PointFire

Still, how to do a multi-ligual site.

My boss asked me to evaluate a package called PointFire. Although it turned out not really something we are looking for, it may be interesting for others who have a different set of requirements than ours. But it is not free. I myself find it a little expensive. Please ask directly the vendor about the price.

It does on-the-fly translation. It is a httpmodule, so the translation covers all output, regardless where it is produced; masterpage, layout and contents.

Its user guide reads that for all phrases that Sharepoint uses out-of-the-box like “My Site”, “Site Actions”, it has a built-in dictionary, so Sharepoint own navigation, configuration pages etc are translated.

What do you think happens if you have the sequence of words like “Site Actions” in the middle of your contents? Nothing, no traslation, except that you tag just that two words i.e. <span>Site Actions</span>.

You “register” your own words and phrases that you want the module to translate, into a List called Multilingual Translations created when the module is activated. There I registered the original English phrase “Hello, my name is”, together with its French translation “Bonjour, je m’appele”. And the key is the same. You need to tag a phrase, for it to be translated. I did not see it written anywhere in the userguide though.

Voila, mon rapport bref sur FirePoint. J’espère qu’il vous donne quelque aide…