Change default language of survey

Feedback & Feature Requests
1

Hello, I’ve build a survey with Network Canvas, but my participants speak a different language than English, namely Dutch. Is it possible to change the default language of the survey overall (i.e. so the end page is in this language etc). Thanks a lot for your help

2

Hello!

Welcome to the community :slight_smile:

I’m afraid the current version of the software does not support language localisation. We know how important this is, and so we plan to implement full localisation in our upcoming “Studio” platform. Sadly this is not yet available to use. I’m sorry for the bad news!

You can of course use Dutch throughout your protocol, which will hopefully be enough to let your participants complete the interview.

If you are using Fresco, you could also think about changing the text in the software itself. To do this will require you to edit the source files in your own Fork of the software. If you are interested, I would be happy to explain how to do it.

Thank you!

Joshua

3

Thank you, Joshua!

It would be great if you could explain me how to in the software itself. That would be very helpful indeed!

Thanks a lot in advance,

Best,
Cora

4

No problem Cara! Happy to help. See below :slight_smile:

Understanding What We’re Doing (Before We Start)

What is a “fork”? A fork (as per the deployment guide) is essentially your own personal copy of the Fresco software code that lives on GitHub. When you created your fork, you made a copy that you can modify without affecting the original software. Think of it like making a photocopy of a document that you can write on without changing the original.

What are we trying to accomplish? We’ll be editing specific text files in your copy of the software to replace English words with Dutch translations. Since Fresco doesn’t have built-in language options, we need to manually change the text that appears on the “Finish Interview” screen and potentially other screens. These changes will only appear for your study.

What is “committing” a change? When you make edits to a file, those changes aren’t permanent until you “commit” them. A commit is like saving your work, but with a description of what you changed. This helps keep track of modifications over time.

What happens when the original Fresco software updates? When the original Fresco repository gets updated with new features or bug fixes, your fork doesn’t automatically update. You’ll need to “sync” your fork to get those updates, while keeping your Dutch translations.

Finding and Editing the Finish Interview Page

  1. Go to your forked repository
    • Open your web browser and go to GitHub.com
    • Sign in to your account
    • Navigate to your forked Fresco repository (it will be at https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-FORK-NAME)
      What’s happening? You’re accessing your personal copy of the Fresco code that you can modify.
  2. Navigate to the finish interview file
    • In your repository, you’ll see a list of folders and files
    • Click on the folder named app
    • Then click on the folder named (interview)
    • Then click on interview
    • Then click on finished
    • Finally, click on the file named page.tsx
      Alternatively: Near the top of the page, you’ll see a button labeled “Go to file” or a search icon. Click it and type app/(interview)/interview/finished/page.tsx, then press Enter.
  3. Open the file for editing
    • Once you’re viewing the file, look for a pencil icon (:pencil2:) in the top-right area of the file display
    • Click this pencil icon. This will open the file for editing in the browser.
  4. Identify and replace the English text
    • In the file, look for English text. Replace each English phrase with its Dutch equivalent.
    • Be careful not to remove the angle brackets (> and <).
  5. Save your changes by “committing” them
    • Scroll down to the bottom of the page
    • You’ll see a section titled “Commit changes”
    • In the first box, type a short description like “Translate finish interview page to Dutch”
    • In the larger box below (optional), you can add more details if you want
    • Make sure the option “Commit directly to the main branch” is selected
    • Click the green “Commit changes” buttonWhat’s happening? You’re saving your changes permanently to your copy of the code, along with a note about what you changed.

Finding Other English Text to Translate

If you see other english text that you want to change, you can do it using the search feature.

  1. Return to your repository’s main page
    • Click on the repository name at the top of the page to go back to the main view.
  2. Search for other English text
    • Click in the search box at the top of GitHub (it says “Go to file” when you hover)
    • Click on “Search this repository” in the dropdown
    • Type in an English phrase you want to find and translate, like "Start Interview" (include the quotation marks)
    • Press Enter to searchWhat’s happening? You’re searching through all the files in your copy of Fresco to find where specific English phrases appear.
  3. Review and edit each relevant file
    • In the search results, look for files ending in .tsx, .jsx, or .js (these contain user interface text)
    • Click on a file to open it
    • Click the pencil icon to edit
    • Replace the English text with Dutch translations
    • Commit your changes as described earlierWhat’s happening? You’re finding other screens or components that contain English text and translating those as well.
  4. Repeat for all text you want to translate
    • Continue searching for and translating common interface terms:
      • "Next" → "Volgende"
      • "Previous" → "Vorige"
      • "Save" → "Opslaan"

Understanding Updates and Maintenance

Because you’ve edited your version of Fresco, it might get a bit more complicated to keep it updated.

For example, if the Network Canvas team modifies the same files you translated, GitHub might detect a “merge conflict”. This happens when the system can’t automatically figure out how to combine both sets of changes. If this occurs, you’ll see a notification about conflicts. You’ll need to click on each conflicted file and manually choose which changes to keep. For your translations, you’ll want to keep your Dutch text while accepting any other structural changes. If you can’t work out what to do, you might have to get back to me so I can assist you.

If you encounter difficulty or uncertainty, don’t hesitate to ask questions in the community forum. Screenshots of what you’re seeing can be very helpful when asking for assistance.

Hope this helps you!