Translation
General documentation for Polylang, which we use for multilingual content, can be found here.
Resource Library content — pages, resources, goals, topics, co-op types, sectors, regions, formats, and menus — must be translated or synchronized into the site's different languages. The approach for different types of content differs slightly, but the general rule is:
If you don't translate or synchronize a page, goal, topic, co-op type, sector, region, format, or menu into a language, this item will not be shown to visitors who access the library in that language.
The translation and synchronization workflow for each content type is described below.
There are ten pages on the library website. These pages must be translated into all languages. To translate a page, first check the resource you wish to translate in the Pages list. Then:
- Click "Bulk Actions". Choose "Translate".
- Click "Apply".
- Check the languages into which the page needs to be translated.
- Choose "Copy original items to selected languages".
- Click "Submit".
The library will copy the pages into the selected language or languages. You will then need to update each translated page title into the appropriate language, and for the "About" page, translate its content. If you're only seeing the original (English) pages, you might need to click the "English" menu at the top of the screen and choose "Show All Languages".
Alternatively, you can create a new translation directly from the edit screen of an individual page. In the Languages box on the right side of the screen, complete the following steps:
- Click the copy icon above the list of languages which will tell the translation system that you want to create a new page with a copy of the existing page's data.
- Click the plus (+) icon next to the language for which you want to add a translation.
The library currently includes the following pages, but more may be added in the future.
This is the home page. It doesn't have any editable content, as the page is generated automatically from the library's resources.
These pages are used to provide lists of classification terms: goals, topics, sectors, and formats. They don't have any content, as the page is generated automatically from the library's classification terms.
These pages contain the user's favorites and saved searches. They don't have any editable content, as the page is generated automatically from the user's saved data.
This page provides background information about the Resource Library.
This page contains the user's settings. It doesn't have any editable content, as the page is generated automatically.
Visitors to the Resource Library will be shown resources in all languages, and given the ability to filter by their preferred language. As such, resources do not need to be translated unless there are versions of the resource available in multiple languages. To translate a resource, first check the resource you wish to translate in the Resources list. Then:
- Click "Bulk Actions". Choose "Translate".
- Click "Apply".
- Check the languages into which the page needs to be translated.
- Choose "Copy original items to selected languages".
- Click "Submit".
The library will copy the resource into the selected language or languages, and assign translated versions of any terms (goals, topics, co-op types, sectors, regions, and formats). You can then update the copy with the translated title, summary, and a link to the version of the resource in the alternate language.
Alternatively, you can create a new translation directly from the edit screen of an individual resource. In the Languages box on the right side of the screen, complete the following steps:
- Click the copy icon above the list of languages which will tell the translation system that you want to create a new resource with a copy of the existing resource's data.
- Click the plus (+) icon next to the language for which you want to add a translation.
When editing a resource, you can see if it has been translated. The "Languages" box on the right side of the resource editor shows a list of languages with pencil icons for resources which are translated. Clicking the pencil will take you to the editor for the translated resource.
Terms are used to classify resources, and are grouped under the classification headings of goals, topics, co-op types, sectors, regions, and formats. When you synchronize or copy a resource into another language, any terms associated with it will be copied into that language too. You'll want to update the translations of each term into a translated version of that term. You can do this under the menu for each classification heading which appears in the left-hand sidebar under "Resources". For example, to edit the translations for goals, follow these steps:
- Click "Goals" under resources.
- Click the goal you want to edit.
- For each language, click the pencil icon to edit that translation.
- If the goal has not been translated into a language, you can add a translation by clicking the "+" next to that language, filling in the translated name of the goal, and clicking "Add New Goal".
Site navigation menus need to be created for each language. There are two: the Global Navigation menu, and the Primary Navigation menu.
From "Appearance → Menus", click the "Manage Locations" tab. Click "Use new menu" next to the menu you are adding, then give it an appropriate tile (such as "Global Menu (Español)" or "Primary Menu (Français)") and click "Create".
If you're working on the Global Menu, you will need to add two "Custom Links": the first to https://platform.coop and the second to the Resource Library (you can link to the Resource Library by using the URL "/"). The link to https://platform.coop should be labelled "Platform Cooperativism Consortium" in all languages, and the link to the Resource Library should use the translated label from the Google Sheet of translations.
If you're working on the Primary Menu, you will need to start by adding two links to "Resource Archives", one nested under the other. You may need to switch languages to be able to select this item from "Resources → View All" under the "Add menu items" section on the left side of the page. The top-level item should be customized to use the navigation label "Explore", and the child item should be customized to use the navigation label "Browse all", translated into the menu language (the Google Sheet will be useful here).
Once you've added the first two links, you will need to switch back to the language you're working in (make sure to click "Save Menu" first). Then you will need to add the four pages for "Topics", "Goals", "Formats" and "Sectors" as the next four children of "Explore". Again, you can refer to the Google Sheet to identify the appropriate pages in the menu language.
The next top-level menu item is the page "My resources", and it has two children: "Favorites" and "Saved searches". You can add these from the pages section as well. Then you will need to add the last two pages: "About" and "Settings". Refer to the Google Sheet to find the names of these pages in the menu language.
The site title and tagline can be translated by visiting "Languages → Strings translations" and adding translations there.
Once content has been added for a given language, you can enable it for visitors of the site by updating the "Localization" settings screen on the site dashboard: