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Managing Languages and UI Labels: Public Document Version: 2H 2021 - 2021-11-19
Managing Languages and UI Labels: Public Document Version: 2H 2021 - 2021-11-19
Learn about changes to the documentation for managing languages and UI labels.
1H 2021
Added The Lithuanian locale is now available in SAP SuccessFactors Languages and Lo
Learning. cales [page 4]
2H 2020
List of available languages Added a list of all languages and locales SAP SuccessFactors Languages and Lo
available in the SAP SuccessFactors HXM cales [page 4]
Suite
Setting up languages Added instructions for setting up lan Setting the Default Language [page 8]
guages during implementation and add
ing new ones. Enabling Languages to Use in the System
[page 9]
Learn which languages and locales are available in the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite.
Note
Unless otherwise noted, the following languages and locales are available everywhere in the SAP
SuccessFactors HXM Suite.
Remember
Unless you define another default locale for your company, U.S. English is the default locale for all users. If no
translation is present, text appears in the company's default locale.
Caution
A few locales are shown in the user interface but shouldn’t be used. Don't use the following locales: Norwegian
(Norsk) (no_NO), Swedish (sv_SW), Tagalog (tl_PH).
Arabic ar_SA
Note
About Right-to-Left Language Support [page 7]
Bulgarian bg_BG
Catalan ca_ES
Croatian hr_HR
Czech cs_CZ
Danish da_DK
Finnish fi_FI
Restriction
Not available for Learning, Workforce Analytics, or the SAP
SuccessFactors mobile apps.
Hebrew he_IL
Note
About Right-to-Left Language Support [page 7]
Hindi hi_IN
Hungarian hu_HU
Indonesian bs_ID
Italian it_IT
Japanese ja_JP
Korean ko_KR
Lithuanian lt_LT
Note
Unavailable for Recruiting.
Malaysian bs_BS
Polish pl_PL
Romanian ro_RO
Russian ru_RU
Slovak sk_SK
Slovenian sl_SI
Swedish sv_SE
Thai th_TH
Turkish tr_TR
Ukrainian uk_UA
Vietnamese vi_VN
Restriction
Not available for People Analytics.
Welsh cy_GB
Related Information
Learn about support for right-to-left languages in the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite.
Support for right-to-left languages, like Arabic and Hebrew, requires more than just translation. We need to update
the user interface, page by page, so that it displays from right to left for users of these languages. Today, user
interface support for right-to-left display varies by product area. Newer pages and features mostly support it, while
older ones may not. We prioritize updates based on customer need. On screens where right-to-left support isn't
added, the text is translated correctly but still displayed from left to right.
Restriction
Arabic and Hebrew aren't available yet for Stories in People Analytics.
Select the default language and locale for a SAP SuccessFactors system.
Prerequisites
Remember
As a customer, you don't have access to Provisioning. To complete tasks in Provisioning, contact your
implementation partner. If you're no longer working with an implementation partner, contact Product Support.
Context
By default, people see the language you select. If they prefer, they can choose one of the other languages enabled
in the system.
Procedure
Results
Enable one or more of the available languages or locales so that they can be used in the system.
Prerequisites
You have access to Provisioning or you have the Text Replacement permission.
Remember
As a customer, you don't have access to Provisioning. To complete tasks in Provisioning, contact your
implementation partner. If you're no longer working with an implementation partner, contact Product Support.
Procedure
○ In Provisioning, select the company and choose Manage Languages in the Edit Company Settings section.
○ Go to Admin Center Manage Languages
The Manage Languages page shows a list of the available languages and locales.
2. For each language you want to enable, select the Active column.
3. Save the changes.
Results
Enabled languages are activated in the system. Wherever you can customize UI text, you can add translation in the
enabled languages. If allowed, people can choose enabled languages in their personal language settings.
Enable the personal language setting so people can choose the language they want to use.
Prerequisites
Remember
As a customer, you don't have access to Provisioning. To complete tasks in Provisioning, contact your
implementation partner. If you're no longer working with an implementation partner, contact Product Support.
Procedure
Results
People can now choose their preferred language by selecting from the languages and locales enabled in the
system. People who don't choose a language see the default language.
Change your personal language setting so you can use SAP SuccessFactors in the language or locale you prefer.
Prerequisites
Context
If you don't select a language, you see the default language defined for the system. If no default is defined, the
default language is U.S. English.
Procedure
1. Click your profile photo at the top of any page and select Settings.
2. Choose Change Language.
3. Select the language you want to use and then choose Switch to immediately switch to that language.
Results
You can customize text in the user interface (UI) for any languages, using either of two available tools.
● You can directly replace the default values for a limited set of UI labels using the Text Replacement tool.
● You can modify UI labels that aren't available in the Text Replacement tool using the Manage Languages tool.
Related Information
You can customize some UI labels in the HXM Suite using the Text Replacement tool in Admin Center.
By default, the text replacement page shows the UI labels for the default language of the application. You can
navigate to the other languages supported in the application, by clicking the respective links available under Select
Language on the text replacement page.
The text replacement tool uses two keys in the language pack (TEXT_REPLACEMENT_KEYS and
ADMIN_TEXT_REPLACEMENT_KEYS) for the UI labels that you can customize. When you save custom values for
the UI labels on the text replacement page, the default values of the UI labels are replaced with the new values,
wherever the UI labels are used in the application. When you customize UI labels in one language, the updates are
applicable only for that language, and not for the other languages supported in the application.
For example, you update the UI label "Home" to "Homepage", in English US. The updated label appears only when
English US is the default language of the application. If you change the default language to French, the UI label
"Homepage" will change to the default value of the UI label in French: "Accueil".
Caution
The Text Replacement tool is excellent for US English, but it may introduce additional “translation quality” risk
(like grammar issues) for non-English languages, as the tool only replaces the value of the UI labels in the
existing strings. For example, consider that you are using French as your default language and you decide to
change a few UI labels using the text replacement tool. You may run into grammatical issues if the UI labels that
you changed have been used in error messages in the system. Note that the customer shall be responsible
for the translation defects that result from the use of the text replacement tool.
Note
In the Text Replacement tool, the list of UI labels available for customization differs from one language to
another. For example, a UI label that can be customized in English US may not be available for customization in
French.
You can verify the updated UI labels in the application only for the default language. To check the customized values
of UI labels for another language, set that language as "default" and then verify the updates in the application.
Related Information
Use the Text Replacement tool to customize some common UI labels in the user interface. The custom UI lables you
provide replace the default values.
Prerequisites
You have Administrator Permissions Manage System Properties Text Replacement permission.
Context
Only UK English mirrors the text replacement options of US English. All other locales maintain their own text
replacement options. When using Text Replacement it is important to understand that you are only doing a text
substitution, which does not change anything regarding the language-specific grammar in the associated string. It
is possible to create linguistic issues if the custom UI labels are used incorrectly.
Tip
If your system includes Succession Planning and you plan to export matrix grid reports, avoid text replacement
labels that include a forward slash “/”, for example “Mitarbeiter/in”. The export function for the matrix grid
reports cannot process that special character.
Procedure
1. Go to the Admin Center Text Replacement tool. The key and UI labels, of your default locale, available for
customization appear in the Key and Default Text columns.
Note
Only UK English mirrors the text replacement options of US English. All other locales maintain their own
text replacement options. This means every locale has an independent set of UI labels that can be
customized, and the list may differ from one locale to another; however, only for UK English and US English,
the list of UI labels that can be customized is always the same.
2. Find the UI label you want to change. You can use the Search by Key and Search by Default Text filters to narrow
down the list. On the same row, enter its custom value in the Replace With Text column. Repeat this step for all
the UI labels you want to customize.
Note
○ On the Text Replacement page, if you do not find the UI label that you want to modify, go to Admin
Center Manage Languages to customize additional UI texts. With the Manage Languages page, you
can overwrite up to 10,000 values per locale.
Results
The default values of the UI labels are replaced with the custom values defined in the Admin Center Text
Replacement tool.
Next Steps
Tip
● A non-centralized cache is used for text replacements, which means that every server has its own cache.
By default, values in this cache expire every 24 hours, which means that a text replacement change should
be propagated to other servers in 24 hours, by default. So, it can take up to 24 hours for your changes to
reflect.
● Verify whether the values have been changed using Manage Languages, because changes done via Manage
Languages always override the changes done via the Text Replacement tool.
You can use the Manage Languages tool to overwrite UI label values in any language that we support.
● You want to change default values of UI text (e.g., system text) to better reflect your particular business
practices and culture.
● There is an issue with system text (e.g., grammar, syntax, key terms). Manage Languages allows for a quicker
turnaround while waiting for the system text to be updated in a subsequent patch or release.
Note
You should still contactProduct Support so that we can address issues with system level text in future
builds.
The languages available in the Manage Languages screen can be activated and deactivated by selecting or
deselecting the checkbox next to the language and choosing Save at the bottom of the screen.
Limitations
● Value replacement limit: You can overwrite up to 10,000 values per locale using Manage Languages. The
default replacement limit is set to 100 values, which you can manually increase up to 10,000 using the
Update option at the bottom of the page.
● Custom language pack CSV file size limit: The CSV file size limit is 10 MB. If you try uploading a file, which is
anything more than 10MB, the system will time out and the file will not be uploaded.
● Text substitution syntax: You need the text substitution syntax to replace a word throughout the system.
Otherwise, each string that includes the string will need to be replaced through Manage Languages.
Caution
You can rename to-do tiles with the Rename To-Do Tiles setting in Manage Home Page. However, once you do
this, all future name changes of to-do tiles must also be made here. You will not be able to rename to-do tiles in
Manage Languages anymore. For more information, see Renaming To-Do Tiles.
Use the Manage Languages tool to customize create a custom locale and replace most UI text in the user interface.
The Manage Languages tool allows you to change UI text that isn't supported by the Text Replacement tool.
Prerequisites
Context
To use Manage Languages, first create a custom language pack and then assign a CSV file to it, containing the key
and label values that you want to modify.
Note
The UI labels that you provide in a custom language pack override the default UI text in the original language
pack.
Note
For the China locale, to prevent the user name from being displayed incorrectly in certain contexts, you can
replace user name variables in UI field labels and messages with generic text. For example, in feedback forms,
you can replace a message like "Provide feedback for <Last_name, First_name>'s activities with "Provide
feedback for the user's activities."
Procedure
The Manage Languages page shows a list of the available languages and locales.
2. For the language and locale you want to customize, choose Add custom locale in the Action column.
The downloaded CSV file contains the entire list of key values (key) and their corresponding UI labels, for the
selected locale (such as en_US).
From the entire list of keys and UI labels, find the ones you want to customize. For example, find the UI labels
for Home, Admin Center and Manage Home Page.
5. Create a new file for the custom UI text by opening a new CSV file and copying the first row (the header) of the
downloaded CSV file into the new CSV file. Then save the new file.
Caution
You can edit the CSV file in Notepad, Open Office, or any UTF-8 editor. We recommend not using Microsoft
Excel as it may cause issues with special characters.
Note
You don't need to copy the entire file. Only copy the keys and labels you want to customize.
7. In the new CSV file, replace the original UI labels with your custom text.
Modify all the UI labels for Home, Admin Center and Manage Home Page to Homepage, Admin Console and
Manage Home Screen, respectively.
Sample Code
"Key","en_US"
"EXP_COM_HOME","Homepage"
"COMMON_RECRUITING_HOME_SUB_TAB","Homepage"
"ECSERVICECENTER_WIDGET_TAB_TITLE_HOME","Homepage"
"RECRUITING_EXT_TOP_NAV_HOME","Homepage"
"COMMON_IPS_HOME","Homepage"
"COMMON_Home","Homepage"
"ONBOARDING_HP3_HOME","Homepage"
"INPRODUCTSUPPORT_HOME","Homepage"
"COMMON_JAM_HOME_TAB","Homepage"
"COMMON_RBP_LBL_RP_HOST","Homepage"
"COMMON_HOME_TAB","Homepage"
"COMMON_HOME_SUBTAB","Homepage"
"COMMON_CUSTOM_EXTERNAL_MODULE_HOME_TAB"."Homepage"
"HOME_Manage_Revolution_Home_Page","Manage Home Screen"
"ACTIONSEARCH_MESSAGE_Manage_v12_Home_Page","Manage Home Screen"
"HOME_ADMIN_MANAGE_HOMEPAGE","Manage Home Screen"
"ECT_DATAMODEL_ADMIN_LINK","Admin Console"
"ADMIN_HOMEPAGE_ADMIN_CENTER","Admin Console"
"ADMIN_MSP_LINK_ADMINTOOLS","Back to Admin Console"
"ADMIN_TOOLS","Admin Console",""
"SUCCESSLINE_ADMINCONSOLE_BACKTO_ADMINCENTER","Admin Console"
"XCENTER_LANDING_BACK_TO_LINK_ADMIN_CENTER","Admin Console"
Caution
Don't edit the key value. If you attempt to import a file with an edited key, you get an error message and the
file doesn't upload.
Don't edit the label of COMMON_DateFormat. An edited label can lead to errors in the Metadata Framework.
Caution
The file encoding must be changed to UTF-8 before uploading the customized values to a language. If the
default (ANSI) is accepted then the characters will be corrupted when uploaded. If the characters of the
custom label still do not display correctly in the UI, then we recommend trying to replace any Unicode
escaped values (e.g. \u00ab) with the actual plain character (e.g. «).
Note
You can customize up to 100 values per locale, using the Manage Languages tool. So, the new CSV file
should not have more than 100 records. Also, note that the default replacement limit is set to 100 values. If
you have modified more than 100 values, you must increase the limit (up to 10,000) on the Manage
Languages page as follows: scroll to the bottom of the page; under Configuration, choose Update. This will
update your configuration to maximum values of 10,000 keys and file size of 10 MB. This is a one time
operation and is only reversible by the system administrators.
9. On the Manage Languages page, under the Action column of the newly created custom language pack, click
Upload custom labels.
10. Select the new CSV file with the modified UI labels, and click Open.
Note
The locale ID in the imported file needs to match the system locale ID, not the custom locale ID.
Once you upload new CSV file or the custom language pack, the modified UI labels will override the default UI
labels in the SAP SuccessFactors application.
Remember
The new CSV file that you upload has a file size limit of 10MB, and it can contain at most 10,000 edited
records. If you try to import a file of greater size or with more than 10,000 edited values (or more than the
number of records allowed on the Manage Languages page), the system will time out, or you will get an
error message, and the file will not be uploaded. The CSV file will not be uploaded even if any of the key
values change.
The UI labels defined in the custom language pack, override the default UI labels.
Remember
If you are using both Manage Languages and Text Replacement in Admin Center to overwrite the value of the
same key, then the application will use the value from Manage Languages (and ignore the value from Text
Replacement). If a Text Replacement change is not showing in the UI, please check with the corresponding
Manage Languages file to make sure the value was not changed there.
Next Steps
Log in to the SAP SuccessFactors application to verify the updates. Use your personal user settings to change the
language to the one you just modified. Browse the application to confirm your updates.
For each language pack, you can create only one custom language pack, which you can then either modify to suit
your requirements or delete it.
To make further edits to system text after the custom language pack file has been uploaded, you need to modify
the language pack file, as follows:
1. Go to Manage Languages, and expand the language pack to access the custom language pack you want to
modify.
2. Under the Action column, click Download custom labels. The CSV file for the custom language pack will be
downloaded.
3. Edit the downloaded CSV file in Notepad, Open Office, or any UTF-8 editor.
Caution
We recommend that you not use MS Excel to edit the CSV file, as this may break special characters.
You can:
○ Edit the existing custom values.
○ Remove some custom values from the CSV file.
○ Add more values to the custom language pack.
To add more custom UI text values, you must download the CSV file of the original language pack,
copy-paste the UI text values that you want to modify, add them onto the existing list of customized
keys in the CSV file of the custom language pack, and modify the new values. The change is not
incremental and the import of the updated file overwrites the previous custom language pack.
Note
DO NOT edit the key value. If you attempt to import a file with an edited key, you will get an error
message and the file will not be uploaded.
Note
You can customize up to 100 values per locale, using the Manage Languages tool. So, the new CSV file
should not have more than 100 records. Also, note that the default replacement limit is set to 100 values. If
you have modified more than 100 values, you must increase the limit (up to 10,000) on the Manage
Languages page as follows: scroll to the bottom of the page; under Configuration, choose Update. This will
update your configuration to maximum values of 10,000 keys and file size of 10 MB. This is a one time
operation and is only reversible by the system administrators.
5. .On the Manage Languages page, under the Action column of the modified custom language pack, click Upload
custom labels.
Remember
The new CSV file that you upload has a file size limit of 10MB, and it can contain at most 10,000 edited
records. If you try to import a file of greater size or with more than 10,000 edited values (or more than the
number of records allowed on the Manage Languages page), the system will time out, or you will get an
error message, and the file will not be uploaded. The CSV file will not be uploaded even if any of the key
values change.
1. Go to Manage Languages, and click "+" to the left of the language pack name and expand it to access the
custom language pack you want to delete.
2. Click the Remove custom locale link under the Action column.
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Example Code
Any software coding and/or code snippets are examples. They are not for productive use. The example code is only intended to better explain and visualize the syntax and
phrasing rules. SAP does not warrant the correctness and completeness of the example code. SAP shall not be liable for errors or damages caused by the use of example
code unless damages have been caused by SAP's gross negligence or willful misconduct.
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