Multilingual sites

A multilingual site lets each visitor choose the language they browse in. Menus and buttons switch language, and so do your category names, custom fields and pages once you have translated them. Each listing belongs to the language it was posted in, and visitors see the listings of the language they are browsing.

Use it when your members genuinely speak different languages and post in them, for example a marketplace for a bilingual region. If you only want your site in one language other than English, you don’t need multilingual mode: just change the site language.

Before you start

Multilingual mode splits your listings by language. Someone browsing in Spanish sees only Spanish listings, and someone browsing in English sees only English ones. Members who post in one language aren’t seen by visitors browsing in another.

That is what you want for two separate language communities, and not what you want if everyone should see every listing. Think about which one your marketplace is before you switch it on.

Turn on multilingual mode

Check your main language in Settings › Translations (the Site language card). Visitors who haven’t chosen a language see this one.
Go to Settings › General, section Languages.
Switch on Multilingual.
In Languages, type the codes of the languages to offer, separated by commas, including your main language. For example en_UK,es_ES,ca_ES. You’ll find the codes in Settings › Translations, next to each language name.
Click Save changes.

When you save, every existing listing that doesn’t have a language yet is given your main language, so nothing vanishes when you switch on.

Use the codes exactly as they appear in Settings › Translations, with the underscore and capitals (es_ES, not es-es). A code Yclas doesn’t recognise is ignored.

What changes on your site

Where	What happens
Footer	A language menu shows the current language and lets visitors switch to the others in your Languages list. Their choice is remembered on their device.
Posting form	Members choose the language of their listing. It is required.
Home page, listings, search and category counts	Show only the listings in the language being viewed.
Blog and FAQ	Show only the posts and questions written in the language being viewed.
Pages and email templates	Each language uses its own version, and falls back to the UK English one when there isn’t one.
Categories, locations, custom fields	Show their translated names when you have added them, and the original name otherwise.
Email digest	Sent separately for each language.

The languages widget adds another language switcher, for example in a sidebar.

Translate your content

The software’s own texts are translated for you. Your own content needs translating once, in each place:

Categories and locations. Open a category in Listings › Categories (or a location in Listings › Locations). On a multilingual site the edit page has a Translations card with a name and a description for each language. Fill them in and click Save.

Custom fields. Open a field in Listings › Custom Fields. The Translations card has the label, the tooltip and, for select and radio fields, the list of values for each of your other languages. Keep the values in the same order as the original list.

Pages, email templates, blog posts and FAQs. These pages have a language selector at the top. Switch to a language and create each item in it. For pages and email templates, an empty language offers to copy everything from UK English so you only have to translate. See Pages and Email templates.

Buttons, menus and messages. These come translated. To change the wording in a language, see Language and translations.

Your own menu links. Links you add in Design › Menu show in every language, with the title you typed. Use titles that work in all your languages; see Menu and footer links.

On a multilingual site the SEO Meta Data card on categories and locations is replaced by the Translations card, so you can’t set a separate meta title and description while multilingual mode is on.

Changing your main language later

Don’t change the site language on a multilingual site without a plan. Visitors who haven’t chosen a language browse in the site language. If you switch it, for example from en_UK to es_ES, new visitors land on the Spanish version and see only Spanish listings: your English listings seem to have disappeared, although they are all still there.

If this has happened:

Switch back in Settings › Translations, or
Make sure both languages are in the Languages list, so visitors can switch to the old one from the footer, or
Change the language of the affected listings by editing them.

The same thing happens if you remove a language from the Languages list: its listings stay in your database, but visitors can no longer switch to them.

Turn multilingual mode off

Switch off Multilingual in Settings › General and click Save changes. Every listing shows again for everyone, whatever its language, and the language menu disappears from the footer. Listings keep their language, so you can switch multilingual mode back on later.

Troubleshooting

“Please, first add some languages.” Administrators see this when they open the posting form on a multilingual site with an empty or invalid Languages list. Add your language codes in Settings › General.

Listings missing for some visitors. Check which language the visitor is browsing in (the footer menu) and the language of the listing. See Listings disappeared.

A category shows in English on the Spanish site. Its Spanish name is empty: add it in the category’s Translations card.

Language and translations — your main language and the wording of your site.
Categories and Locations — where you translate names.
Email templates — emails in each language.
Listings disappeared — the most common reasons listings stop showing.