Translation labels ("[de]") are applied, even though I'm creating records in that language

[Max Nowak]

Hi,

I'm having a strange problem on a customer instance that I can't quite figure out. The customer wants to use the platform in German exclusively, so we activated the corresponding language pack plugin.

Everyone switched their language to German, but when we create translated field records (for example, a variable in a catalog item), the translation label "[de]" gets applied. I know that I can probably suppress this by setting the property glide.translate.learn to false, but I'm still curious as to why this happens in the first place?

I mean, according to the docs, "the instance creates stub records in the translation tables when it encounters strings that have only an English version". But this isn't the case here, in fact, the string should only have a German version, and no English version, since I'm entering it with my platform language set to German.

Am I missing something here?

[Alex Coope - SN]

@Max Nowak,

So that's happening because (as you correctly surmised) the "translate and learn" property has been activated at some point which in-turn created "stub" records as users browsed to areas that didn't include translations in that language. 

The original intention of "stub" records was so that they could be easily found in the 5 tables to then be exported and translated correctly. 

Generally speaking, the best practice is to always build in English, then add the German (in your case) translations on top. This is because the instance's "development" language is English. Also, "translate and learn" should only be used super sparingly to catch an errant missing string during UX testing, rather than left on all the time as it could lead to a performance impact over time,

I'm more than happy to discuss further in a call if you require (feel free to send me an email),

Many thanks,
kind regards

[Max Nowak]

Hey Alex,

Thanks for the reply. Sadly, there are some customers who just aren't willing (or able) to first develop in English, and then add translations. What would be your recommendations in that case? Am I correct in assuming that the downside of this approach is that if the customer decides to add English as a platform language later, all translations to German would have to be re-done? At least that's what has been my experience with translated fields.

Thanks,

Max

[Alex Coope - SN]

@Max Nowak,

Well it depends. It's because the Platform's development Language is "English", what you'll find in most scenarios is that the English / Baseline values for scenarios like yours is that the baseline language will become polluted with some things in English (as English) and somethings in German (as English). So the German wouldn't need to be re translated per say, more that the baseline values might need to be looked at again,

It's important to note, that all software development has a "Development" language, and that it's not unique to our platform (as a concept). Whilst it may not be their desire to build things out in English, it will make things easier in the long run,

Many thanks,

kind regards