---
title: User-facing page localization reference
description: In addition to the use of Velocity templates to change the look and feel of user-facing pages, administrators can provide localized versions of user-facing status messages generated by PingAccess.
component: pingaccess
version: 9.0
page_id: pingaccess:configuring_and_customizing_pingaccess:pa_user_facing_page_localization_ref
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingaccess/9.0/configuring_and_customizing_pingaccess/pa_user_facing_page_localization_ref.html
revdate: March 27, 2024
---

# User-facing page localization reference

In addition to the use of Velocity templates to change the look and feel of user-facing pages, administrators can provide localized versions of user-facing status messages generated by PingAccess.

In `<PA_HOME>/conf/localization/`, properties files contain the messages to be returned to the client in various languages; by default, only English language messages are provided, using the default `pa-messages.properties` file. This file serves as a fallback for any message not found in other files in the directory.

The selection of a messages file is determined based on several different factors:

* The browser's `Accept-Langauge` header, based on a best-match first check against the `pa-messages` files

* The value of a cookie named `ping-accept-language`, which can be defined by the protected application

* A custom-developed PingAccess add-on that can customize the order of localization resolution

The default behavior allows the `ping-accept-language` cookie to override the browser preferences, and if that cookie is not set, then to use the `Accept-Language` header preference order, starting with the highest priority preference and trying to match the locale exactly. If none of the specified locales cannot be matched exactly, a more generic locale will be used, starting with the highest priority value.

If no matches are found, then the value in the `pa-messages.properties` file is used.

For example, suppose your browser had the following `Accept-Language` header,

```
Accept-Language: fr-CA;q=0.9, en-US;q=0.8
```

and PingAccess attempted to display a localized version of the message for

```
pa.response.status.service.unavailable
```

The order in which PingAccess searches for the string to display is:

1. `pa-messages_fr_CA.properties`

2. `pa-messages_en_US.properties`

3. `pa-messages_fr.properties`

4. `pa-messages_en.properties`

5. `pa-messages.properties`

If the `ping-accept-language` cookie is set by the protected application to the value `en-US`, then the above list would be ignored, and PingAccess would search for the string in:

1. `pa-messages_en_US.properties`

2. `pa-messages_en.properties`

3. `pa-messages.properties`

|   |                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| - | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|   | Most browsers support the use of an ordered list of languages. Safari is an exception to this. Even though the system supports an ordered list of languages, only the preferred language is sent with its requests. |

The features documented here are affected by the settings in the configuration file. See the [Configuration file reference](../reference_guides/pa_config_file_ref.html) for more information.