One thing ForumSpark was still missing was the ability to translate your community or simply change certain wording to suit your needs. Until now, changing interface text usually meant working around it with CSS. That is no longer necessary.
This update brings full language management to every ForumSpark board.
Translate directly from your forum
The easiest way to translate your board is through Live Translate.
Open Languages under Appearance in your admin panel and press Live Translate. You will return to your forum with every interface string outlined.
Long-press any text to open the editor, enter your translation and save it. Every matching occurrence on the page updates immediately.
Amber outlines show strings that still need translating, while green means they are done. Normal clicks continue to work, so you can browse through your community and translate each page as you go.
The counter in the translation bar shows how many untranslated strings remain on the current page. Click it to open the full list and work through them one by one without having to find each string on the page.
Tooltips and other text that is not directly visible are listed separately under hidden strings, so those can be translated too.
Or use the string editor
Prefer having everything in one place? The string editor shows the original English string next to your translation.
You can filter untranslated strings or browse them by area, including emails and notifications.
Placeholders such as :name are validated automatically, preventing you from accidentally removing information that needs to be inserted later.
Custom menu items and widget titles are included as well.
Bring your own translators
Each language can be exported as a single JSON file. You can export the entire language or only the strings that are still missing.
Send the file to a translator, edit it yourself or work on it however you prefer, then import it back into ForumSpark. Everything is validated before it is saved, and you receive a full report of anything that needs your attention.
New languages begin as drafts and can only be previewed by administrators. Nothing becomes visible to your members until you are ready.
What your members see
You can set one default language for the entire board or allow members to choose their own through a selector next to the theme selector.
Dates and times adjust automatically. A Dutch community, for example, will show 13 seconden geleden without you having to translate it yourself.
Member-created content is never translated or changed. This only applies to the interface around it.
Languages are available today on every board and every plan.
Open Appearance, choose Languages, add your language and press Live Translate to get started. You can also view the full guide here.
Should you find any strings that cannot be translated, please let us know through Support.
Also in this update
Flagging a member as a spammer now works as expected.
Their content is immediately hidden from the public, and their profile clearly states:
This member is flagged as a spammer. Their content is hidden from the forum.
Staff can still view everything through a red overlay, allowing you to review what was posted. You can delete the content immediately or leave it to the automatic cleanup, which removes content from flagged spammers after 48 hours.
The Activity page also received some attention. Topic titles and labels now sit together more neatly, the page behaves properly on mobile, and previews show more content before being truncated.
And finally, ForumSpark is officially out of beta. Yay! 🤗
