Translation of the Online Help

In order to create an online help translation, you have to be logged in as an Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group. Here is a detailed description of the basic steps.

Upload help modules

For the Online Help, you need the base module org.opencms.help and the English Online Help module org.opencms.help.en which serves as a master for your new Online Help. You can download these modules at the OpenCms website http://www.opencms.org. Now you have to upload those modules in the Backoffice of OpenCms.

Adjusting the basic folder structure

The help files are located in the folder

/system/workplace/locales/[your locale]/help

You can copy the english help pages as a template for your localized help.

Editing the english master help pages

You can navigate through the copied help pages in the Explorer view of OpenCms and edit them either with the WYSIWYG editor or the Sourcecode editor of OpenCms just like any page. Replace the english content with your translation.

Adding new help pages

To create new help pages you have to change the visibility of the master template which is needed for the Online Help pages.

To do that, switch to the folder /system/modules/org.opencms.help/templates/ and change the permissions of the file help_default to rwvrwvr-v- (i.e. just add the "v" flags). Now you should see the template "Online help default template" in the "New page" dialog of OpenCms. Select this template to create new help pages in the subfolders of /system/workplace/help/it/, where it is an example for the Italian locale.

Please mind to add the new pages to the navigation, your chosen page title will be displayed as navigation text.

Create a new help module

Switch back to an offline project and create a new module. Fill out the dialog as follows (this example is for the Italian "it" locale):

• Package name: org.opencms.help.it (".it" for the Italian locale in this example)
• Version: 1 (start with 1 and increase for new versions)
• Module name: OpenCms workplace online help - {Language name} version
• Description: This module installs the {Language name} version of the online help.
• Simple module type: checked (default)
• Administration point: NOT checked (default)
• View: NOT checked (default)
• Export classes/folder: NOT checked
• Export lib/folder:NOT checked
• Maintenance event class: [leave this empty] (default)
• Publish event class: [leave this empty] (default)
• Author: [insert your name or company name here]
• Email: [insert your email address here]
• Date created: [dd.mm.yyyy] (creation date of the module, please mind the date format)
• Module resources: /system/workplace/locales/it/help (".it" for the Italian locale in this example, as before)

Click "ok".

You have now created the new module which should be displayed in the modules overview page. 

Exporting the module

The last step is to export the Online Help module. To do so just switch to the "Adminstration" -> "Module management" screen again.

Click on the icon left to your module name and select "Export" and confirm with "Ok". Your module should now be exported. You might check if the files and the subfolders of /system/workplace/locales/it/help (for the Italian help) are listed as exported in the output.

Confirm with "Ok" after the export is finished.

Now your module has been written to {$TOMCAT_HOME}/opencms/WEB-INF/packages/modules, in our example with the filename org.opencms.help.it_1.zip.

You can now import that module to other OpenCms servers by switching to the "Online" project in the OpenCms workplace on another server and selecting the "Upload module from" option on top of the screen.

Note: You always have to upload the base module org.opencms.help for your localized online help to work.

Please contribute

Of course, it would be great if you contribute your online help translation so that others can use it as well. If you want to do so, please send your exported module to contributions@opencms.org. We will make it available for download on the OpenCms website. You or your company will of course be mentioned as the translator.