All customer-facing content can be translated directly within Optimizely Product Information Management (PIM). Selecting a non-default language on properties, categories, assets, and products exposes the translatable fields.
Edit properties for multiple languages
All properties that are flagged as multi-language can have their display name translated, and multi-language properties that use a list of values (dropdown, radio button, or multi-select control types) can have their values translated.
Translating display names
You can enter the Display Name for properties in each language when editing a property record.
- Go to Configure > Properties and click the multi-language property for which you want to add display names.
- Use the language dropdown menu to select the desired enabled language.
- Enter the display name for the selected language.
Selecting a non-default language hides all fields other than the Display Name. The default language Display Name appears on the left, and the selected language Display Name appears on the right.
Translating property values
With a non-default language selected on the values tab, you can enter translations directly in the list.
- Go to Configure > Properties.
- Click the name of the property for which you want to add a translation.
- Click the Values tab.
- Select a non-default language from the dropdown menu.
- Enter translation(s) for the value(s) that appear on the list.
- Click Save.
Edit categories for multiple languages
Almost all category data is customer facing and can be translated. When editing a category with a non-default language, Optimizely hides the image selections, activate and deactivate dates, and toggle option for dynamic recommendations to focus on the translatable fields.
- Go to Categories and click the category name you want to edit.
- Select a non-default language from the dropdown menu.
- Enter translation(s) for any of the multi-language fields.
- Click Save.
Edit assets for multiple languages
For assets, only alt text of images can be translated since no other data is customer facing. Selecting a non-default language on the asset list automatically filters out other asset types to only show images.
- Go to Assets and click the product number you want to edit.
- Select a non-default language from the dropdown menu.
- Enter translations for the alt text field.
- Click Save.
Edit products for multiple languages
Selecting a non-default language on the product record hides properties not marked as multi-language and displays both an input for the selected language and the default language value. Property values are hidden because they are translated on the property record. The translated value is automatically used based on the value for the default language.
- Go to Products and click the product number you want to edit.
- Select a non-default language from the dropdown menu.
- Enter translation(s) for any of the multi-language properties.
- Click Save.
A message displays warning about missing translations if any text field, text area or HTML property is flagged as multi-language but does not have data for a secondary language. A warning icon also appears in the language dropdown if at least one property is missing a translation.
Multi-language properties and product completeness
Product completeness depends on how properties are marked in Configure > Settings > Multi-language Options.
For example, English (EN) is the default language, and French (FR) is an enabled secondary language.
If FR is set to:
- None – Products can be published to Commerce without FR translations
- Required Properties – Products cannot be published unless they have FR translations for required properties
- Required & Recommended – Products cannot be published unless they have FR translations for required properties and recommended properties with data in EN
- All Properties – Products cannot be published unless they have data in FR for all properties with data in EN
The flowcharts below provide more details on multi-language property evaluation for completeness, followed by examples of complete and incomplete products. An accessible PDF of the flowcharts is attached at the bottom of this article.