Forum Discussion
Hub Site Navigation Address Field Behaviour Multilingual
We have a SharePoint hub site which requires translation of its navigation links display names and address fields - default is English and users with Spanish language settings should see Spanish navigation titles and address field links.
I followed the instructions from here - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-multilingual-communication-sites-pages-and-news-2bb7d610-5453-41c6-a0e8-6f40b3ed750c - specifically:
"After the site is set up in English, a user with Spanish as their preferred personal language manually edits and translates the title, description, navigation and footer content into Spanish".
This has worked correctly for the navigation link and label display name fields. A user with Spanish language settings see's the Spanish display name and non-Spanish users see the Default (English).
I have found that this does not work the same if the Address field for a link is changed. For example, we have Spanish versions of pages we would like the navigation to link to for Spanish users. I find when I amend the Address field with Spanish language settings, it also changes the Address field URL for the Default language navigation. Is this expected behaviour? I cannot see anything regarding this either way in the documentation linked above.
steve85 Navigation node text is MUI-enabled, but the URLs are not. That is the case whether the hub site navigation is modern or classic and has MLP enabled or not. For certain types of target pages, there is redirection according to the user's language, if the target is on an MLP-enabled Communication site or a variations site collection. This redirection does not apply in all cases, but in most common scenarios.
If you want it to work for other types of target pages, you can do it with a third-party product.
12 Replies
steve85 Navigation node text is MUI-enabled, but the URLs are not. That is the case whether the hub site navigation is modern or classic and has MLP enabled or not. For certain types of target pages, there is redirection according to the user's language, if the target is on an MLP-enabled Communication site or a variations site collection. This redirection does not apply in all cases, but in most common scenarios.
If you want it to work for other types of target pages, you can do it with a third-party product.
Thanks for your response MartinLaplante. In my scenario, we have not used the translation feature to translate the pages to Spanish. They exist with their own URLs with reference to the page in Spanish. The hope was the Address field was unique for each language once MUI was enabled and therefore I could add the English page URL for default and the Spanish URL when using Spanish language settings. I guess not. Would the 3rd party tool you mention enable this?
steve85 yes, but 3rd party product are outside the scope of this forum. You can message me.
- You shouldn’t need to change the link, just the label. When a user with the Spanish language setting clicks the link, the URL in the default language will automatically redirect to the Spanish page.
SusanHanley I have a weird one...I just enabled the multilingual feature. The translate option on the Site Name, Description, and Navigation is missing... Did I miss something in my set up?
rondharamdeolai I would try activating and deactivating the feature as Martin suggested. I haven't seen that before.
- BTW, I am assuming that you have implemented multi-lingual pages for modern comm sites. If you do that AND use the MUI links as you describe the pages should re-direct to the appropriate language. See: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-multilingual-communication-sites-pages-and-news-2bb7d610-5453-41c6-a0e8-6f40b3ed750c
Thanks for your response, SusanHanley. In my scenario, we have not used the translation feature to translate the pages to Spanish. They exist with their own URLs with reference to the page in Spanish. The reason for this is originally a custom navigation was being used but now we have pivoted to the OOTB hub navigation and hoped to keep the Spanish URLs if possible just for consistency of user experience (I realise the irony of having just mentioned we've changed an entire nav menu experience). I assume if I was to use the translation feature instead, I would have to use the default language URL for the page for both default and Spanish language users?
