the English strings show up, and when user B logs in with "Japanese" as their setting, the Japanese strings show up.

Sincerely,
Rick
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/21/2010 3:08:35 AM
I see that I can now select which language a user speaks. Is it planned to have this support fuyll multi language? My users are German and/or English speaking. It would be very useful to be able to present field names etc in two languages.
Liquid Rapid 11/9/2010 11:53:18 AM
This would be useful for me as well. As it is, I have two languages in every column name / form section header / table name. It makes for long names. With more than two languages, it would become impossible to do it this way.

Name Nombre (column name)
Times Tiempo (table name)
Details Detalles (form section header)
..

What I'd really like to do is specify in the admin interface, for every object, separate object names for specific languages:

Column ID 123
en-us: Name
es-mx: Nombre

Table ID 890
en-us: Time
es-mx: Tiempo

Form Section Header, Element ID 543
en-us: Details
es-mx: Detalles

And so on. Then I could simple tell people to select their preferred language on their Personal Information page, and the system would show them object names in just that language. This would make for a lot of happy users who currently don't like the English in the apps I work on (but since I don't speak their native language, I need the English in there for development).
Kirill Bondar  Staff  2/11/2011 3:34:27 AM
Merged with:
378 - Multi language
Rick Cogley 3/1/2011 6:20:29 PM
This is becoming more and more important, as our mostly-Japanese user-base is sometimes asking us: "why can't Cancel be in Japanese?" and the like, pointing out the system buttons that we cannot change.

We are also finding these challenges:

* if we make field names bilingual, so they filter thru to forms or views, formatting is a bit off due to the width
* if we make field names Japanese, English-speaking developers are hampered because they cannot easily read the names

Regards,
Rick
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/22/2011 7:24:06 AM
Can I make a suggestion as a short term workaround with which I could address 95% of my issues, which are now ever mounting.

In form layout, edit columns, it is currently possible to enter an alternative label.
a) make it possible to put a variable name in here. I could then pick up the field name from my own language table, based on the language selected by the user.
b) provide the same functionality for Views.
Daniel Vazquez Ger 10/22/2011 11:30:07 AM
Great Idea !!
Rick Cogley 10/23/2011 6:48:49 PM
Yeah, that would be helpful. One thing we consistently get complaints about is why the base Edit and Cancel buttons are in English.
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 1/10/2012 11:52:35 AM
We are about to take our application out of internal only use and make it available to many of our german trading partners. Most of these do no speak enough English to be able to use it in English. We are being blocked by the lack of any form of multi language. Could I ask you to at least consider my suggestion of October 22nd.
Jan Schoon 5/18/2012 11:41:59 AM
Hi,

Is it possible to make a localisation for Dutch, so buttons and menus are easy to use for my users?

(Or perhaps it's possible and I haven't found the way yet...)

I would be happy to assist in translating.

Please let me know.
Jan Pieter Schoon
Slava Shinderov  Staff  5/18/2012 11:57:56 AM
Merged with:
514 - Dutch language
Daniel Vazquez Ger 5/28/2012 10:39:52 AM
Great idea
Ron Thomassen 3/20/2013 3:00:10 AM
We also prefer buttons in the Dutch language.
Dean Eberly 4/1/2013 5:43:14 PM
Very helpful idea! This would make Teamdesk much more valuable globally. How about the entire database appearing according to the user's language locale?
Robert Gustavsson 4/11/2013 8:49:29 AM
I would like to see the keywords ("Add/Edit/New...") substituted on the table level, to a default word for the chosen country, but modifiable (for grammatical reasons).

Supporting formulas as keywords would be "overkill" for our purposes.
Desmond Beatty (Conc) 4/3/2014 10:22:45 AM
As part of "Multi-Language, please consider improving the determination of usage of "Language and location" settings in TeamDesk.

Background.........

"Language and location" can be set for the Database and, separately, for each user.

Support advise that TeamDesk uses user-specific settings wherever possible and falls back to application settings as the default. Specifically, for email workflow actions and email actions, where the TO: recipient listed is a user, the locale/timezone of that user affects the formatting. When the TO: recipient is an arbitrary email address, the locale/timezone of the application is used for formatting. (CC: and BCC: recipients are determined by the TO: recipient)

Our specific situation is that we have users in more than one "Language and Location" e.g. English(Ireland) and German(Germany). German is significant for us in that numbers are formatted nnn.nnn,nn (and not nnn,nnn.nn)

For general/default purposes, we want our database "Language and location" to be English(Ireland). For a specific email workflow action, we want to send an email with an attached Document ALWAYS formatted German(Germany) but to a non-TeamDesk user only. (one workaround is to make them all (v. passive) users.)

Our idea is that, for email notifications and workflow actions, the choice of source of "Language and Location" (and perhaps the timezone, too) be made available in SetUp eg a checkbox or equivalent on the From, To, or Application. Alternatively, a dropdown with choices such as T0: FROM: CC: BCC: Application: and the full list of "Language and Location" from which one can one that is not the Application setting.
Desmond Beatty (Conc) 4/3/2014 10:26:14 AM
Another option might be to allow selection of "Language and Location" for specific documents. This has merit in that often times, documents are country or language specific and Multi-Language system need to be able to select which of a range of Documents to send based of specifc "Language and Location" parameters.
Jorge Solá 7/11/2016 9:11:47 AM
As it is right now, it’s impossible to build an application in a language other than English that will not have some elements left in English in the User UI: the standard buttons (NEW, PRINT, EXPORT, etc.), some words (Action, Views, Search for keywords, etc.) It’s not much, but it’s enough to make the user experience less pleasant than it could otherwise be, especially in applications geared to the general public. From the comments in the Forum section I’ve seen that you have quite an international user base, so I would think that maybe it’s time to change the multilanguage approach.
1) The first thing would be to have all the buttons & messages in the UI display in whatever language has been chosen in the Database preferences.
2) Next could be to give individual users the possibility to choose the language of their choice for those databases that are built to serve more than one language area (for instance, German & English, Dutch & English, Japanese & English, etc.)
3) You could also consider making the Setup UI multilingual as well. At this point, anybody attempting to build something in TeamDesk needs to have a pretty good knowledge of English if he wants to get anywhere. Making the Setup UI truly multilingual could potentially multiply the number of individual users in non-English countries, who right now are forced to go to a local company & ask them to develop something for them because they don’t have the tools in their own language.
4) At some point it would also be necessary to translate the documentation into the main languages that you might want to target.
Since we own a translating agency in Colombia, we are well aware of the frustration & powerlessness that people experience when they don’t have the means to overcome language barriers. I can guarantee you that it’s much easier to set up a multilingual interface than to get everybody to learn English. This is an issue that TeamDesk will have to tackle sooner or later.
Rick Cogley 7/11/2016 4:33:24 PM
I'd like to see the UI buttons be translatable, and really agree with that point. Various members of this community can help with it, and, I think it should be able to be done via a setup UI like the one used for dbflex.

I think translating the setup UI or user docs is too large an undertaking, though, and would rather see the Foresoft team focus on important features. If it's written in a language, people will expect support in a language, and that does not feel realistic to me.
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 7/13/2016 2:11:39 AM
@Staff

Still interested in seeing a solution here. Suggestions already made above years ago.

Minimally to be able to see buttons like EDIT, VIEW, etc in multiple languages and to be able to give Tables, Columns, Buttons, View, View categories Dashboards, Sub tab names, form sections, form text fields names and content in multiple languages. IE anything the end users sees.

While I understand where he is coming from, I don't share Jorge's need to make the setup area or documentation available in multiple languages.
Daniel Luz 12/1/2017 4:26:47 AM
Hi TD Staff,

You don´t need to translate the hole platform, only some "basic buttons" like: Buttons: NEW, VIEW, EDIT, DEL, ACTION, VIEWS etc.
Daniel Vazquez Ger 2/19/2018 11:51:31 AM
This idea is very very importante....
Daniel Luz 2/20/2018 2:17:04 PM
Hi again TD Staff,

I would like to inform you that I have presented Team Desk to my MBA classmates and almost all of then got very intersted in TD.

But, some of then asked me about the languages supported by the platform. So, I would really recomend you to invest in this feature.
Jeff Aibel 3/18/2019 4:06:54 PM
We have a need for forms to be completed in 13 different languages. It would be very helpful to have alternative labels for forms in different character sets and allow the user to select which set of labels that the forms would present.
Jorge Solá 3/18/2019 7:59:03 PM
Jeff, I would think that your only option right now is to create 13 different sections in the form, one for each language, & to create in each of those sections the different columns that you need. Then have a text column at the top with a dropdown menu where the user can select his language. According to the language selected by the user, through form behavior you can show the corresponding section & hide the rest. Then you can have a record change trigger so that, when the record is saved, the info the user has input in his language section is copied to the "main" language section.
Jeff Aibel 3/20/2019 1:55:10 PM
Jorge,

Thanks for the suggestion – I was trying to avoid that because of the extra work but it might be the only reasonable option. I’ve never worked with different character sets, do you know how TeamDesk can pull in different character sets for the different sections? Can you point me to a resource?

Jeff

Jorge Solá 3/20/2019 10:22:58 PM
Jeff, I've only had experience with English, Spanish & French in TeamDesk, & the special characters in Spanish & French are handled well. But I can't tell you about other character sets.
Isaac Dai 3/28/2019 2:39:21 PM
I can contribute to the Chinese. I am building a database with Chinese database and it runs great. The only missings are the system language.
Robert Gustavsson 7/23/2019 2:48:16 AM
Also, strings need to be indexed in a better way. As of now, if I search for "BergshÖjden" nothing is returned, but if I search for "BergshOjden" (without the dots) then "BergshÖjden" is returned (!).

Generally words should be indexed and searched for after being converted to a simplified phonetic representation to increase user friendliness in searches.
Kirill Bondar  Staff  9/30/2019 8:16:46 AM
Jorge Solá 9/30/2019 9:56:01 AM
Excellent news, Kirill. I can translate the values into Spanish in the next few days & will send them in. If someone can do a translation into French & make it available, I will really appreciate it.
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 9/30/2019 10:02:40 AM
Hi
This is a good start and I would have done the German for you, but I see you beat me to it.
It looks like it is all or nothing for a particular database. Do you plan to make it available user specific for the same database. IE on one of my databases I have some users who are German and some who are English, so I would want each to be able to choose.
Jan Pieter Schoon 9/30/2019 10:06:02 AM
Thanks. I will take on Dutch and send them in.
calvin peters 9/30/2019 10:20:17 AM
lf this could be set based on the user's specific profile settings somehow, that would be excellent as I have both french and english users on common platforms.
I just completed the french,but my skills might be a bit less than worthy since it's more "Quebecois" than "Parisian"
Jorge Solá 9/30/2019 10:27:35 AM
I would appreciate the québecois translation.
calvin peters 9/30/2019 10:33:37 AM
@Jorge Solá
I sent it up via support desk (I think).....attached a file to a support ticket so I imagine they'll post it soon.
I guess that was the idea anyway. If you want I can send it direct to your favourite email address, if that helps...
Kirill Bondar  Staff  9/30/2019 4:12:53 PM
Guys, it's a kind of first step, that's why the status is In Development. At this very moment we are trying to cope with single scenario - you have non-English database but interface elements provided by TeamDesk are in English. Having it truly multi-language opens whole lot questions we have no solution right now.



Robert Gustavsson 10/1/2019 3:04:23 AM
That is very good news. Finally we can present a front that looks professional to our users, without a mix of languages, and allow public access to parts of our database. By encoding dbstrings.txt in Unicode it's possible to add appropriate "icons".
Robert Gustavsson 10/1/2019 4:09:53 AM
When editing single fields by clicking the pencil symbol, the non translated "Save", "Refresh" and "Cancel" buttons still show up.
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/1/2019 8:11:10 AM
@Robert - they are rendered with JavaScript - this is the area we are improving right now.
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/2/2019 7:46:45 AM
We've added 43 more strings to translate, covering form errors, signature and location popups and couple more strings here and there.

New v2 of dbstrings.txt is available here:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ForeSoftCorp/TeamDesk-Language-Resources/master/dbstrings.txt

Or you may want to view additions (marked in green) and copy new keys to your file.
https://github.com/ForeSoftCorp/TeamDesk-Language-Resources/commit/e2dcbfc04b2f6cc8b18a13e80c783ccc2eb87d2c
Robert Gustavsson 10/2/2019 8:47:06 AM
Here is a Swedish translated version: https://www.teamdesk.net/secure/db/36731/res.aspx/dbstrings%20SWEDISH.txt
Incase you also translate the "Searching..." string, the translation would be "Söker...".
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/2/2019 8:52:51 AM
@Robert: Thanks at lot
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/2/2019 8:53:24 AM
@Philipp: last time I've seen German software was 15 years ago. I still remember some commands, but I'm afraid the longest thing I'm able to translate is "Sind Sie sicher?" :) So, you are welcome to participate.
Robert Gustavsson 10/2/2019 9:09:41 AM
Updated action.delete in my translation with a word that sounds more like a permanent delete, as opposed to action.del.
Robert Gustavsson 10/3/2019 1:26:52 AM
Hmm changing, back, apparently .del and .delete are essentially the same, only used in different locations, table rows versus record edit views.
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/3/2019 4:11:04 AM
@Kirill
Happy to help
Where do I go to find a list of the translations to German which are needed.
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/3/2019 5:01:48 AM
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/3/2019 8:08:50 AM
At the moment, we are publishing all translations on GitHub as it provides a good view on what's changed between versions.
https://github.com/ForeSoftCorp/TeamDesk-Language-Resources

Once we finalize the format we'll post all the files under FAQ section here.

If you want to add new translation or change existing, there is no need to deal with GitHub, just send the file to us and we'll take care of it.





Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/3/2019 8:09:03 AM
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/3/2019 9:05:24 AM
Hi Kirill
I have done the German translation
Note that capitalisation of first letter of Nouns is correct in German
Also note that running two or more nouns together into one big noun is also correct
i.e. these are not typos by me.

However where I am uncertain about my translation, I have put a note in English behind it.

Now, how do I get it to you?
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/3/2019 11:50:05 AM
@Philipp: please create new support ticket and attach the file there
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/4/2019 4:27:29 AM
Done
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/4/2019 8:59:57 AM
Jorge Solá 10/6/2019 4:11:40 PM
There are 2 lines in dbstrings.txt that, although I changed them to Spanish, still display in English in the browser:
dbui.sidebar.showhide & dbui.sidebar.pin
Jorge Solá 10/6/2019 9:12:00 PM
In the same file, there is a line that says:
form.error_type_mismatch_text = Not a valid URL
Shouldn't it be "Not a valid text"?
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/7/2019 8:43:46 AM
* form.error_type_mismatch_text

Indeed the message should read "Not a valid text"

* dbui.sidebar.showhide & dbui.sidebar.pin

Next days we'll run through last (hopefully) round of translation trying to fix remaining items - Details button in summary view, tabs (More), sidebar (Show, Pin), file input and couple of frequently generated error messages from server.
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/7/2019 9:29:42 AM
I wondered about the duplicate while I was doing the German. So the transladtion for Not a valid text is "Kein gültiger Text"
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/7/2019 3:17:34 PM
Thanks for reporting and translating the update. Patched English, French and German versions.

@Philipp: I took a liberty to translate it as "Ungültiger Text" to match the rest of error_type_mismatch_xxx messages.
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/8/2019 8:08:07 AM
Just uploaded English translation v3, with added translations for remaining pieces.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ForeSoftCorp/TeamDesk-Language-Resources/master/dbstrings.txt

Here you can check the difference between v2 and v3 (green - added, red - deleted)
https://github.com/ForeSoftCorp/TeamDesk-Language-Resources/commit/b9b641ca7380f7e91e6f2f128d1754179c5e93ce
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 10/8/2019 8:12:43 AM
@Kirill
Your German is better than yout hink it is ☺
Jorge Solá 10/15/2019 3:43:11 PM
After uploading the translated dbstrings.txt file, in the record picker section the word "Search", both in the button & at the left of the search box, still displays in English. Maybe there is a string missing?
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/16/2019 6:57:29 AM
@Jorge: fixed. No new strings needed - reused existing view.param.search form label and dbui.search.button for button.
Jorge Solá 10/19/2019 12:43:43 PM
Finished the Spanish translation.
I noticed, though, that there is a string missing: the REVISIONS button by a file attachment column that has Revisions History checked.
Jorge Solá 10/20/2019 3:55:36 PM
A small glitch: In Revisions History, the title of the "Created on" column does not display properly.
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/24/2019 7:42:43 AM
Kirill Bondar  Staff  10/24/2019 7:44:36 AM
@Jorge:

We've addressed Created On, no changes in dbstrings.txt needed.

For Revisions, we've added new key:

form.file.revisions = Revisions
Jorge Solá 11/1/2019 3:19:46 PM
In views with grouping & columns with totals, the words "Grand Total" are still displayed in English. Please include that in the next version of dbstrings.txt.
Jorge Solá 11/6/2019 4:41:27 PM
Also, in Multi-line text columns, when the text doesn't fit in the space alloted, the button with MORE... needs translation.
basenine 11/6/2019 4:58:30 PM
Just a thought.
There's a thread on here asking whether an Email Workflow/Action button can have the SAVE button renamed to SEND.

With these user content settings, is there a way of specifying an action button specifically to a page/form?

i.e. this:
action.save = Save
could be changed to
[id=f_33333] action.save = Send
Kirill Bondar  Staff  11/11/2019 8:38:51 AM
@Jorge - added strings:

action.more = More...
view.grand_total = Grand Total
view.average = Average
view.grand_average = Grand Average

Jorge Solá 11/13/2019 9:18:07 AM
This is getting better & better.

Some more strings that could be added:
The PREVIEW button & the tooltips in Multi-line columns with Markup
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 12/4/2019 7:17:38 AM
I tried to change my language to German today. Here's what happened

- tried changing at a user level, nothing happened. Is it possible to change at a user level so that multiple users of same database can choose different languages

- tried changing it in a DEV branch at database level, error message. Is it possible to change in just the DEV branch for testing?

- got rid of my DEV branch and changed at database level in Live. Nothing happened.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks
Kirill Bondar  Staff  12/4/2019 7:47:52 AM
@Philipp: Preferences has no effect so far. Simply upload dbstrings.txt to database resources.
Philipp Matuschka (MMB) 12/4/2019 9:18:48 AM
Thanks Kirill
And can I make it user sepcific or is it all or nothing for the entire DB?
Slava Shinderov  Staff  12/4/2019 11:15:14 AM
@Philipp currently it's applied for the entire DB.
Robert Gustavsson 12/10/2019 9:53:04 AM
form.error_type_mismatch_phone does not seem to work for me. Original english error message is showned when attempting to save record.
Luison Lassala 4/13/2022 3:34:44 PM
Thank you for all the work on this functionality to everyone involved!
I guess one single database with the UI in Multiple Languages (as selected in the User record) is still a long way away?
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