Configuration of Multi-Lingual SharePoint Sites

When we need to display our SharePoint portal with different languages we can enable site variations, that is an in-built feature comes with SharePoint. For that first we need to identify necessary languages for the proposed SharePoint site. In this case I will configure Arabic language along with English.

First we need to download Arabic Language Pack for SharePoint.

Then we have to install language pack for application servers + web front end servers.

We can verify whether the relevant LANGUAGE PACKS are installed via central administration.

In central administration àManage Patch Status under “Upgrade and Migration” section

Then we have to go to relevant site collection and,

Site Settings àVariation Labels

There we can see current labels (in this case, English) and I’m going to create new label for Arabic.

We will go through a 5 step wizard and it starts by picking the necessary language. We will get a drop down with the available languages. Then we have to pick a LOCALE also for the required Language.

Then we have to assign a NAME to LABEL. It will append to the URL (here http://spsvr:ar-sa)

There we have to specify “Display Name” and “Hierarchy Creation”. We can choose,

·         Publishing sites, List and pages OR

·         Publishing pages OR

·         Root site only

In step 3, we have to specify how we can set whether users to translate the whole SharePoint site. Machine translation is also possible if “Machine Translation Service” is running on servers.

We can check it via Central Administration à Services on Server

Then we have to go the step 4, that is the CONTENT changing mechanism and Page Update behavior. There we can set either,

1) User can manually sync update

2) Automatically update sites using SharePoint timer jobs

After all, steps we can verify all the settings in the Steps 5. Then Finish the wizard.

We can see our latest Site variations in the

Site settings à Variation Labels as “ar-sa”

When we go to Site settings à Variation Logs, we can see important messages. That is about SharePoint timer jobs.

 So it is better to go and check newly created SharePoint timer jobs,

It is called “Variations Create Hierarchies Job definition” and it will do the content translation.

We have to wait our SharePoint timer jobs do the backend work.

That will create of new SITES for new Multi-linguals. In this scenario we can see newly create Sub-Site called “Arabic (Saudi Arabia)” under root site collection.

When we go to the site we can Pages are created and waiting for PUBLISH.

After that we have to Approve Page to view normal users.

Then we can navigate to language SITE that we want.

We can click the RIBBON and check the content.

We can also take necessary actions within the site with ARABIC language.

It is a cool feature that comes with SharePoint to enable MULTI-LINGUAL sites.