What are VirtueMart language files?

VirtueMart language files are text files included with VirtueMart that help you change the language your store uses. Language files have a .ini extension, and they include predefined terms. For example, let’s look at the following file: language/en-GB/en-GB.com_virtuemart.ini

COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_ACTION="Update"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_ADD_TO="Add to Cart"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHANGE_PAYMENT="Change Payment"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHANGE_SHIPPING="Select Shipment"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHECKOUT_DATA_NOT_VALID="Invalid data entered"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHECKOUT_DONE_CONFIRM_ORDER="Checkout done, please confirm the order"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CONFIRM="Confirm cart"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_DELETE="Delete Product From Cart"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_EDIT_COUPON="Edit coupon"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_EDIT_PAYMENT="Select payment"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_EDIT_SHIPPING="Select shipment"

VirtueMart uses these values to turn a standard page into English. For example, whenever COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_ADD_TO is listed in a template file, VirtueMart replaces it with “Add to Cart”. This concept allows you to easily run VirtueMart under a different language. If you wanted to run a Spanish VirtueMart store, VirtueMart would instead load the following file with the following values: language/es-ES/es-ES.com_virtuemart_cart.ini

COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_ACTION="Actualizar"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_ADD_TO="Agregar a carro"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHANGE_PAYMENT="Cambiar pago"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHANGE_SHIPPING="Cambiar envío"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHECKOUT_DATA_NOT_VALID="Datos inválidos"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CHECKOUT_DONE_CONFIRM_ORDER="Compra realizada, Por favor confirme el pedido"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_CONFIRM="Confirme carro"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_DELETE="Borrar producto de carro"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_EDIT_COUPON="Editar cupón"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_EDIT_PAYMENT="Editas pago"
COM_VIRTUEMART_CART_EDIT_SHIPPING="Editar envío"

Based on this file, instead of showing “Add to Cart”, the Spanish version of VirtueMart will say “Agregar a carro”.

If you’d like to change which language VirtueMart uses, read our tutorial on how to change your VirtueMart store language.