Setting Languages
Check out
Languages and Web Pages to learn how users of your website see multi-language pages.
This page describes how languages work. COR supports multiple languages as well as dialects of the same language.
Adding Languages
COR ships with a default language - English. Country-specific english idioms can be added to the database for any phrase. Additional base languages can be added, e.g. French, German, etc. Country-specific idioms are then added for any phrase.
Language algorithm
The default language for a user is English-Canada. Language retrieval follows this algorithm:
- Retrieve the English-Canada phrase first.
- If this is blank, then the base English phrase is retrieved.
The algorithm is similar for other languages. e.g. a french-Canadian follows this alorithm:
- Retrieve the French-Canadian phrase.
- If blank, retrieve the base French phrase.
- If blank, retrieve the base English phrase.
The rules
- English is the base language. It is used as the default for all strings.
- The base English language is denoted by 'en'.
- Dialects of English are supported:
- Canadian English is denoted by 'en-ca'
- American English is denoted by 'en-us'
- British English is denoted by 'en-uk'
- Dialects that do not have a value default to the base language.
- The base French language is denoted by 'fr'.
- Canadian French is denoted by 'fr-ca'.
Sample Data
String Name: Select_Language
'en' = Select Language
'en-ca' = Select your favourite language
'en-us' = Select your favorite language
'fr' = Sélectionnez la langue
- 'fr' is base language for French.
'fr-ca' = Sélectionnez votre langue préférée
How it works
- An English Canadian user of your website sees: Select your favourite language
- An English American user of your website sees: Select your favorite language
- An English British user of your website sees: Select Language
- There is no 'en-uk' entry for this string, so the British user sees the default string.
- A French Canadian user of your website sees: Sélectionnez votre langue préférée
- A French speaker from France user of your website sees: Sélectionnez la langue
Notes
The base language always has a string value.
If a dialect language does not have a value for a named string, then it defaults to the base language.
- 'en-ca' -> 'en'
If another base language, e.g. 'fr' does not have a value for a named string, then it defaults to the base language.
- 'fr' -> 'en'
If a dialect from another language, e.g. 'fr-ca' does not have a value for a named string, then it defaults to the base language.
- 'fr-ca' -> 'fr' -> 'en'