How to manage translations

Ask us anything How do I?
1

Hello WeWeb community!

I really like the way how WeWeb handles multi language applications. I was wondering how you guys handle translations in a bigger applications. Do you use something like Xano to store the translations or do you keep them all in variables?

Any tips are welcome!
Thanks!

  • Maarten, Aziri
2

I have worked on very large application and we used additional columns for the translations.

In our case, the customer created a form (Field labels and input values stored in base language columns).

Then, using additional columns, they added translated version of the labels in the languages they wanted to support.

Our customer customers then visit the form, select the language they want and see the form in their native language.

When the user enters in a value into the form and saves, that was saved in the additional language field in the DB. This would leave the base language value empty. Our customers would then see that there was an answer in the native language and would get that translated and put in the base language field in the DB.

There are lots of challenges and consideration you need to make.

  1. Is google translate API really good enough? If yes, use that. If not, Who is going to translate and how?
  2. If you build a portal to allow translations, most translators charge by the word… so keep that in mind when building a tool they can use or that will allow export and import.
  3. If you are using forms, required fields need to be considered… if you are handling this on the backend
  4. right to left languages…like Arabic, it is not a great experience just displaying the translated text… the interface should also be right to left.
3

Thanks for the reply,

Did you manage the translations in WeWeb or did you use a different platform?

Thanks

4

Hey,

To have multiple languages in your app, you basically need to add the language at the app level, then add it for every page that needs it.

Here’s the doc for:

1 Like
5

Hi Quentin,
Do you know how to translate the content of a dropdown? My site is going to be in English and French, weweb’s native translation system is great but I can’t find anything in the doc to translate the labels in a dropdown.

6

Are you talking about the select element ? Did you bind the select options or they are hard filled on the settings ?