Languages and translations

The engine ships with seven languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish and Lithuanian. Site languages, entry translations and interface words are set up in three places.

Which languages the site shows

Settings → Languages: the switches turn languages on and off on the site. Each one shows how many entries and translations it has. The site’s main language is always on. A language that is off is hidden on the site, while the panel still speaks it if a person chose it in their profile. Languages that are on appear in the language picker in the site header.

Translating entries

Each language has its own entry with its own address: “/o-dvizhke” and “/about” are two entries linked together. That is why a half-translated site is a normal state, not an error. Choosing a language in the header takes the visitor to the translation of the same page, and if there is none it stays on the same page. Pages, news and the shop support translations; the entry form has a language choice and a link to the original. The Translations section shows exactly where a gap is left: what is already translated and what is stuck in one language.

Your own language without code

In the Languages section you can add a language that is not in the list:

• download the sample file: JSON with all keys and their English text;
• translate only the values; keep placeholders in curly braces and the number of plural forms;
• upload the file back: it is checked line by line, unknown keys are ignored, and a line where a placeholder was lost, markup was added or plural forms are broken is rejected;
• check completeness and turn the language on: a full translation turns on at once, a partial one by a tick, and what is missing is shown in English.

The language code is two or three lowercase Latin letters (for example fr or pt-br); it does not change afterwards. Texts with a number are written in forms separated by “|”, as many as the language’s rule has. A language is deleted by turning it off first: the translation files are moved next to it into “_trash”, not erased; entries in that language keep their text.

Interface texts

The Interface texts section changes a word on a button or in a message for your site only and in any language, without touching files. Your edits lie on top of the original texts and survive engine updates. Placeholders in curly braces must stay the same as in the original; a text cannot be empty, and to bring the original back press “Reset to original”. Texts with markup and technical values (direction, date format) cannot be changed.