Multiple Languages within one MindTouch Site (Polyglot)

Status

This feature has been available since the Jay Cooke (8.05) release.

Introduction

Traditionally, multiple wiki instances are needed to support multiple languages.   This approach is problematic since wiki management needs to be handled separately for each language; users need to maintain an account and user page per language, the same services need to be registered for each instance, common templates cannot be leveraged, and there is no easy mechanism for performing cross-language searches.  With the upcoming changes described in this document, MindTouch Deki will provides seamless support for multiple languages within one wiki!

Site Language

Each site is associated with a default language: this is usually en-us, but can be overwritten in "Site Settings" by using the "Site site language" option:

This value is used to localize the user interface, if that language's resource file exists.

Page Language

Every page is now associated with a language (or language neutral), which can be set through a page properties user interface.  New pages automatically inherit language settings from their parent.  As a result, it is easy to setup the following sort of hierarchy under the home page, where all pages created under Main_Page are automatically English, under Portada are Spanish, and under メインページ are Japanese:

The page language determines the language of the user interface; changing the page language will cause the language of all the menus and buttons shown on that page to change.  Thus, once a users navigate within a language sub-tree, it appears as if the wiki is decidicated to the selected language.

Localized Templates

In order to promote a common set of templates across multiple languages, Deki Wiki now supports localized templates.  To insert localized text, use the lang attribute; lang="<language>" includes the content only if the page using the template has the specified language, whereas lang="*" includes the content if no other language match is found.  For example, to create a template of a red box warning that something is obsolete:

<span style="border: 1px solid #FF9999; background-color: #FFDBDB;  font-size: 9px; vertical-align: text-top;">
<div lang="*">Obsolete</div>
    <div lang="es">Obsoleto</div>
    <div lang="ja">廃止</div>
</span>

Output when included on an English page:  

Output when included on a Spanish page: 

Output when included on a Japanese page: 

Cross-Language Search

Deki Wiki provides several mechanisms to help users locate content in other languages:

 {{wiki.languages({ '<language1>': '<path1>', '<language2': '<path2>', ... })}}

{{ wiki.languages( { 'es': 'Portada/XML', 'ja': 'メインページ/XML' } ) }}