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Our goal is to provide you with in-depth knowledge regarding localization.

Learn how CMS localization can boost your online presence, expand your reach, and optimize for international success with our informative article.

CMSs: industry state and how to localize them best

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Localization Blog

Every minute Google receives more than 6,3 million search queries. By 2021 almost 1,8 billion websites were online, according to <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/19058/number-of-websites-online/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Statista </a>, and nearly <a href="https://www.oberlo.com/blog/google-search-statistics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">8.5 billion daily searches</a> were placed on Google in 2022. How can you be sure that your audience will find your website within this flood of websites and content, and what is also important is that they will be directed to the correct version of your website localized for their perceived country/language? We will overview this question and how <a href="https://lingohub.com/use-cases/web-localization">web translation software</a> can help businesses solve this task.


## URL structures - pros & cons

There exist a variety of guidelines that can help you to optimize SEO for multilingual websites. We recommend relying on <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google documentation</a> as the most reliable source. The first thing you should take care of is optimizing the URLs and thinking over the locale-specific URLs. This action covers two things - it shows the users the language of your content and improves the page ranking in the specific region. 

**Hands-off URL parameters! Google does not support them! **
Translating words in URLs or using an internationalized domain name is no problem. Just make sure to use UTF-8 encoding in the URL (example.ca/en/mountainbike -> example.ca/fr/vélo-de-montagne).


## Choose the located-specific URL structure

You can use three options when creating URLs for multiregional and multilingual websites. 



### Country-specific domain

One of the common options is creating separate domains for every language version: <br>https://website.com<br>https://website.fr<br>https://website.ch

**The pros of this solution:**
- Top-level domains can be connected to **Google's Search Console** for geotargeting purposes.
- The l**ocation of the web server** is not relevant.
- All language versions are split; if something happens with one version, the others will be saved. 
- You can increase the presence of your business in the region by using Google My Business for each version.

**Cons**
- Buying various domains can be **expensive** and annoying, especially when dealing with squatters.
- **Cookies cannot be shared** across multiple locales, so users have to log in separately to each site.
Require more efforts - analytics tracking, website support, etc. 

<br>


### Subdomains with gTLD

Sub-domains are suitable if you're looking for a cheaper option than TLDs. Once a single domain like example.com is bought, sub-domains can be used for locales:
<br>https://de.website.com
<br>https://fr.website.com
<br>https://ch.website.com

**Pros:**
- Sub-domains can be used for **localization by country** or by **language**.
- They are easy to set up and can be connected to **Google's Search Console**.
- Hosting can be localized by pointing DNS to a web server located close to your user.
- **Sharing cookies** across all locales is possible. Thus a smoother user experience is created!

<br>**Cons:**
- The domain name itself cannot be localized.
- Sub-domains** may not be identified as locales** by users at first glance.

<br>

### Subdirectories with gTLD


Last but not least, sub-directories complete the list of URL structures. Adding sub-directories to a single domain allows you to use multiple alternate URLs.
<br>https://website.com/de
<br>https://website.com/fr
<br>https://website.com/ch

This option is similar to sub-domains, and so are the pros & cons. The only difference is that there's **only one DNS entry**. Consequently, using a different location for website hosting in multiple countries for other locales is restricted.


## Hreflang attribute for multilingual and multiregional websites


The next step is to let Google know which locales serve which target users. Google uses the rel= "alternate" hreflang=" x" attributes to list the appropriate location for search results.


### Language annotations


Imagine you're offering content on your website in English (website.com) and German (de.website.com). Google now offers three ways to indicate that de.website.com is the German equivalent of the English page:
- Inserting an HTML link element in the header of website.com points out that de.example.com is the German version.

~~~
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="lang_code" href="url_of_page" />
~~~

- When publishing non-HTML files, an HTTP header can be used. Link:
~~~
<url1>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="language_code_1", 
~~~ 
~~~
<url2>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="languafe_code_2", 
~~~
- Information about different language versions can also be submitted as a sitemap.
When multiple language versions of an URL are used, every language page must identify all language versions, including itself.

When several URLs target users speaking the same language but living in different countries, it's good to provide a generic one for geographically unspecified users. Assume that separate URLs for users in Ireland, Canada, and Australia are used. In that case, all other English speakers should see the generic English page. A **sitemap** or **HTML link** tags like the following ones can be used to annotate this information.

~~~
<url>
    <loc>https://www.website.com/english/page.html</loc>
    <xhtml:link
               rel="alternate"
               hreflang="de"
               href="https://www.website.de/deutsch/page.html"/>
    <xhtml:link
               rel="alternate"
               hreflang="de-ch"
               href="https://www.example.de/schweiz-deutsch/page.html"/>
~~~

  
More about hreflang read in [our article](/blog/how-to-avoid-duplicate-content-seo-punishment-with-hreflang).

### Language Values
The value of the hreflang attribute provides information about the language and region on an alternate URL, as the following examples show:
- de: German content, no region defined 
- en-IE: English content for users in Ireland 
- nl-BE: Dutch content for Belgium users 
- fr-BE: French content for Belgium users
ISO 639-1 format is required for languages, and ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format for regions.


## Optimizing SEO for multilingual websites - dos & don'ts

Besides guidelines for URLs, there are other important ones too. Considering the following dos & don'ts will help you to be displayed on top of Google's result page! 
- Help Google correctly determine your website's language by using a **single language for content and navigation** on each page.
- Use the **regional address and phone numbers**.
- Take care about **interlinking** inside your website version. All the links should go to the pages with the appropriate language.
- Use the **regional-specific keywords** - do not translate all the texts absolutely precisely.
- **Don't use lang attributes**. Google exclusively uses visible content to detect the language of your website. No code-level language information is used.
- **Avoid side-by-side translation** to help search engines determine your website's language.
- Translate all the content on the regional versionб **do not leave the untranslated pages** on the website.   
- Be careful on pages featuring **user-generated content**, as content in various languages may be generated! Make sure the website language is obvious! 
- **Use robots.txt** to block search engines from crawling automatically translated pages. Automated translations need to be clarified and can affect your website's reputation.
- **Don't use cookies to display translated versions** of your website. Keeping the content for each language you support on a separate URL is the key to good SEO for multilingual websites.
- **Cross-linking** (navigation for languages) the different language versions of your websites helps users to navigate the website in their preferred language, just in case they have been misdirected.
- **Avoid automatic redirection** based on your user's perceived language. It can prevent users and search engines from viewing all the versions of your awesome website.
- **Use ccTLD or Search Console's** geotargeting tool to set up geotargeting, so you don't need to worry about the server location. Always make sure your website is hosted in a way that will give your users fast access.


## Sum up

Good SEO is the key to guiding users to a website within a flood of the content generated every minute. Stand-out resources won't get the traffic it deserves when ranked at the bottom of Google's result pages. For example, the first website in Google SERP gets <a href="https://www.seoclarity.net/mobile-desktop-ctr-study-11302/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">8.17% CTR </a>, while the tenth is much less - <a href="https://www.seoclarity.net/mobile-desktop-ctr-study-11302/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">0.44% CTR </a>.
SEO for multilingual websites takes it further and provides users with localized content.
When defining an SEO strategy, being up to date-is crucial. 

Hope this article provided a general overview of how multilingual SEO works. If you want to try to scale your business to a new region - Lingohub offers comprehensive tools for this task. Translate and manage your multilingual websites without additional hassles and with maximum flexibility and automation.

Reach the top positions for your multilingual website with SEO. We prepared the main SEO tips inside our blog. Click and find more.

SEO for multilingual websites: the ultimate guide

SEO for multilingual Websites: The ultimate Guide

LinkedIn is a popular professional networking platform launched in 2002. Today, in 2023, it contains more than 950 million members from more than <a href="https://news.linkedin.com/about-us#Statistics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">200 countries</a> and 60+ million companies. Such an impressive statistic makes LinkedIn the most significant professional network and, as a result, one of the best platforms for businesses and self-brand development. 

Many use it as the most popular professional network as the digital substitute for business card exchange. Having a presence on LinkedIn is quasi-mandatory to connect in various industries. This is an excellent source to promote companies, find new customers, and extend your professional network.

## Your profile - your business card
Make sure your profile is accurate and complete. It is your virtual CV and the first impression of you as a professional. LinkedIn provides a list of tools that can help you prove your skills:
- Fill in the description and provide the primary information about yourself;
- Add your experience and educational information; this is especially important if your education is related to the current topic/industry;
- Highlight your primary skills;
- Ask about recommendations from your clients - LinkedIn provides a separate row for them. 

LinkedIn also adds some really smart things to the user profiles, like endorsements from colleagues or business partners and fields for you to add portfolio items (such as presentations, certificates, etc.)

Make sure to incorporate a unique yet professional photo into your profile. Of course, you can showcase your individuality, but ensure you maintain a correct appearance.

Unlike other social media, LinkedIn doesn't require showing everyday life - you don't have to put every moment out there meticulously, but as with a "regular" CV, make sure you portray yourself wholly and coherently. Tell your story, put the facts out there, and add character. But if you have what to say, especially in your professional field - LinkedIn could be a great tool to share knowledge with fellow thinkers and build a blog. 

Once you have set up, you can add people you already know. Start with friends and colleagues and close business relations. You can ask them for some endorsements while you are at it. For example, if you worked as a translation projects manager at some company, add your direct superior to that job on LinkedIn and ask for an endorsement. Most people love doing these endorsements, not only because they (hopefully) are friendly people but also because that gives them some additional visibility (and shows them off as credible managers of other people).

We recommend that you do not randomly add people to your network on LinkedIn but only people you've had something to do with. Especially if you connect your address book with LinkedIn, it will find everyone you might have been in contact with throughout the years, but that does not necessarily mean these are meaningful connections in your life.


## Groups - the way to show you
It's not exactly original, but LinkedIn also has groups (open and closed ones), and it makes a lot, we repeat, **a lot of sense** to join groups. The groups are perfect tools to extend your network, share and collect knowledge, and gain visibility; also, they are a great source of information and education.

As a translator, there are a lot of rather large groups on translation, localization, internationalization, global communications, marketing, linguistics, language technology, and related fields. Some are independent, but most are affiliated with a company, association, or university. 

To start exploring groups on LinkedIn, it's a good idea to join a few and observe their activity for a while. Like any social network, it's beneficial to participate in existing discussions, answer questions, and offer help before posting your content. Joining groups can also bring you closer to potential contacts, especially if you need help connecting with them. You can subscribe to various discussions and stay up-to-date on community happenings.

## Companies pages - your chance to find the right place
Companies pages are a significant source of information for LinkedIn users. You can find there the primary information about the companies you are interested in, updates, and what is essential - vacancies. So, if you are highly interested in some companies - we highly recommend following them via LinkedIn. Also, company pages can show the entire atmosphere inside the company, their style, business voice, etc. 

## Content as your key to success
As we already mentioned above, you can create different content on LinkedIn, and this content can play a significant role in your success. You can share your CV with the cover letter with your contact, create attractive carousels, or write longreads and short posts with hot topics to prove your expertise. 

Besides content generated by you, LinkedIn will also remind your contacts about you. For example, it automatically generates work anniversary notifications or signals to others when you change the job. 

Contact the right people with the right speech
Sometimes, it is hard to find or contact specific people. Emails can get into spam, or you can never meet them live, especially if you are not an attendee of the same events/conferences/summit. LinkedIn makes the world close to you. With the right speech, you can contact the right people and ask the questions that arise. 

## Conclusion: networking tricks with LinkedIn
Although this introduction to LinkedIn is brief, it is crucial to understand how the platform's mechanics can benefit your branding. As a part of the professional network, you don't need to distinguish yourself from a random audience to connect with the right people. You're already a part of a crowd that shares similar interests, which can expedite your interactions with others. 

But remember that LinkedIn will always encourage you to share news, keep your profile updated, and find more people you work with, so it will be more capable of analyzing its users more accurately. A LinkedIn user with outdated job information has a much lower value to a platform whose only purpose is peer recruiting and brand building. Therefore, repeat the core message: If you are present, do it right. LinkedIn can work exceptionally well in professional contexts if your profile is at least considerably complete and polished. You will build a network rather quickly, and joining a few groups will get you in touch with many people and ideas. 

We hope you enjoyed reading this article! Stay tuned to get more information!

Start your development on Linkedin as a pro. The Lingohub team prepared the best practices combined in the guide. Click and read more

A beginners guide to LinkedIn for translators

A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn for Translators

Let's face it: no project management tool will magically solve all your team's organizational problems. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but some services, if employed correctly, can cut through your inner chaos, help streamline processes, and provide an urgently needed overview of workloads and task distribution. One such solution is Trello; our team has been working with it for quite some time. So, in this article, we wanted to provide insights into how to get the most out of Trello for your business, be it a larger software company, small developer team, or startup.

## Introduction to Trello

<a href="https://trello.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Trello</a> is a project or task management tool with cards and columns. Much like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Kanban </a> view, this organizational principle visually represents tasks. The columns can be managed, and the cards can be moved around or re-ordered. One or several team members can be assigned to a card (simple or complex cards are available). For the latter, users can add checklists with milestones or To-Dos or enhance the cards with color coding, comments, team members' mentions, and attachments. Trello is a highly versatile organizational tool that can be very effective if used consistently, and the following tips can assist with that.


<h2>Five ways to get the most out of Trello</h2>

### 1. Better focus on set up than fixing 
You cannot outsource the thinking process to a project management tool, so carefully consider what kind of workflows you have in your team, how many team members will be using Trello, and which types of project areas you have that need to be reflected virtually in one or several Trello boards. If you do not clarify this initially, Trello will not help you manage your team, and your team will be occupied with managing itself in Trello.

Here are some thoughts to help you set it up: Which kinds of columns help you organize your work? Does each team member need one (say, "*Joe's tasks*, "*Jill's tasks,*" and "*Tasks to be discussed*"), or would you rather use a column for a specific step in the process (such as "*unassigned*," "*in the pipeline,*" "*in progress*" and "*done*")? Maybe giving different aspects of your product their columns makes more sense. No general approach fits all teams, and you need to be aware of this. The tool should help you get your work done better and organized.

> Practical aspects: Don't use too many columns. Otherwise, you will scroll horizontally without end, and the idea of a general overview will be lost immediately. Also, don't overload columns. If you need to scroll several screens down - there must be something wrong with your board's setup. 

**Pro tip:** Agree on colors to signal certain product aspects or company areas. Managing a huge enterprise? Use various boards, say one for marketing, one for office administration, one for legal, and so on.

### 2. One man, one card

The important thing in project management is that tasks can't simultaneously be assigned to a few people. Of course, when the big task is divided between a few people, it is real. Still, there should always be a person responsible for tasks done, who makes a report, etc. It makes no sense to include several people in cards, as this defeats the purpose of the Kanban view.

Adding several people to a card will make sense in the following scenario: the card contains one or several checklists, and some items rely on others, so they are included in the card for information. 

****Here is a simple example:** A card called "*Implement special offer graphic on landing page*" will include a 2-item checklist: one is "**Jeff**: Provide Portuguese ALT texts for Dave" and "Dave: Implement graphics and ALT texts for English and Portuguese, do a frontend test." 

This card can have Jeff and Dave assigned, but once Jeff sends the Portuguese HTML ALT texts to Dave or posts them in the card, Jeff is free to go and will remove himself from the card. Jeff might have even mentioned Dave in a comment within the card and let him know that he's done with his part of the task. Dave can take over and implement the whole thing, and the job is done.

<h3>3. Focus and granularity</h3>

As we said in the first point, you need to think hard about setting up your Trello board, and one essential part of that is to ensure you put what you put into your cards. The most significant mistake is having cards with no actual tasks, so they will never be moved or ready to be worked on.

**The task should be clear and well-described.** The control question is: Can someone do the task without further discussion in the defined amount of time?

For instance, a card titled "**Release new landing page**" is wrong. No one person will probably release a new landing page, as several people are involved. So, this is not a task but a project or bundle of tasks. 

To correct this process, you can create a list of cards like: "**Delivery**: Graphics for new LP" and "**Delivery**: Content for new LP" and assign them to the designer and writer. There could be some checklists with subtasks - "talk to frontend lead about requirements," "present drafts for feedback," etc. Once all the content is delivered to whoever implements it, these cards are DONE and will be moved or archived. 

Depending on the complexity of your projects, you can create more or less granular in your Trello card definitions. Try to divide the tasks and avoid checklists that will lead to a slippery slope into overloaded cards. The best part of work motivation is to be able to cross things off your list, so make things cross-offable (this word does not even exist).

> **Example of using Trello card:** Someone has to buy the beers for Friday afternoon's team chill-out on the balcony, so create a card that says "Buy some beers and put them in the fridge", set the milestone to Friday 11 am and assign it to - maybe your intern. The intern buys the beer, puts it into the fridge, and moves the card to column "Done." 




### 4. Make cards obvious and self-explanatory

We have already mentioned this aspect multiple times. Make sure the titles of your cards are concise and self-explanatory. Your team should understand what a task is about without having to open it and read the description. And if they open the card, ensure a clear explanation. Do not write a novel; just a short sentence that precisely describes this task.

> **Good example**: Set up wifi in the office (title), and the task description reads, "Set up the wifi router (UPS package in the kitchen) in the main room, set up WPA2 encryption, post passphrase to the intranet."

>**Bad example**: wifi (title), and task description - "There is no wifi in the main room."

Your controlling question should be: Will any team member know what this is about without asking me? If the answer is yes, then good.


<h3>5. Discipline will save your project management, nothing else</h3>

The last point we want to make in this rather text-heavy analysis is the aspect of discipline. Once your team is on board for a new tool and everyone has opted into its logic, discipline will decide the success or failure of implementing a tool like Trello. You need transparent processes inside your team, and each team member should understand how your company works in Trello and at all.



Your processes should transparently describe how the team works. For example, if you create a task for the design team about a new landing page, but they need text content first, who will be a responsible person to ask about it? Will be the content writers responsible for the task before reassigning or not? Or you will have two separate tasks for two teams. No matter what way you choose - the only important thing is that all participants should have the same view on the same things. 

## Conclusion

We hope this article can help you move forward with task and project management. Trello is one of many tools, so be sure to compare before you decide what fits your team's or project's requirements best. But remember that discipline is vital. Even advanced tools won't work without proper utilization.


At Lingohub, we are also developing some features that can simplify your localization management, for example:
- Color labels that allow the split of the segments by the logic groups;
- Statuses like 'New", "Preffiled," "Draft," "Translated," and "Approved" to see the exact progress of the project;
- Unlimited numbers of projects to separate your tasks if needed. As well you can group and mark the projects;
- Discussions with team members and segments mentioning;
- etc. 


To find more information - schedule a demo call with our team - we will gladly give you more information or try Lingohub for 14 days for free. No credit card. No catch. Cancel anytime

Looking to maximize your Trello project management skills? Check out our article on the top five ways to get the most out of Trello. It's packed with valuable information to help you succeed.

Getting the most ouf of Trello project management

Localizing "just" your app is not enough to get it out to your target audience. The popular app stores (Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store, etc.) allow localizing the product page information to find clients worldwide. How does this work? Let's take a look at the App Store. If your app has English as the primary language - the English metadata will be displayed across different App Store regions. 

If you add one more language, like Spanish, the users with Spanish language preferences and users from the regions where the App Store supports Spanish will see the localized information. Translating primary information allows users to find your app faster and get the information in the native language. As a result, app developers get more profit in parallel with the number of downloads growing.
For now, the most popular App Stores support a variety of languages: 
- App Store - <a href="https://developer.apple.com/localization/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">175 regions and 40 languages </a>
- Google Play - <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/table/4419860?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">44 languages </a>  
- Amazon App Store - <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-submission/distribute-your-app-internationally.html#localization-options-supported-by-the-appstore" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">7 languages</a>

<center>The biggest app stores (<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">3rd quarter 2022</a>)<br></center> 



## What is it, ASO?

ASO or App Store Optimization is the list of activities to raise the visibility of the application for relevant user requests. This process is similar to SEO, with the main difference being that SEO is targeted on the search engines (Google and Bing) while ASO is on the app platforms. Also, ASO has fewer tools for promotion - semantic, text content, and visual. Precisely localization supports the matching of these three criteria for successful app optimization. 


## How to choose the languages for app localization? 

Of course, the best option would be to translate the product description to all app store's available languages and get as much audience as possible. But it will take much more money and time than a rational approach because the app product page - is not only about the content but also updating about releases and bug fixing, replying to the comments, etc. The more languages you have - the more everyday activities should be done. To start the app store localization:
1. Define your application's key regions - who are your users, the audience portrait, etc.
2. Consider if your product fits the cultural requirements of your targeted location.
3. Consider the overall interest in mobile applications in the region.

Based on the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287159/app-downloads-by-country/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Statista 2022</a> report, the following countries have the biggest app downloads. 


## How to localize your app store product page with Lingohub?

**Step 1: Internationalize your app**<br>
Internationalization (i18n) is the process of preparing your product for localization. The main internationalization task is separating content that should be localized from the code. During i18n, the development team prepares language resource files for further translation. When using Lingohub, clients can synchronize these files with the system (manually or via smooth integrations with popular repositories and applications). Avoid using the hard code in your application. All the hardcoded data should also be added to the separate language resource files. 

**Step 2: Include description content in the resource file**<br>
The app store description is not part of your application code, and here is a trick. Add the product description in the resource file anyway, as well as a title and keywords. To change the title or not is a decision dictated by region requirement - does your naming sound good in another language, or are there any wrong associations with it?


---

**Note**: do not forget about images. All the screenshots, and promo banners, should also be localized. We overviewed this question in our article about "[App stores optimization](/blog/app-store-optimization-localized-apps)."

For the fast and appropriate translation of visual content (interfaces, landings, etc.) Lingohub provides the <a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1091712683693829044/Lingohub-for-Figma" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Figma plugin</a> - push and pull the texts between Figma and Lingohub for fast text fitting and keeping design quality.

---


**Step 3: Receive translated content**<br>
Now that all your texts are up in Lingohub and translators or teammates are working on them, your description text will also be translated. Once 100% translated, export your resource file(s) or push them back to GitHub (or another repository you use), and you are ready to deploy. Just one step missing...

**Step 4: Enter multilingual descriptions in the app store**<br>
How to do this varies from store to store (in the Apple store, there is an "add localization" button). Now that you have the description texts in several languages go to the input form of your app store, where you already included the description in your primary language. Copy and paste your multilingual content there. There is no simple way to automate this, as each store has a different procedure.
<br>
<br>

**Remember** to repeat this process when you make changes. We recommend leaving the description texts in your resource file for Lingohub collaborators (such as translators) to be notified about changes in the original text immediately. Keep track of changes! This method ensures that your description is always up to date in all languages.


## Localize mobile applications easier than ever

This article taught you how to localize the app description in the stores. But do not miss other great opportunities Lingohub provides for mobile app localization, namely:
- iOS and Android SDK with OTA to save time,
- iOS and Android conversion for multi-mobile development,
- Public REST API for integration of Lingohub in any of your development processes,
- etc.

Want to get more information? Book a quick [demo call](/demo) to learn more about Lingohub TMS, or try it yourself with a 14-day free trial (no credit card required.) Let's grow together!


<br>

**Related links**:<br>

Apple: <a href="https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011225-CH13-SW15
" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes Connect developer guide</a>, <a href="https://developer.apple.com/localization/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">internationalization page</a><br>
Google: <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859152?hl=en&visit_id=638283025100204016-845790294&rd=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Upload applications to Play</a>, <a href="https://developer.android.com/training/basics/supporting-devices/languages.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">supporting different languages</a><br>
Microsoft: <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/?redirectedfrom=MSDN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Publishing an app in the Windows store</a>, <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/apps/publish/publish-your-app/create-app-submission?pivots=store-installer-msix" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">App submission checklist</a>.


App descriptions are essential for users searching and ranking inside the platform. Find tips on how to localize your application description in the Lingohub blog

How to localize your app store descriptions

Next to <strong><a href="https://github.com/" target="_blank">Github</a> </strong>(<a href="https://lingohub.com/?p=2148">click here to read how Lingohub handles that</a>), the most popular file management environment for developers is Atlassian's <a href="https://bitbucket.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Bitbucket</strong></a>. We have worked some magic tricks behind the scenes the last few weeks, and we now offer smooth Bitbucket integration on <a href="https://lingohub.com"><strong>Lingohub</strong></a>. For full localization resource file synchronization between your Lingohub project and Bitbucket, this allows for the most efficient localization integration also with this system.

<strong>How to set up Bitbucket integration</strong>

If you're working with Bitbucket, setting up sync to Lingohub is very simple and works just like <a href="https://lingohub.com/?p=2148">our Github integration</a>, you can follow the instructions in [our tutorial right here](/blog/2013/04/github-love-and-integration) ([click here to read more about integration workflows](/blog/2013/03/integrating-internationalization-in-a-git-workflow)). The following screenshot shows the latest iteration of our UI at the point where you set up integrations from within your Lingohub project:

You start with the resource files section of your Lingohub project and select your desired integration method in the wizard.

<img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2806" alt="Bitbucket integration" src="https://lingohub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Selection_206-300x119.png" />

The next step is to authenticate with your Bitbucket/Atlassian account

You will then be back in Lingohub and able to select a repository, and then a branch. You can change these later at any time.

Next up select a watch pattern. This is necessary to let Lingohub know which files to watch. You can use pre-defined watch patterns or define your own using REGEX. If there are changes to your project, we will sync those with your Lingohub project, and for example, notify a translator of a changed text string that needs a new translation.

You can set your Bitbucket repository to sync with Lingohub manually or automatically. Let Lingohub worry about the rest, you're now all set for automatic integration. You can go to the settings overview to change the parameters of your integration and its status at any time.

So what if you're done translating? Go to the exports section of your project and download the resource files. A push-back to the repository (as Lingohub offers for Github integrations, and as you can see in the following screenshot) is not possible. Bitbucket does not provide that option in its API. So once downloaded, you need to push those separately back into your repository by hand or using a script. On the export page, you can also see the status of all your resource files. Download them in bulk or select individual files.

If you have further questions on Bitbucket localization integration, submit a ticket in our support desk and we'll help you out. More in-depth documentation will follow soon.

Bitbucket is a popular file management tool for developers. We've integrated it with Lingohub for seamless localization file synchronization. Check out our guide for instructions on setting up the integration.

Bitbucket localization integration now available in Lingohub

As discussed in the<a title="Internationalization Programming – new i18n tutorial series" href="https://lingohub.com/blog/2013/07/internationalization-programming-i18n-tutorial-series"> previous articles on PHP internationalization</a>, PHP provides native support for string translation using <a title="PHP internationalization with gettext tutorial" href="https://lingohub.com/blog/2013/07/php-internationalization-with-gettext-tutorial"><strong>gettext</strong></a> and PHP arrays. These can be used in any PHP project. Additionally, some popular PHP frameworks offer their own way of string translation.

In this article, I want to provide a brief summary of the internationalization process with five of the <a href="http://webcoderpro.com/blog/top-5-most-popular-php-frameworks-of-2012/">most popular</a> PHP frameworks currently out there. In this How-To you will read about using CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Zend, Yii and Symfony. If you would like us to focus on any of these (or some other PHP framework of your choice) in a future article of its own, please leave a comment.

<h2>Internationalization with 5 popular PHP frameworks</h2>

<h3>CodeIgniter framework</h3>

CodeIgniter <a href="http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/language.html">Language Class</a> provides functions to retrieve language files and lines of text for purpose of internationalization. The language files are located within the language directory. CodeIgniter automatically looks for the language directory in two locations, first within the "languages" subdirectory of the application, and then, if not found, within the "languages" subdirectory of the CodeIgniter system directory. Each language is stored in its own subdirectory. For example, English language files can be stored either in <pre> system/language/english</pre>

or

<pre> application/language/english</pre>

Language resource file names must end with _lang.php. Within the file, a line of text is assigned to a $lang array in each line this way: <pre>$lang\['language_key'\] = "The actual message to be shown";</pre>

Recommended practice is to prefix all the keys with the name of the file in which they are located, in order to avoid collision with similar keys in different files. For example, the error message that informs the user about the missing email address that is located in the error_lang.php could have this key: "error_missing_email".

Before fetching lines from any file, it has to be loaded first:
<pre>$this->lang->load('filename', 'language');</pre>
<em>Filename</em> is the name of the file without the extension. So for the previous example with error_lang.php, the filename to supply to the load function would simply be "error". The <em>language</em> specifies the set that contains the file. If the second parameter is missing, the default language set in the application/config/config.php is used instead.

After the language file is loaded, a line of text can be fetched and echoed like this:
<pre>echo $this->lang->line('language_key');</pre>
Language files that are used globally can be auto-loaded by CodeIgniter. <a href="http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/general/autoloader.html">Auto loading</a> can be set up in the autoload array in application/config/autoload.php.

<strong>Further reading:</strong> <ul> <li><a href="http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/language.html">CodeIgniter User Guide - Language Class</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/EllisLab/CodeIgniter/wiki/CodeIgniter-2.1-internationalization-i18n">CodeIgniter 2.1 internationalization i18n</a></li> </ul>

<h3>CakePHP framework</h3>

CakePHP uses its own implementation of Gettext. In the previous blog article I described <a title="PHP internationalization with gettext tutorial" href="https://lingohub.com/blog/2013/07/php-internationalization-with-gettext-tutorial">how gettext (po) files can be created</a>. Functions used in CakePHP for application internationalization are as follows: <ul> <li><a title="**" href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/global-constants-and-functions.html#**"><tt>__(<em>string $string_id</em>\[, <em>$formatArgs</em>\]) </tt></a><tt>- returns the string from the <tt>current</tt> <tt>domain of </tt>the loaded language for the supplied ID. Strings used for translations are treated as format strings for <tt>sprintf(), and additional arguments can be supplied to replace any placeholder<tt>s in the string</tt></tt>.</tt></li> <li><a title="__d" href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/global-constants-and-functions.html#__d"><tt>__d(<em>string $domain</em>, <em>string $msg</em>, <em>mixed $args = null</em>) </tt></a><tt>- <tt>it allows overriding the current domain for a single message lookup</tt></tt></li> <li><a title="__n" href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/global-constants-and-functions.html#__n"><tt>__n(<em>string $singular</em>, <em>string $plural</em>, <em>integer $count</em>, <em>mixed $args = null</em>) </tt></a><tt><tt>- <tt>r</tt>eturns the correct plural form of a message identified by $singular and $plural for count $count</tt></tt></li> <li><a href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/global-constants-and-functions.html#__dn"><tt>__dn(<em>string $domain</em>, <em>string $singular</em>, <em>string $plural</em>, <em>integer $count</em>, <em>mixed $args = null</em></tt></a><a href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/global-constants-and-functions.html#__dn">) </a><tt>- overrides the current domain for a single plural message lookup. Returns correct plural form of message identified by $singular and $plural for count $count from domain $domain</tt></li> </ul>

A complete list of global functions including those used for localization can be found in the <a href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/global-constants-and-functions.html">CakePHP documentation</a>.

<strong>Further reading:</strong> <ul> <li><a title="PHP internationalization with gettext tutorial" href="https://lingohub.com/blog/2013/07/php-internationalization-with-gettext-tutorial">Previous blog article on PHP internationalization using gettext</a></li> <li><a href="http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/core-libraries/internationalization-and-localization.html">Internationalization & Localization with CakePHP</a></li> </ul>

<h3>ZEND framework</h3>

The Zend framework offers its own complete solution for localization and internationalization. It includes support for both <strong>gettext</strong> as well as some other <a title="Localization resource file formats: A beginner’s guide" href="https://lingohub.com/blog/2013/04/localization-resource-file-formats-beginners-guide">resource file formats</a>.

<a href="http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.12/en/zend.translate.adapter.html">Available adapters for Zend_translate</a> (a library used within the framework to handle translation) are:
<ul>
<li>Array (use <acronym>PHP</acronym> arrays)</li>
<li>Csv (use comma separated (*.csv/*.txt) files)</li>
<li>Gettext (use binary gettext (*.mo) files)</li>
<li>Ini (use simple <acronym>INI</acronym> (*.ini) files)</li>
<li>Tbx (use termbase exchange (*.tbx/*.xml) files)</li>
<li>Tmx (use tmx (*.tmx/*.xml) files)</li>
<li>Qt (use qt linguist (*.ts) files)</li>
<li>Xliff (use xliff (*.xliff/*.xml) files)</li> <li>XmlTm (use xmltm (*.xml) files)</li> </ul>

<strong>Further reading:</strong>

<ul> <li><a href="http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.12/en/zend.translate.html">Zend_Translate - an official manual</a></li> <li><a href="http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.12/en/zend.locale.html">Zend_Locale - an official manual</a></li> </ul>

<h3>Symfony framework</h3>

In Symfony, translation of text is done through the <a href="http://api.symfony.com/2.3/Symfony/Component/Translation/Translator.html">translator service</a>. To translate a message, the <a href="http://api.symfony.com/2.3/Symfony/Component/Translation/Translator.html#trans()">trans()</a> method is used, following this process: <ul> <li>the locale is determined (from the request or a session variable)</li> <li>a catalog of translated messages is loaded from the translation resource files defined for that locale</li> <li>the requested translation is returned</li> </ul>

The Symfony framework provides support for these loaders by default:

<ul> <li><tt><code>xliff</code></tt>: XLIFF file</li> <li><tt><code>php</code></tt>: PHP file</li> <li><tt><code>yml</code></tt>: YAML file</li> </ul>

Howerver, custom loaders can be created by implementing the <a href="http://api.symfony.com/2.3/Symfony/Component/Translation/Loader/LoaderInterface.html">LoadInterface</a> interface.

<strong>Further reading:</strong> <ul> <li><a href="http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/translation.html">The Symphony Book - Translations</a></li> </ul>

<h3>Yii Framework</h3>

With the Yii framework, message translation is done by calling <a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/YiiBase#t-detail">Yii::t()</a> method. When translating a message, its category has to be specified since a message may be translated differently under different categories (contexts). For example, the category <em>yii</em> is reserved for messages used by the Yii framework core code.

Parameter placeholders within the messages are replaced with the actual parameter values when calling Yii::t(). For example, the following message translation request would replace the {alias} placeholder in the original message with the actual alias value.
<pre>Yii::t('app', 'Path alias "{alias}" is redefined.', array('{alias}'=>$alias))</pre>
Translated messages are stored in a repositories called message sources. A message source is represented as an instance of <a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/CMessageSource">CMessageSource</a> or its child class. When Yii::t() is invoked, it will look for the message in the message source and returns its translated version if it is found.

Yii comes with the following types of message sources: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/CPhpMessageSource">CPhpMessageSource</a>: the message translations are stored as key-value pairs in a PHP array. The original message is the key and the translated message is the value. Each array represents the translations for a particular category of messages and is stored in a separate PHP script file whose name is the category name. The PHP translation files for the same language are stored under the same directory named as the locale ID. All these directories are located under the directory specified by basePath.</li> <li><a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/CGettextMessageSource">CGettextMessageSource</a>: the message translations are stored as GNU Gettext files. For more information on gettext, <a title="PHP internationalization with gettext tutorial" href="https://lingohub.com/blog/2013/07/php-internationalization-with-gettext-tutorial">you can check our previous blog post</a>.</li> <li><a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/CDbMessageSource">CDbMessageSource</a>: the message translations are stored in database tables.</li> </ul>

Custom message sources can be created as well by extending <a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/CMessageSource">CMessageSource</a>.

<strong>Further reading:</strong> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/topics.i18n">yii framework documentation - Internationalization</a></li> </ul>

These quite popular PHP frameworks are not the only approaches to <strong>internationalization</strong>, let me know which ones you use and what your experiences are with them. We've outlined some approaches to getting your applications on the road towards <strong>localization</strong> before, and we'll focus on some other programming languages and formats in future tutorials, too. Most of these are either based on customer experiences or our lessons learned from developing <a href="https://lingohub.com">Lingohub</a>. We're looking forward to your comments.

This concise guide will teach how to implement internationalization with PHP frameworks like CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Zend, Yii, and Symfony.