Multilingual: Overview

Owned by Liliya Burlakova (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 02, 2021 by andrey.sotirov (Deactivated)
3 min read

Goal

This article aims to give an overview of multilingual functionality, to explain the main specifics and what are the benefits of using it. It will explain when it is appropriate to use this functionality and what is the expected behavior from using it.

Overview

Multilingual is a new feature that Hawksearch provides to make searching and finding information in multilingual environments more convenient and systematic. Most platforms have the option to change the language and translate the articles to reach a larger audience. This is something that also happens with the help of Sitefinity, where we can translate and develop content in different languages. This has led to the need for the connector to allow its users to filter and group their content according to the languages in which it is created.

Specifics of multilingual functionality

By selecting the "Enable Multilingual" option, users see a page that allows them to select the language in which they would like to view the content. Above the results box, a menu appears with all the languages we have added to the backend. Each of these languages can be selected and the results of the respective language are visualized according to the selection. The menu remains visible even after selection, so the language selection can be changed constantly.

If we have only one language in the backend, then this menu is not displayed, even if we have an active multilingual, as there is no more than one selection option.

Which language is selected can be easily distinguished from the page URL. It changes according to the selected language, adding query ?language=en The query value changes, when another language is selected.

The results the user sees when the page is loaded are the ones from the Default language. If English is the default one then loading the page will show results in English until another language is selected. Changing the default language will also change the results that appear when the results page loads.

We can see which is the default language for our site by selecting in the top left corner “Your site“ → Manage Sites → Action → Properties → Languages for public content

The advantages of multilingual functionality

  • Makes the searching easier

  • Gives another option to filter the results

  • Allows for more accurate targeting. For example, if the results are in German, one type of product should be published as a priority, and those in English as a secondary

Next steps