How does Multi-Lingual support work for the end customer

This guide will explain how StoreFronts interacts with the end customer's browser when multiple languages are enabled.

Automatic Language Selection

When a customer first loads your site, their browser sends a special HTTP header known as "Accept-Languages" which tells the server which languages that the customer prefers and the order of their preference.  If a customer's browser indicates that it would like Spanish first and then English as a second language, then UltraCart will set their language preference to Spanish if your site supports it.

Manual Language Selection

Not every customer will configure the language preference on their browser.  For these customers there is a standard user interface available for them to change their language.  In the upper right hand corner of the desktop view there is a globe icon.

When the customer clicks on this icon, the system will display a language picker.  Not that the languages shown in the picker as all spelled in that native languages.  So for example you will see Espanol instead of Spanish.  This is a customary practice for multi-lingual sites.  

Since sites can enable a large list of languages, we will attempt to geo-locate the country that the customer is coming from and display the languages that are most appropriate for that particular country.

After selecting the new language, the page will automatically refresh and the content will be translated.

Background Translation

Whenever new content is encountered by UltraCart, the translation is queued in the background. It is possible for a customer to see some untranslated content when a language is first enabled.