Support for Languages and Translations

The Softools platform supports a number of languages out of the box and allows app builders to write an App based on the default language for the site, but then Auto translate into other enabled languages, so that depending on what locale the user's browser is set to, the appropriate language of platform and app is given to the user.

There are a number of factors to consider, as follows:

Default Language and Enabled Languages for a site

A site is set up with a default language - this can be seen in the Site Settings area

At present - Languages can only be added to a site with the support of the Softools ops team. If you want a new Language enabled on your site, please email support@softools.net

Only enabled languages will be supported for a specific site depending on these settings

Browser Locale

The Language that is delivered to a user is dependent on the browser locale. This is the language that the browser has been set up to run in and can be changed in the settings area of the browser (all browser differ in how to change this) 

The browser locale is not necessarily the same as you machine/device locale, but often they are the same.

If you are accessing Softools using a browser with one locale and then change the browser settings to change the locale, you will need to log off the Softools platform and log back on in order to see the updated apps and system menus (This is assuming that the language you have changed the browser to operate in is an enabled language for the site (see below)

If you change your browser to a language which is not enabled then the default language for the site will be used.

System Translations (Menu items and dialogue boxes 

System translations (for standard platform menu items, dialogue boxes etc) will be presented in the browser locale language even if it is not enabled on the site. 

Date formats will also be shown in the format appropriate to the locale

App Translations

App builders can translate their apps into any of the enabled languages for the site. There is an auto translate option which users Google Translate API to set the translated version of the following as an example 

• Field Labels
• Template names
• form names
• report names
• report column names
• template help 
• dashboard names

After running auto translate, the user can then manually override any translated value to a more correct or appropriate one - NOTE: Google translate gets close but it will never interpret context or business terminology, so these should be checked 

There is also the option as an App Builder to export the translated text to a single file, have it checked and updated, and then imported to update as one set of translations - see the App builder help for more information