Enable and Customize Tracking Page Content in Multiple Languages

Overview

AfterShip Tracking’s multilanguage tracking experience allows you to provide a nuanced and interactive localization experience to your customers by redirecting them from their respective locales to your tracking page to track their orders in the language they prefer. AfterShip Tracking supports over 34 language translations. AfterShip offers you the choice of

• Manually translating the page content in the language you want by adding your translations in the editor or translation manager
• Using the default translations provided by AfterShip Tracking

How does multi-language translation work?

Once you are done building the page in your default language, select and add another language, and then translate the content.

However, if you are to localize your tracking page content, AfterShip creates duplicate versions of your page in your default language as you continue to add new languages. You can access these duplicate versions of the new languages from the tracking page editor or translation manager and tailor content individually.

As you continue to grow your business, you may change your tracking page layout and user experience. The changes to your page’s layout like adding an element, repositioning a section, or removing a block are automatically applied to all the versions of the configured languages to maintain a consistent look throughout. However, you need to adjust the translations of the newly added sections and elements to your target locale.

What you’ll learn

In this tutorial, we will show you:

• Set your default language
• Add new languages
• Updating multilingual tracking page
• Add/update image asset
• Add/update image destination URLs
• Delete language
• Enable language selector
• Reordering languages in the selector
• Language page redirection

Language support

Merchants who would like the AfterShip Tracking experience to include different language translations based on the customer base and locale can add different languages and additional content pages in the AfterShip Tracking page editor to support a multilingual tracking page.

AfterShip Tracking supports 34 languages, according to the ** ISO 639-1 ** international standard. View the full list of the languages available.

As you continue to add languages to the list, additional content pages (duplicate pages of your default language) will be generated and translated simultaneously. However, most fields will not be translated to allow merchants the flexibility to input their verbiage in those fields as needed. This is why we recommend auditing all the additional content pages and their respective fields within content customization to ensure they are filled with the right verbiage and accurate translations.

Select and set your default language

Choosing your default language is paramount in setting the translation flow of the additional languages you’ll add and set your tracking page in. This is primarily because the duplicate versions of your tracking page will be created in the default language you set as you add new languages to your tracking page.

The default version of your tracking page is the one the customers will see if you have not translated your tracking page into the visitor’s browser language.

To set your default language,

1. Access the editor of your preferred tracking page variation by clicking Actions > Edit
2. From the Switch language panel, click Manage languages to enter the Languages dashboard
3. Click the Manage icon {...} and click Set as default to set that language as default

Add new languages

Add new languages to your tracking page to cater to a wider audience and improve the user experience. Multilanguage capability also increases the likelihood of additional sales and revenue because it makes the website more accessible and explorable for customers from different locales.

When you add new languages, as mentioned before, a duplicate version of your default tracking page will be created with most fields auto-translated to the newly added language while some fields will not be translated. You need to tailor those untranslated fields on your own either through the main default tracking page layout editor or through the multilingual dashboard.

To add new languages,

1. Access the editor of your preferred tracking page variation by clicking Actions > Edit
2. From the Switch language panel, click Manage languages to enter the Languages dashboard
3. Click + Add language
4. Select the language from the dropdown menu and click Add

Updating multilingual tracking page

When you add a new language page, the layout remains the same as your default language page. You just need to change or update any field that is either auto-translated or not translated and images that may still feature content in your default language.

As you continue to grow your business, you may make some changes to your tracking page. The changes to your page’s layout like adding an element, a section, or removing a block are automatically applied to all the versions of the configured languages to maintain a consistent look throughout. However, you need to adjust the translations of the newly added sections and elements to your target locale.

1. Editing the layout of the default language page

Changes made to the default language page layout will be applied to all other language versions. This is particularly applicable to changes that include

1. Adding, removing, or reordering sections
2. Adding, removing, or reordering blocks
3. Add widgets
4. Adjusting the style elements
5. Turning on and configuring features, including;

a. Shipment reviews

b. Subscribe for notifications

c. Redirect package

2. Updating translation in the language version

Once you add new languages to your page, you can start translating the content. You can translate elements directly from the language version in your main tracking page editor, or you can translate elements through the multilingual dashboard.

A. Edit translations in the main editor

After adding a new language, you can find the language added under the Switch Languages panel. To edit the translation:

1. Click Translate content under the Switch Languages panel
2. You will enter the translation mode of that specific language

• When editing a language version, you can see a blue bar indicating you're in Translation Mode. From here, you can easily go to the multilingual dashboard to edit your translations or Exit the translation mode to change the page’s layout like adding an element, a section, or removing a block.

• In Translation mode, you can only edit the content, not the page design such as enabling a feature, adding/removing a section or block, or changing the layout. This makes sure the layout remains consistent across all your added languages. If you need to change the design, you can exit the translation mode and change it in your default language version.

3. Enter a section or block, and translate your page's content (e.g. text, images, links)
4. Click Save after translating

B. Edit translations in the translation manager

Translation manager enables you to manage the translation of your newly added languages in one centralized place. The translation manager breaks down your default language page content into key pages—Order lookup page, Tracking results page, Recipient page, Header and footer, and Widgets.

The pages are further categorized into sections and blocks of those sections including text, images, and URLs.

The Translation Manager displays your source content and your translations side-by-side, allowing for a more fluid translation process.

To translate your page content,

1. Click Translate content under the Switch Languages panel
2. Click Manage translations on the translation mode bar
3. On the translation manager dashboard, select the page from the dropdown, e.g. Order lookup page
4. Select the location, i.e. section or block from the side panel, e.g. Tracking updates
5. Translate your content manually, row-by-row

• Click the field of the text you want to translate
• Type your translations
• Repeat these steps for each text you want to translate manually

6. Go back to the editor and click Save
7. Repeat these steps for all the pages and their sections

Add/update image assets across language versions

When adding or editing image assets to your default language page, you have the option to choose a specific language or language version to add the image asset directly to.

1. Go to your default tracking page language editor
2. Select the section and the subsequent image block to add or update the image
3. Select the image that you want to upload from your files or drag-and-drop the image to the place of upload
4. Once you've uploaded an image, you will be prompted to use this image across languages. Select the checkbox if you want to
5. Use the drop-down to select the languages that you want to apply the image to. All the selected languages will be displayed together on the language bar
6. Save your changes

Add/update image destination URLs across language versions

When adding or editing image assets to your default language page, you have the option to choose a specific language or language version to add the image asset directly to.

1. Go to your default tracking page language editor
2. Select the section and the subsequent image block to add or update the image URL
3. Insert the URL, click Save
4. Once you've edited the URL, you will be prompted to use this URL across languages. Select the checkbox if you want to
5. Use the drop-down to select the languages that you want to apply the destination URL to. All the selected languages will be displayed together on the language bar
6. Save your changes

Delete language

When you delete a language from the translation manager, all the translations and changes you’ve made to that language version will be automatically permanently deleted.

Note:

The default language cannot be deleted. If you wish to delete your default language then you need to make any other language your default language. AfterShip Tracking creates a duplicate version of your tracking page in the default language you set as you add new languages to your tracking page. The default version of your tracking page is also the one the customers will see if you have not translated your tracking page into the visitor’s browser language.

To remove languages from your tracking page,

1. Click Manage languages under the Switch Languages panel
2. Click the Manage {...} icon of the language, and click Delete

Enable language selector

To enable the language selector on the header,

1. Navigate to Header
2. Turn on the Language selector

Reordering languages in the selector

You can display the languages in the Language selector in the order you wish to allow customers to switch to their preferred language.

To reorder languages in your editor

1. Click Manage language under the Switch Languages panel to enter the Manage Language dashboard
2. Find the drag icon and drag-and-drop the language to your desired position

Language page redirection

A. URL language parameters

By inserting the language parameters in your tracking page URL, you can redirect visitors to the target language page.

1. Universal URL: https://{domain}/?lang=de

Example 1: https://vidhyaaftership.aftership.com/?lang=it/

Example 2: https://vidhyaaftership.aftership.com/?lang=zh-Hans/

2. Specific page URL: https://domain.com/?page-name=brandname&lang=zh-Hans

Example 1: https://aftershipdemo.aftership.com/?page-name=vidhya&lang=zh-Hans/

In the above examples, “it” and “zh-Hans” represents the language code. By adding these language parameters, customers will directly land on the tracking page of that language.

B. Detect browser language

When there are no language parameters in the tracking page URL, you can turn on the Detect browser language feature to automatically show your page to visitors in the language of their browsers.

For example, if you translate your page to Spanish, and a visitor has their browser language set to Spanish, they will view the Spanish version of your page. This way they don't have to manually change the language from your page's language menu. If you don't have a Spanish version, this viewer will land on the default version of your page. They can still manually change the language from the language menu.

Additional considerations

Before you decide to automatically show visitors your page in their browser language, we recommend reading the following information:

• Redirecting your page visitors based on their browser language may stop them from viewing all the language versions of your page.
• This feature is only available if you have at least one active secondary language on your tracking page.
• You need to add the relevant language to your tracking page editor for it to display. If you do not have your page translated into a visitor's browser language, they will see your default language version.

To automatically redirect your visitors,

1. Click Manage language under the Switch Languages panel to enter the Manage Language dashboard
2. Select Show page language based on customer's browser language to display the tracking page in the visitor’s browser language
3. When the Show page language based on customer's browser language is unselected, the page will display in your site's main language, and visitors must switch to their preferred language using your language menu

Updated on: 11/07/2024