Creating new languages

Creating a new language file (i.e. if you want to translate ILIAS into your native language) is very easy. Before you start with your translation, make a copy of the english file (which is the master file for ILIAS), and name it ilias_xx.lang. "xx" is a placeholder for the correct shortcut of your language based on the international standard ISO 639-1.

For example:

You want to implement Nepali language in ILIAS. Copy the English language file, and rename the copy to ilias_ne.lang. [1]

Inside a language file you will find the header information and the actual data. The language data starts beyond the line <!-- language file start -->. Each line contains one language snippet and has the structure: module_name#:#identifier#:#value.

The entries in module_name and identifier should never be changed! They are required to find the correct values in the database. The entry for value holds that piece of data that is shown on the screen, and that you will want to translate. You can use a simple text editor or a spreadsheet application to edit the language data. When you use a spreadsheet import the files as CSV-data (character separated values).

Some guidelines when editing the values:

1. When you edit ILIAS lang files, please use an editor which supports UTF-8 perfectly to avoid damaging the lang files!

2. Don't touch the separators (#:#). They are needed to distinguish between the fields.

3. Do not use whitespace like \r (carriage return) or \n (new line), because the parser expects this whitespace to be the end marker for each language entry. However, you may use XHTML entities such as <p> ... </p> and <br />.

4. You may delete the header, but not the line <!-- language file start -->!

When putting a new language file with the correct file name into your language directory, ILIAS detects this file as a new language (see in admin section: languages). However, if the data inside the file is corrupt or contains wrong data it will not be imported into ILIAS. When the import was successful you will see a new available language in your language list.

Since ILIAS 3.5 it is no longer necessary to add an entry in the other language files for a new language thus the already existing meta data entries for languages are used.

Now you commit your new language file into CVS or send it to the ILIAS team for doing this for you. If you want to commit the file and further changes by yourself you need to install a CVS on your local computer. In this case please have a look in the informations about CVS in the developer guidelines.