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Administration: Persist multilingual fields in separate tables for each language

By default, multilingual split tables option is turned off and all multilingual fields for all languages are persisted in one database table. For example, if you have a multilingual site with languages en and de, when a product is persisted in the database, the following fields are generated in table sf_products:
  • id
  • Title_ - invariant culture
  • Title_en  - translation for English culture
  • Title_de  - translation for German culture
  • Description _ - invariant culture
  • Description _en  - translation for English culture
  • Description _de  - translation for German culture
If you use split tables the following tables and fields are generated:
  • sf_products
    • id
    • Title_ - invariant culture
    • Description_ - invariant culture
  • sf_products_en - translation for English culture
    • id
    • Title_en
    • Description _en
  • sf_products_de - translations for German culture
    • id
    • Title_de
    • Description _de

You can persist different language fields in different tables.
To do this, perform the following:

  1. In Sitefinity CMS backend, click Administration » Settings » Advanced » Data » Database Mapping Options.
  2. Select Use Split Tables checkbox.
  3. To control how the multilingual fields are loaded from the database, you can use the Use Fetch Strategy checkbox.
    When you select the checkbox, only the fields for the current language are loaded with the initial item query and the other languages fields are loaded on demand. If the checkbox is not selected, all multilingual fields are loaded with the initial item query. 
    We recommend that you use fetch strategy with multilingual split tables.
  4. You can configure mixed mode where some languages are persisted in split tables and others – in one table.
    To do this, in Split Tables Ignored Cultures input field, enter the cultures that the system persists in one database table.

    NOTE: If you have persisted languages in one table and then you configured split table mode, the languages that you have already used are not moved to split tables. Only newly added languages are persisted in separate tables. In Split Tables Ignored Cultures, you must enter the languages that you have been using before you switched to split tables.

  5. Restart the application.

IMPORTANT: Once you start using split tables, you cannot go back to one table for all multilingual fields.

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