Language Support
The platform can be presented in more than one language.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Internationalisation:
- Languages — the configured languages and their files
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — the content, which is a separate question
Two different things
The distinction that determines the size of the job:
- The interface — buttons, menus, labels, messages. Finite, and translated once.
- Your content — the records people create. Unbounded, and never finished.
Translating the interface is a project. Translating content is an ongoing operational commitment, and organisations frequently agree to the first while assuming they have solved the second.
Be honest about which you are offering
A service whose buttons are in Welsh and whose case notes are in English is partly translated, and a user will discover that at the point it matters to them.
Decide what you are promising and say so, rather than letting somebody find out.
What translation actually involves
- The interface strings.
- Your field labels and help text.
- E-mail and letter templates.
- Documents you generate.
- Validation and error messages.
- Anything a person wrote into a dropdown.
The last two are the ones consistently forgotten, and they surface at the worst moment — somebody in the middle of a form receiving an error in the wrong language.
It is not only translation
Date formats, number formats, name order, address shape and how somebody is politely addressed all vary. A form assuming a UK address shape is not fixed by translating its labels.
Text expands
Translated text is frequently longer than the English — sometimes considerably. Interfaces designed tightly around English wording break: buttons wrap, labels truncate, columns misalign.
Check the actual layout in each language rather than assuming the strings simply drop in.
Start with one
Adding a second language teaches you what your application assumes about language. Learn that once, with one, before committing to several.
Plan for maintenance
Every new feature adds strings, and every untranslated string appears in the wrong language. A translation is not finished when it ships — it needs updating whenever the application changes.
Worked example
An organisation offering Welsh translates the interface, its field labels, its templates and its dropdown values, and commits to Welsh case correspondence with a bilingual team. It does not claim case notes are bilingual, and says so. Layout was checked in Welsh, which caught three buttons wrapping.
Recommendations
- Separate interface from content when scoping.
- Say what is and is not translated.
- Check layout in each language, not just strings.
- Budget for maintenance — it is not a one-off.