How to force French language only for Employee Center portal (not backend)?

[Abdelkader TABA]

Hi Community,

We have a requirement where our Employee Center portal (Service Portal) must always display in French, regardless of the user’s language preference or session language. However, we want users to keep their backend UI (platform) in English or their preferred language.

Is there a standard, supported way to force the portal language to French only, without impacting the rest of the user's experience (i.e., without setting sys_user.language to French)?

We’ve considered:

• Adding ?lang=fr to the URL → works, but not ideal for all entry points

• Using gs.getSession().setLanguage('fr') in widgets → doesn’t persist reliably or triggers late

• Injecting redirection scripts in layout or theme → works but not fully standard

Is there any built-in configuration (in sp_portal, sp_page, etc.) that allows portal-level language control?

Thanks in advance for your help and best practices!
AT

[RaghavSh]

There is no OOB configuration for this and language is based on session.

With all the methods you listed, you are trying ti trick the system, which may break in future with some additional functionalities introduced/ removed by servicenow.

I believe if this cannot be avoided this should be achieved by (Injecting redirection scripts in layout or theme as this is portal level) and not changing any page or widget.

Else this should be avoided.

On your question about best practise, this is not a standard requirement, it should be done with somthing which breaks the system least.

Please mark the answer correct/helpful accordingly.

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@Abdelkader TABA 

My thoughts:
-> Service Portal language is driven by the user’s session language, their user profile (sys_user.language), or explicit ?lang=fr URL parameters

-> There is no Service Portal property (e.g., in sp_portal or sp_page) to force a language for all sessions independent of user/system settings

-> you can try to use OOTB language selector for your portal but nothing is present for Core UI

Need to add a Language Selector for your portal (including external and non-authenticated users?) - ... 

💡 If my response helped, please mark it as correct ✔️ and close the thread 🔒 — this helps future readers find the solution faster! 🙏

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@Abdelkader TABA 

Hope you are doing good.

Did my reply answer your question?

💡 If my response helped, please mark it as correct ✔️ and close the thread 🔒 — this helps future readers find the solution faster! 🙏