• Fabian Wetzel
  • 2017-11-17
  • 3 min. read

Getting around translated content on the web

The Background Story

I am German, my OS and my browser are set to german. But programming is better done in english. It is far easier to search for english exceptions and I have no idea why Microsoft provides translated exception messages. Also the language on StackOverflow and most sites is English.

Sometimes I land on a site like Microsoft Docs (or MSDN) and it gives me German content. Most of the time the translation is not done by a human and it is usually served together with this annoying sentence overlay feature. It is so annoying!

Solve the problem!

Manual way of solving

My German sample url:

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https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/sql/sql-server/what-s-new-in-sql-server-2017

as you can see, there is a de-de in it. This will give you the German translation. Simply changing that part to en-us will give you the Englisch version.

Final URL:

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https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/what-s-new-in-sql-server-2017

Automated problem solving

This is a developer blog, so lets find an automated solution! I am a Firefox user, so I searched for redirect in the extensions and I found REDIRECTOR. It actually is available for all major browsers:

The setup of the redirection rule is best done with a sample url. You have to provide a URL filter and a way to rewrite it.

Redirector Setup

For your ease of use, I used the export feature of the extension:

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{
    "createdBy": "Redirector v3.1.0",
    "createdAt": "2017-11-17T15:08:03.077Z",
    "redirects": [
        {
            "description": "Microsoft always in English",
            "exampleUrl": "https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/sql/sql-server/what-s-new-in-sql-server-2017",
            "exampleResult": "https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/what-s-new-in-sql-server-2017",
            "error": null,
            "includePattern": "https://*.microsoft.com/de-de/*",
            "excludePattern": "",
            "redirectUrl": "https://$1.microsoft.com/en-us/$2",
            "patternType": "W",
            "processMatches": "noProcessing",
            "disabled": false,
            "appliesTo": [
                "main_frame"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

I really like how I can solve my problem without needing to talk to Microsoft or any other site owner about there web site. Hope that helps!

#firefox #My Setup