Creating a new language
This article explains how to create a new language for your Saurus CMS website and its uses beyond just making the website multilingual. The different language versions of the site are basically independent sites in one CMS having their own root sections.
Step 1. Create a new language
Creating a new language is done through admin section: open up the "Languages > Languages" page and click "New". At first choose a language from the list, then fill in abbreviation field. Make it something simple, like 'en' for English or 'et' for Estonian. For locale refer to the IANA registry linked below. Search for a language code and region, then connect the two with an underscore. For example et:_EE for Estonian/Estonia or en_GB for English/United Kingdom or en_US for English/United States. Currently each language can be used only once, so if you already have English picked for en_GB, then you'd have to pick something randomly for en_US. It's best to have encoding as UTF-8.
Step 2. Set up your new language
Setting up a language is done through admin section: open up the "Languages > Language settings" page and select your new language from drop-down box in upper right corner. Here you see the required sections for each site: Home, System and Recycle Bin. Also system articles which contain messages to the users such as "Your search did not retrieve any records". Make sure the home section is created automatically by Saurus and create System and Recycle Bin sections as a mininum to get the site working.
Step 3. Add translations
Adding translations is done through admin section: open up the "Languages > Glossary" page and click "Import". Alternatively you can download language files from Saurus CMS localization page, change them and upload here. You can also add, change and delete all texts manually here.
In case you wish to translate entire CMS user interface into a new language, then please refer to translating howto on page www.saurus.info/saurus-cms-4-translations#translating
Structure of website languages
In your website URL, to refer to a different language than the default, add "?lang=en" to the end of URL where "en" is the abbreviation entered in the first step. Following picture shows how languages work.
More information
- W3C article Character encodings for beginners
- W3C article Why use the language attribute?
- IANA Language subtag registry and search tool for it - this is where you find actual values
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