EssentialsX stores all its messages as templates in the messages file, and comes with support for many languages already built-in. These files can be easily replaced or extended to customize your server by placing them in the plugins/Essentials/ folder.
You can tell EssentialsX which language you want it to use by changing the locale setting in config.yml:
# Set the locale for all messages.
# ...
locale: deRemember that you need to uncomment the locale: line by removing the # in front of it. If the # is present, EssentialsX will try to use the language your system is set to.
Below is a list of languages that EssentialsX supports:
- Standard (US) English:
en- UK:
en_GB
- UK:
- Czech:
cs - Danish:
da - German:
de - Spanish:
es - Estonian:
et - Finnish:
fi - French:
fr - Hungarian:
hu - Italian:
it - Korean:
ko - Lithuanian:
lt - Dutch:
nl - Polish:
pl - Portuguese:
pt- Brazil:
pt_BR
- Brazil:
- Romanian:
ro - Russian:
ru - Swedish:
sv - Turkish
tr - Chinese:
zhfor modern Chinese,zh_HKfor Hong Kong, andzh_TWfor traditional Chinese
EssentialsX bundles several messages files in different languages inside the jar, so you can get a copy of your desired messages file by extracting it from the main EssentialsX jar. Simply take the messages file you want to change, place it in the plugins/Essentials/ folder and start editing. Remember that the file is updated quite regularly; you might want to keep a backup of the file and use a diff tool to allow easy updates.
If you decide you can improve the existing translation of EssentialsX, or want to submit your translation for bundling, feel free to submit your altered locale file back to EssentialsX. EssentialsX often changes and improves, and it's quite easy for language files to be left behind when the developers don't use the language. You can submit your improved locale file over on our Crowdin page.
Since all of the plugins' messages are defined in the messages file, you can fully customise the look and feel of your server by changing the text and colour scheme for all EssentialsX commands.
Simply place your edited locale file (with appropriate locale suffix) in the plugins/Essentials folder and make sure the locale setting in the config file matches (locale: en -> messages_en.properties), then restart the server.
If you are having trouble, try this tutorial video. Note that this video is for the original Essentials plugin, not EssentialsX.
You may need to update the file on occasion to deal with changes in EssentialsX such as parameter changes or changes to the actual syntax of the messages. This can be done with a diff tool like diffuse, which highlights changes between two text files.
When EssentialsX looks for a message, if it is missing from your version, it will instead use the built-in version.
This means that if you only want to change a few messages instead of the whole translation, you can do this by making a copy of the locale file you're using in plugins/Essentials/ and deleting all messages in the file, other than the ones you want to change. This means you don't have to worry about keeping your messages file up to date with every EssentialsX update.
When editing only a few keys, the process should look something like this (click to open image).
If you decide to edit the locale files with a standard text editor, you may notice lots of text like '\u00a7'. These are Unicode character escapes, which allow you to represent symbols and letters which do not exist in ASCII within an ASCII file. The most common of these you will see is '\u00a7' which represents the section symbol (§), used in Minecraft to make colour codes. Other languages such as those that use their own alphabets or use non-standard characters will also need to use these codes. Many Java IDEs will do the conversion to and from Unicode automatically, or you can use a tool to manually convert them.
Let's say you simply want to change the way currency is output so that the currency symbol comes AFTER the balance:
- Be sure to read the information above regarding custom locales/messages.
- Locate the line "currency={0}{1}"
- Switch the numbers around, it should now read "currency={1}{0}". {1} is the amount, {0} is the currency symbol. You can have spaces here too, if you want.
- Save the file and restart the server or issue /ess reload.
Most user messages can be disabled or hidden simply by setting the message string to blank, for example:
noNewMail=If you wish to contribute translations, you can do so using Crowdin.
Aside from the messages file, there are a few other locations or settings you may want to change. The EssentialsX help system automatically reads each plugin's plugin.yml, including its own, and uses these files to display the syntax and command descriptions. To have a complete in-game translation, you may want to update these files to your native language.
There are a number of settings in EssentialsX which can be altered by editing plugins/Essentials/config.yml, such as the currency format. These are independent of the locale setting, and can be changed without editing the jar file.
EssentialsX's text commands like /motd and /rules can be edited completely separately from the messages files and the config. Simply run the command in-game once, then find the corresponding text file inside plugins/Essentials to edit it.