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Set up your localization attribute

Before you can set up multi-language messages, you need to store your audience’s language preferences as an attribute. You can tell us what that attribute is, and then use it to send people messages in their preferred language!

How it works

Before you can send localized messages, you need to go to Settings > Workspace Settings > Localization and tell us what attributeA key-value pair that you associate with a person or an object—like a person’s name, the date they were created in your workspace, or a company’s billing date etc. Use attributes to target people and personalize messages. stores your audience’s language preferences. This attribute must store values we support, meaning they’re either:

• a two letter language code, like en for English
• a four-letter language and region code, separated by a dash, like en-US for English speakers in the United States.

When you go to send a message, we’ll match this attribute to the correct language for your message. If a person’s language attribute doesn’t match one of the languages in your message, they’ll receive the Default message.

If you already store languages in a format that doesn’t fit our standards, you may be able to convert your current value(s) with liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}. or JavaScript.

Set your language attribute

When you add a language attribute, we assume that values fit our list of supported languages. If you already have a “language attribute”, but it doesn’t use our supported values, you may want to create a new attribute and set up a campaign to convert your existing attribute to our supported formats.

Your language attribute can be any attribute in your workspace. The values for this attribute must be simple strings (not nested within an object), and formatted as either:

• two letter language codes (defined by ISO-3166-1 alpha 2 standard), like es or en representing Spanish and English respectively.
• four-letter IETF language-region codes separated by a dash, like es-mx representing Spanish language speakers in Mexico.

To set your workspace’s language attribute:

1. Go to Settings > Workspace Settings.
2. Find Language Settings and click Get Started.
3. Enter the name of the attribute representing your audience’s language.

Convert language attributes to our standards

If you already store your audience’s language preference in a format that doesn’t fit ISO-3166-1 (alpha 2) or IETF standards, you can set up a campaign to reformat your language attribute.

You may want to create a new attribute to store the reformatted preference, in case integrations continue to add or update people with a language preference that you need to reformat.

1. Create a segmentA group of people who match a series of conditions. People enter and exit the segment automatically when they match or stop matching conditions. containing people with your original language attribute.
2. Create a campaign. On the Trigger page:
   1. Click A person meets conditions
   2. Click Add segment condition and pick the segment you set in earlier steps.
   3. Click Next.

      

      
3. In the Workflow step, drag Create or update person into your workflow.
4. Give the action a Name, and click Add Details.
5. Find the attribute you want to convert under Sample Data, and click Add.
6. In the Value field, select Liquid or JavaScript, and write an expression to convert or map languages. We’ve provided some examples below.
7. Select the original attribute in the Sample data again, and set the value to Remove attribute. This removes the original language attribute and removes the person from the segment you set up in the first step.

Use Liquid to convert language values

When you use the Create or Update Person action, you can set and modify attributes using liquidA syntax that supports variables, letting you personalize messages for your audience. For example, if you want to reference a person’s first name, you might use the variable {{customer.first_name}}.. The liquid expression you use to map your old language attribute to your new one depends on your current language format, but we’ve provided some ideas below.

If you store languages with an underscore instead of a dash (e.g. en_US instead of en-US), you can replace the underscore easily with replace:

// assume input en_us
{{ customer.language | replace "_", "-" }}
// outputs en-us 

If you store languages without a delimiter, you can add one by slicing your original language attribute:

// assume input enUS
{{ customer.language | slice 2 }}-{{customer.language | slice 3, 2}}
// output 

Or, if you store languages as full names, you may need to map some of them. You can do this with condtitions:

// assume languages are english, french, and german
{% if customer.language == "German" %}
    de
    // output for german
{% else %}
    {{customer.language | slice 2, 2}}
    // for french and english, use the first two letters of language code
{% end %}

Use JavaScript to convert language values

When you use the Create or Update Person action, you can set and modify attributes using JavaScript. The liquid expression you use to map your old language attribute to your new one depends on your current language format, but we’ve provided some ideas below.

If you store languages with an underscore instead of a dash (e.g. en_US instead of en-US), you can replace the underscore easily with replace:

// assume `language` attribute formatted en_us
return customer.language.replace("_", "-");
// outputs en-us 

If you store languages without a delimiter, you can add one by slicing your original language attribute:

// assume `language` attribute formatted enUS
return customer.language.slice(0, 2) + "-" + customer.language.slice(2);
// output 

Or, if you store languages as full names, you may need to map some of them. You can do this with condtitions:

// assume languages are english, french, and german
if (customer.language == "German") {
    return de;
    // output for german
} else {
    customer.language.slice(0, 2);
    // for french and english, use the first two letters of language code
}

Supported languages and locales

Your language attribute’s values must be formatted as a two letter language code with an optional two-letter region code separated by a dash. For example, you might use en for English or en-US for English speakers in the United States.

Language attributes are not case sensitive, but language-region codes must be separated by a dash. For example, both es-MX and es-mx both represent Spanish formatted for speakers in Mexico.

These codes come from the ISO-3166-1 (alpha 2) and IETF standards respectively. If you’re looking for a language or locale that we don’t support, let us know!