Templates download/Language switcher: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:39, 23 March 2022

This template creates a language switcher that supports English, German and French language pages. It can be inserted into a wiki page via the VisualEditor Insert > Template menu.

Importing the template

(The download file here only works in a wiki that is set to the content language English. For downloading the file for a wiki with content language set to German, go to the German Helpdesk.)

The import file is included in the archive file HW-LanguageSwitcher.zip. Unpack the zip file first.

On the page Special:Import follow these steps:

Select file and choose HW-LanguageSwitcher.xml.
Enter an Interwiki prefix. Since this field is required, simply add hw (for hallowelt).
Keep the selection Import to default locations.
Click Upload file... .

The template is now available in your wiki.

Pages included in the import

The xml import creates the following files in your wiki:

Template:Languages
Template:Languages/styles.css

How it works

The template defines some variables to determine which languages you want to support:

It automatically determines the content language of your wiki installation. This variable is required and must not be deleted.
You need to define at least one language for the switcher to make sense. Each language variable is named as "l1", "l2",.... The value needs to be provided as the ISO 639-1 language code for the language.

{{#vardefine:l4|es}}

After defining the variables, you need to add them to the actual switcher:

|{{#var:l4}}={{#var:switcher}}

In addition, you should add the language to the template description for the extension TemplateData:

"{{#var:l4}}": "Cambiador de idioma"

Displaying the switcher on a page

For the language switcher to work, you need to create the language versions of a page as subpages of the actual content language, e.g. in an English wiki:

Vacation policy
Vacation policy/de
Vacation policy/fr

The template is then added to each language version:

Add the template Languages from the VisualEditor insert-dialog.
Provide a display title if the page is a subpage. For example for the Vacation policy/de, enter "Urlaubsregelung":

Setting a display title

To submit feedback about this documentation, visit our community forum.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 * Template:Languages/styles.css
-==Using the template==
+== How it works ==
-For the language switcher to work, you need to create the  language versions of a page as the English pages subpages, e.g.:
+The template defines some variables to determine which languages you want to support:
+* It automatically determines the content language of your wiki installation. This variable is required and must not be deleted.
+* You need to define at least one language for the switcher to make sense. Each language variable is named as "l1", "l2",.... The value needs to be provided as the [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_ISO-639-1-Codes ISO 639-1 language code] for the language.
+<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
+{{#vardefine:l4|es}}
+</syntaxhighlight>
+* After defining the variables, you need to add them to the actual switcher:
+<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
+|{{#var:l4}}={{#var:switcher}}
+</syntaxhighlight>
+* In addition, you should add the language to the template description for the extension [[Referenz:TemplateData|TemplateData]]:
+<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
+"{{#var:l4}}": "Cambiador de idioma"
+</syntaxhighlight>
+==Displaying the switcher on a page==
+For the language switcher to work, you need to create the  language versions of a page as subpages of the actual content language, e.g. in an English wiki:
 * Vacation policy
@@ Line 31: / Line 47: @@
 * Vacation policy/fr
-The template is added to each language version.
+The template is then added to each language version:
 # Add the template ''Languages'' from the  [[Manual:Extension/VisualEditor|VisualEditor]] insert-dialog.
 # Provide a display title if the page is a subpage. For example for the Vacation policy/de, enter "Urlaubsregelung":[[File:HW-languageswitcher-templatedata.png|alt=Setting a display title|center|thumb|400x400px|Setting a display title]]
 __NOTOC__