diff --git a/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw_framework.inc.php b/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw_framework.inc.php
index 681afceba3..9935f48d18 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw_framework.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/inc/class.egw_framework.inc.php
@@ -768,9 +768,10 @@ abstract class egw_framework
 		$java_script .= self::get_script_links();
 
 		// set webserver_url for json
-		$java_script .= "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\nwindow.egw_webserverUrl = '".
+		$java_script .= "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\nwindow.egw_webserverUrl = egw.webserverUrl = '".
 			($GLOBALS['egw_info']['server']['enforce_ssl'] && substr($GLOBALS['egw_info']['server']['webserver_url'],0,8) != 'https://' ? 'https://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] : '').
 			$GLOBALS['egw_info']['server']['webserver_url']."';\n";
+		$java_script .= 'window.egw_appName = "'.$GLOBALS['egw_info']['flags']['currentapp'].'";'."\n";
 
 		// add link registry to non-popup windows, if explicit requested (idots_framework::navbar() loads it, if not explicit specified!)
 		if ($GLOBALS['egw_info']['flags']['js_link_registry'])
diff --git a/phpgwapi/js/jsapi/egw.js b/phpgwapi/js/jsapi/egw.js
index cd0f0237b8..211834d6d4 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/js/jsapi/egw.js
+++ b/phpgwapi/js/jsapi/egw.js
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ var egw;
 
 /**
  * Central object providing all kinds of api services on clientside:
- * - preferences
- * - configuration
- * - link registry
+ * - preferences:   egw.preferences("dateformat")
+ * - translation:   egw.lang("%1 entries deleted", 5)
+ * - link registry: egw.open(123, "infolog")
  */
 if (window.opener && typeof window.opener.egw == 'object')
 {
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ else
 	egw = {
 		/**
 		 * Object holding the prefences as 2-dim. associative array, use egw.preference(name[,app]) to access it
+		 * 
+		 * @access: private, use egw.preferences() or egw.set_perferences()
 		 */
 		prefs: {
 			common: { 
@@ -41,6 +43,13 @@ else
 				lang: "en"
 			}
 		},
+		
+		/**
+		 * base-URL of the EGroupware installation
+		 * 
+		 * get set via egw_framework::header()
+		 */
+		webserverUrl: "/egroupware",
 	
 		/**
 		 * Setting prefs for an app or 'common'
@@ -69,7 +78,7 @@ else
 		 */
 		preference: function(_name, _app) 
 		{
-			if (typeof app == 'undefined') _app = 'common';
+			if (typeof _app == 'undefined') _app = 'common';
 			
 			if (typeof this.prefs[_app] == 'undefined')
 			{
@@ -80,6 +89,8 @@ else
 		
 		/**
 		 * Translations
+		 * 
+		 * @access: private, use egw.lang() or egw.set_lang_arr()
 		 */
 		lang_arr: {},
 		
@@ -102,7 +113,31 @@ else
 		 */
 		lang: function(_msg, _arg1)
 		{
-			return _msg;
+			var translation = _msg;
+			_msg = _msg.toLowerCase();
+			
+			// search apps in given order for a replacement
+			var apps = [window.egw_appName, 'etemplate', 'common'];
+			for(var i = 0; i < apps.length; ++i)
+			{
+				if (typeof this.lang_arr[apps[i]][_msg] != 'undefined')
+				{
+					translation = this.lang_arr[apps[i]][_msg];
+					break;
+				}
+			}
+			if (arguments.length == 1) return translation;
+			
+			if (arguments.length == 2) return translation.replace('%1', arguments[1]);
+			
+			// to cope with arguments containing '%2' (eg. an urlencoded path like a referer),
+			// we first replace all placeholders '%N' with '|%N|' and then we replace all '|%N|' with arguments[N]
+			translation = translation.replace(/%([0-9]+)/g, '|%$1|');
+			for(var i = 1; i < arguments.length; ++i)
+			{
+				translation = translation.replace('|%'+i+'|', arguments[i]);
+			}
+			return translation;
 		},
 		
 		/**
@@ -146,7 +181,7 @@ else
 				alert('egw.open() type "'+type+'" is NOT defined in link registry for app "'+app+'"!');
 				return;	
 			}
-			var url = egw_webserverUrl+'/index.php';
+			var url = this.webserverUrl+'/index.php';
 			var delimiter = '?';
 			var params = app_registry[type];
 			if (type == 'view' || type == 'edit')	// add id parameter for type view or edit
@@ -196,6 +231,8 @@ else
 		
 		/**
 		 * Link registry
+		 * 
+		 * @access: private, use egw.open() or egw.set_link_registry()
 		 */
 		link_registry: null,
 		
diff --git a/phpgwapi/lang.php b/phpgwapi/lang.php
index 9ac3424ce7..032e6b61c8 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/lang.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/lang.php
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ $GLOBALS['egw_info'] = array(
 
 include '../header.inc.php';
 
+// just to be sure, noone tries something nasty ...
+if (!preg_match('/^[a-z0-9_]+$/i', $_GET['app'])) die('No valid application-name given!');
+if (!preg_match('/^[a-z]{2}(-[a-z]{2})?$/i', $_GET['lang'])) die('No valid lang-name given!');
+
 // use an etag with app, lang and a hash over the creation-times of all lang-files
 $etag = '"'.$_GET['app'].'-'.$_GET['lang'].'-'.md5($GLOBALS['egw_info']['server']['lang_ctimes']).'"';
 
@@ -44,10 +48,7 @@ if (!count(translation::$lang_arr))
 	translation::add_app($_GET['app'], 'en');
 }
 
-
-echo '
-if (typeof window.egw_lang == "undefined") window.egw_lang = {};
-$j.extend(window.egw_lang, '.json_encode(translation::$lang_arr).');';
+echo 'egw.set_lang_arr("'.$_GET['app'].'", '.json_encode(translation::$lang_arr).');';
 
 // Content-Lenght header is important, otherwise browsers dont cache!
 Header('Content-Length: '.ob_get_length());
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/phpgwapi/templates/idots/class.idots_framework.inc.php b/phpgwapi/templates/idots/class.idots_framework.inc.php
index ac9dec7965..da190f3ef0 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/templates/idots/class.idots_framework.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/templates/idots/class.idots_framework.inc.php
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ class idots_framework extends egw_framework
 		// make sure header is output only once
 		if (self::$header_done) return '';
 		self::$header_done = true;
-error_log(__METHOD__."() this->tpl=".array2string($this->tpl).' '.function_backtrace());
+
 		// add a content-type header to overwrite an existing default charset in apache (AddDefaultCharset directiv)
 		header('Content-type: text/html; charset='.translation::charset());
 
@@ -174,12 +174,6 @@ egw.set_preferences('.json_encode($GLOBALS['egw_info']['user']['preferences']['c
 			$vars['current_users'] = $vars['quick_add'] = $vars['user_info']='';
 		}
 
-		// add the name of the current application as global js variable - the
-		// name of the current application can be obtained by using the
-		// jsapi egw_getAppName() function
-		$content .= '<script type="text/javascript">window.egw_appName = "'.
-			$GLOBALS['egw_info']['flags']['currentapp'].'";</script>'."\n";
-
 		$this->tpl->set_var($vars);
 		$content .= $this->tpl->fp('out','navbar_header');