With the release of 9.7 comes a brand new language center. Pick the language of both the site (front-end) and the sitemgr (admin) independently for any domains or subdomains you own and run eDirectory on – it really couldn’t be any simpler – did you mention you can edit every single piece of the language integration?
*Language switching on demodirectory.com will return shortly.
Why a new center?
From an SEO standpoint, having all of the data criss-crossed across 7 pages (one for each language and translation) turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. By splitting websites into subdomains or indeed entirely different domains they retain a great deal more of their rank (multiple pages are not considered duplicate content anymore), the content is individual, the sites are unique, and if you are writing you’re site in Spanish or Portuguese, surely it’s better for you to host that site with the correct TLD (Top Level Domain) – .com.br & .com.es respectively.
We thought long and hard about the best way to approach languages, they were many ideas on the table, but in the end simplicity won out, a language per site, with the option to pick a global language just for the sitemgr. Read on for some more details of how this all works:
Selecting your languages
Simply login into the sitemgr and head to the ‘Language Center’, and on the first tab select both the language for the main site (Front End) and the language for the back end (Sitemgr), that’s it you’re done, these settings can be changed as often as you want or need.
Language Editor
eDirectory requires two language files to function correctly, they can both be downloaded here, simple select the language and section you wish to edit (Sitemgr or Front End), then hit the ‘Download Language File’ button. Edit on your computer until you have the file the way you want, then simple return to this screen and upload – job done.
A lot of site users ask for a really easy way to edit the language data – this is it.
Add Languages
So, eDirectory doesn’t support a language you want? Not a problem, all the tools are here for you to add you very own language (providing you do the translation of course). Head off to the ‘Add Language’ page and simply follow the 5 steps for creation of a new language, tap in a few bits of information and the language is instantly available for use – we love it.
The Tiny Things
You know how it is, you make a change, upload a language and then find out you used the wrong flag or even worse names the language incorrectly – open the ‘Name & Flag’ tab in the site manager area and edit these oh’ so important settings here.
We hope you like the new language center, it’s really a much better way to organise the languages, it’s simple, clean and easy to use.