What is the way to set language when person firstly visit site?

khomutovspace

I want to have 3 different languages and everything works fine with them, but while i first go to the site i see no content, because language is not set yet. How can i solve it?

khomutovspace

Maybe I need to check if Lang var is empty at first and set a default language, which would be rewritten next, but I can't find way to do it.

mad

khomutovspace Hi, check out the def function.

@{ ?lang | def ('en') }

There is also a tutorial for multilingual sites as part of the default installation.

khomutovspace

Thank you! Yeah, there is. But there is exaple only with two languages, which works perfectly with If Else method, but three or more languages need another one I suppose.

mad

Sure, you’re right. I just mentioned the tutorial to point out the usage of the def function. 😉

khomutovspace

I am sure it must work, but i can't find a right logic.
In navigation snippet i have code like this:
<@ if @{ %lang } @> <@ if @{ %lang } = 'de' and @{ elementBookDe } @> @{ elementBookDe } <@ end @> <@ if @{ %lang } = 'ru' and @{ elementBookRu } @> @{ elementBookRu } <@ end @> <@ if @{ %lang } = 'en' and @{ elementBookEn } @> @{ elementBookEn } <@ end @> <@ else @> @{ elementBookEn } <@ end @>

The logic is: if language is not set, show En vars, if it is set to one of, show one of vars. And it works. But it looks kinda odd as a code, and it can't provide ability to easily add extra languages in the future (what is very important for me), or one string of text will look like a War and Peace book.

Maybe you can advise something?

mad

khomutovspace Hi, I think the issue is, that it has to be a bit more complicated as long as you want all variables to show up in the in-page edit mode. If this is not needed, the logic can be simplified a lot by using runtime variables:

<# First define default. #>
<@ set { :lang: @{ elementBookEn } } @>

<# Override default in case another language is selected. #>
<@ if @{ %lang } = 'ru' @><@ set { :lang: @{ elementBookRu | def (@{ elementBookEn }) } } @><@ end @>
<@ if @{ %lang } = 'de' @><@ set { :lang: @{ elementBookDe | def (@{ elementBookEn }) } } @><@ end @>

<# Output runtime variable #>
@{ :lang }

While this looks also complicated, you will only have to add one additional line for each new language.
Hope that helps.

😀

khomutovspace

I like this way, thank you for sharing it! But I can't understand what would be shown here as a final? For example, I have navigation with @{ pageTitle*}, text as a @{ pageText*} and some others elements with the same logic. And all of them must have multilang vars.

mad

khomutovspace Yeah, I think using :text as variable name instead of :lang would have been more clear here. 🙂

So the final output would just be the :text variable including the selected translation of the text.

khomutovspace

mad I got it, but question is do I need to provide new :var for every block on this page or use something like <@ end @> or it automatically work as a new value for every new usage of var?

mad

khomutovspace You need separate variables but you can define them all within one set statement for each language.