How an End-User Can Use the i18n Features

Scope: This document explains how to use the i18n features in the VIVO front-end editing functionality.

For detailed explanations of how i18n functionality works in VIVO please consult the following :

How VIVO supports languages: https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/VIVODOC112x/Internationalization#Internationalization-HowVIVOsupportslanguages

Generally the end user does not need to know how VIVO implements i18n functionality, however a basic familiarity with the underlying language feature is helpful in understanding what one can do to ensure correct usage.

Summary of language support

 [copied here directly from https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/VIVODOC112x/Internationalization]

When a VIVO site supports a language other than English, that support includes:

    Text that is displayed in the VIVO pages.  For example, menus, selections, prompts, tool-tips and plain text.
    Text from terms in the Ontology, which are frequently displayed as links or section headings.  Text includes labels and annotations of properties and classes.
    Text values stored in the data. For example, if a book title is available in both French and English, a French-speaking user sees the French title. If a title is available only in English, it is displayed, without regard to the user's preference in languages.

Languages can be selected in a variety of ways, depending on the installation parameters:

    A VIVO installer can configure VIVO to use one of the supported languages.
    Different users may see different languages, depending on the settings in their web browser.
    Different users may select a language from a list of available languages.

Important distinction:

The VIVO interface is composed of various elements, not all of which are accessible to the end user during the addition or editing of content. Language as part of the interface and page templates is not available to the end user and must be configured by the VIVO administrator.
Language as part of the data must be entered in as many languages as are available in the interface. Any newly added text or accompanying elements should be added in all versions of the available languages.

Selecting a language

If multiple languages are an option in your VIVO installation, you may toggle between the languages using the language selector in the top right of the screen :

[screenshot? from which interface? vanilla? specific institution?]

Adding content in multiple languages

When adding new content to VIVO using the editing functionality, you must enter as many versions of the text as you have available languages. So for example if you have a bilingual English-German interface, if you are creating a new entry for a person, any text must be entered both in the English and German interface. 

If text is added in only one language, i.e., English, the other language will look first for a German version, and if not present will display the English version.

[screenshots? from which interface? vanilla? specific institution?]

Editing content in multiple languages

When editing existing entries, you must also remember to edit the text in all available language contexts, use the language switcher to move from one language to the other.
[screenshots? from which interface? vanilla? specific institution?]

Troubleshooting language related problems

In some situations, there may be unexpected behavior when displaying pages after adding or editing text in a multi-language installation. This may be for several reasons:
- [faulty mapping in template or properties files]
- [cached pages in one language, lag in update of content]
- [necessity of rebuilding the index for content]