An overview of the very powerful MOSS variations product feature and its use in multi-lingual and other sites.
Human language is a fascinating subject. Consider for example those who speak multiple languages, not just 3 or 4 different languages but ten or twenty or more. Charles Berlitz, who eventually ran the language school his father started, spoke over 30 different languages. Consider also the art of translation. There was a time when translation was not the flexible, interpretive art that is practiced today. In the 1500’s for example a translator was executed for adding, in an attempt to convey meaning more fully, three words to the then-accepted translation of a passage from a Greek text. The American Translators Association web site contains more information about translation you might find interesting.
While the need for translated copies of documents has almost always existed, the World Wide Web has certainly thrown its own special set of demands on that basic need. Not only is there a need for translated pages. There is also the requirement to maintain multiple, parallel sites. Those responsible for web sites requiring that pages be published in multiple languages, will be pleased to learn that SharePoint provides some valuable capabilities to assist with this need.
The release of Windows SharePoint Services v3 (WSS3) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) has significantly increased the ability for organizations to support more easily multi-lingual portals and collaboration sites. This blog and two related ones will explore these capabilities and the extension of this capability to other areas.
Background
The need to maintain multi-language sites essentially emerged synchronously with the arrival of HTML-based web sites. This need exists today for international companies but also for companies located in countries with multiple languages, official or unofficial. The2007 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) provides a means for automatically publishing pages in multiple sites where each site has a unique language. Additionally it is possible to use the same basic capability to publish to sites whose pages vary only in their layout rather than the languages in which they are published and rendered.
It should be clearly indicated here that the translation of the content is not what this feature provides. Rather, it controls the publication of pages, eliminating the administrative burdens associated with maintaining multiple sites published in different languages.
The MOSS feature that provides this capability is known simply as variations. It is a MOSS product feature, not a WSS v3 product feature. This translates into some restrictions that unfortunately limit the overall applicability of this feature. Also, like many other aspects of SharePoint, variations are limited in scope to the sites and pages contained within a site collection. Variations cannot be applied across site collections. If the need exists for variation use across site collections, either multiple variation definitions or custom code will be required.
Language Packs
Before you can do much with variations as they relate to languages, you’ll need to install the language packs necessary to support the variations you will create. There are a number of language packs provided for SharePoint. This link gives a nice summary of the current state of language packs and describes the differences between the types of packs (WSS and MOSS packs are not the same for example) SharePoint Language Packs Details. The language packs themselves can be obtained here: Download LPs (WSS, MOSS currently unavailable).
There are a few things worth mentioning about installing the language packs. First, as just mentioned, the MOSS packs aren’t available yet. Check often at the link above and the MOSS site for availability or set a feed. The second item of note is that both the download of the language pack and the language pack installation take place in the language of the pack. See the screen capture below for example. For the install this really isn’t a problem since the install dialog is quite simple. You can pretty much just click in the locations you use in the English installation and you’ll be fine. The download can be a bit trickier but there are many ways to handle the pages you’ll see. Be careful when downloading multiple packs however because the default is to use the same filename for every download! Third, certain languages require additions before the language packs are installed. This TechNet article will help you determine if you need the additional files.
Figure 1
Figure 2
The Variation Root and Hierarchy
Known variously as the variation root, variation source or variation home, one site in a site collection, either the top-level site or one of the subsites in its hierarchy, is designated as the primary site. Other sites in the site collection are designated as target sites. The root and target sites together comprise what is referred to as the variation hierarchy. Each target site in the hierarchy will be updated automatically when modifications to the root are published (manual updates are an option). While most site administrators will likely configure workflows for content approval and in the case of multi-lingual variations, translation, approvals are not required for variations to be defined and content to be updated. The critical event controlling the update of target sites and pages with new or revised content from the root is the publication of the content, whether or not approval is configured.
Establishing the root and target sites is fairly straightforward. The few graphics below illustrate the basic sequence and the few places a novice might trip up. From the site collection that will be the root, use the Site Collection group in Modify Site Settings. There you will find the Variations link. The screen shown below will be displayed.
Figure 3
Once the configuration settings for the variation have been established, variation labels can be created. Variation labels are the placeholders, if you will, for the sites that hold the different languages’ content. Essentially the system will use these labels to redirect the browser to the appropriate site based on browser settings, for example the preferred language-country code. As you can see from the following two screen captures Figure 4, without any language packs installed, and Figure 5, with some language packs installed, if you are using variations for multi-lingual sites, you really need the language packs installed. It’s worth mentioning once again though that there are other reasons for using variations. In those cases the screen would look like Figure 4.
Figure 4
Figure 5
It’s also worth mentioning that the large red warning at the bottom of the screen, whether or not language variations are being used, should be read closely and followed exactly.
Once a number of variation labels have been created, you will see a screen like Figure 6. Note here that the source has been identified. At this point clicking on the Create Hierarchies link will establish the parallel sites, based on the settings configured during variation label creation.
Figure 6
Finally Figure 7 illustrates the log file generated during the hierarchy creation process. This log is useful if there is an error of some sort during hierarchy creation and also to validate that the label sites have been successfully created.
Figure 7
All of the operations I have discussed here are performed via links found in the Site Collection group of the Modify All Site Settings page for the source site’s site collection.
In another blog I will discuss using the source site and the label sites.
