Translating your Space

Tailor the language and text in your Flatfile Space with ease! This guide will lead you step-by-step to allow you to both translate and personalize the text in your Space in just a couple of simple steps.

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Available Languages

We support translations into these languages:

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Setting the language on a Space

Flatfile will auto-detect the user’s language based on their browser settings. If the language is not detectable or is currently unsupported, the system will automatically be set to English.

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Overriding the language

You can manually set the language on a Space using the languageOverride property. This property can be set either directly on the Space or at the environment level if the Space has not yet been created.

All users who use the Space will only see the language set in the language override property. Browser settings will no longer be respected.

To specify the language, simply assign the appropriate language code (e.g., ‘en’ for English, ‘fr’ for French, etc.) to the languageOverride property.

listener.on("space:created", async ({ context: { spaceId } }) => {
  // This space will be in English regardless of the users browser settings
  const updateSpace = await api.spaces.update(spaceId, {
    languageOverride: "en",
  });
});

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Adding translations

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Creating your translation files

All our translation files can be found in our Platform-Translations repository. You can fork the repo or simply copy paste the files in the repository to create your own translation files.

Simply update the values in each file with the text you would like to see.

Once you have created your own translation files, you need to make them available to Flatfile. This is done via the translationsPath property.

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Setting your Translations Path

To provide translations and text overrides you can use the translationsPath parameter. You have the flexibility to set up translationsPaths at two levels:

• Space: Overrides the environment level setting.
• Environment: Used when no Space-level path is defined.

Your translationsPath must meet a few requirements to work as expected:

1. It must be a string.
2. The string should be a publicly available URL that returns your JSON translation file.
3. It must follow this folder structure:

   yourCustomTranslationsDirectory/
       └── locales/
           ├── en/
           │   └── translation.json
           ├── es/
           │   └── translation.json
           ...
   

   where yourCustomTranslationsDirectory can be swapped out for any path desired.

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Implementing Translations Path

Set up your translations path using our API or the listener. This can be done at both the Space and environment levels.

listener.on("space:created", async ({ context: { spaceId } }) => {
  //set the translation path for the Space
  const updateSpace = await api.spaces.update(spaceId, {
    translationsPath:
      "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FlatFilers/Platform-Translations/kitchen-sink/locales/en/translation.json",
  });
});

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Translating Your Custom Actions and Jobs

You can translate your own custom text used in your Actions.

Simply add the new keys to your translation.json file:

{
  "mySubmitAction": {
    "label": "Submit",
    "description": "Done editing the data? Hit submit to send your data",
    "tooltip": "Submit your data",
    "outcome": {
      "heading": "Successful import!",
      "message": "All data has been submitted! You can now click the link below.",
      "urlLabel": "Return to the homepage"
    }
  }
}

Then instead of hardcoding strings directly into your action scripts, use JSON translation keys. Refer to these keys in your script as shown below:

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Translating Your Documents

The same logic that applies to Actions also applies to your Documents. Just pass in the custom translation keys that you added to your translation files!

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Guidelines for Creating JSON Keys

When creating JSON keys, adhere to the following guidelines:

• Alphanumeric Keys: Ensure keys consist of alphanumeric characters to prevent issues with parsing.
• Nested Structure: Utilize at least one level of nesting (e.g., key1.key2) to organize translations effectively and maintain readability.
• Avoid Whitespace and Control Characters: Refrain from using spaces, newlines, or tabs in your JSON keys to avoid potential issues.
• Don’t End Keys with File Extensions: Avoid using file extensions (e.g., .csv, .txt) as the terminal segment in a key. For instance, myFileAction.csv is discouraged, but myFileAction.csv.uploaded is acceptable.

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Example Project

Find the Localization example in the Flatfile GitHub repository.