building multilingual websites in drupal 7
DESCRIPTION
We will share our experiences developing bilingual websites as well as adding a second language to an existing unilingual website. Building multilingual websites in Drupal has evolved over the years. New to version Drupal 7, we now have field and entity translations in addition to the trusted node-level translations. In this presentation we will cover: what’s new for multilingual websites in Drupal 7, differences between field, entity and node level translations, techniques for translating various parts of your site, experiences working with translators, and building multilingual websites while being a monoglot.TRANSCRIPT
Building Multilingual Websitesin Drupal 7
Robin Puga
Language embodies the intellectual wealth of the people who use it. ~ Kenneth Hale
Overview
● Covering the basics
● Multilingual websites in Drupal 7
● Working with translators
● What’s happening in Drupal 8
http://affinitybridge.com
Basics
● Gettext is an internationalization (i18n) system used for writing multilingual programs
● Drupal Code $str = t("My name is @name.\n", array('@name' => $user->name));
● fr.po file #: src/name.module:36 msgid "My name is @name.\n" msgstr "Je m'appelle @name.\n"
http://affinitybridge.com
Blasts in the past - Drupal 5 & 6
http://affinitybridge.comhttp://s.coop/d6convertlang
Drupal 7
● Definitive Guide by Gábor Hojtsyhttp://hojtsy.hu/multilingual-drupal7Read it!
● Books Drupal 7 Multilingual SitesBy Kristen Pol
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Drupal 7
● University of Ottawa Calendarhttp://uocal.uottawa.ca English / French
● Participediahttp://Participedia.net English then German
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Modules for Drupal 7
● Locale module in core
● Internationalization or i18n module
● Localization Update module
● Entity Translation module
http://affinitybridge.com
Setup for Multiple Languages
● Add languages
● Import the .po files
● Configure detection and selection
● Configure your site content types
http://affinitybridge.com
Node level translations
● Now using Entity Translation module
● Setting up the content type
● Synchronizing fields
● Translating content using translate tab
●http://affinitybridge.com
Entity translations
● Allows translations for entities in Drupal
● User accounts fields
● Comments
● Any entities
http://affinitybridge.com
Field level translations
● One node with translatable fields
● Use case: Products in Commerce
http://affinitybridge.com
Other Modules for Drupal 7
● Variable module
● Translation Table module
● Potx module
● Localization Client module
● Translation Helpers modulehttp://affinitybridge.com
Translating your site
● Menus● Same page hierarchy - translate menu links● Different page hierarchy options:
● One menu per language, or
● Add menu links in different languages
● Blocks ● Now translatable. Works great for static blocks
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Translating your site
● Taxonomy terms● Localize - one term with translated title
● Translate - different terms per language
● Views● Filter content by user language● Translate view titles via Translation Interface
http://affinitybridge.com
Translation Interface
● Overview● Translation Table● Translate - find strings & translate them● Import - import .po files● Strings - refresh translation strings● Update - grabs po files and updates strings● Export - export po files from db strings● Extract - export po files from code files
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Potential Pitfalls
● Indexing in Solr● Index language fields and filter views by language
fields.
● Adding new language to existing site● Synchronized fields created in English that have
translations added later can cause problems.
●
●http://affinitybridge.com
Code Example
Grab this install profile for En/Fr with tools:
https://github.com/robinpuga/multilang
drush make --working-copy
--translations=fr stub.make ../multilang_site
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● Translation workflows offline ○ Working with .po files○ Can be difficult to understand string context
■ “Home” = house or homepage
● Translation workflows online○ Localization Client ○ Access to Translation Tools○ Identifying content that needs translation
Working with Translators
http://affinitybridge.com
Basics
● Gettext is an internationalization (i18n) system used for writing multilingual programs
● Drupal Code $str = t("My name is @name.\n", array('@name' => $user->name));
● fr.po file #: src/name.module:36 msgid "My name is @name.\n" msgstr "Je m'appelle @name.\n"
http://affinitybridge.com
.Po files beyond the basics
● Translation Contexts $str = t("Home", array(), array('context' => 'Navigation');
● Plural strings // These strings are run through the t() function. $str = format_plural($count, ‘1 comment‘, ‘@count comments’);
● fr.po file for plurals #: src/name.module:36msgid "1 comment"msgid_plural "@count comments"msgstr[0] "1 commentaire"msgstr[1] "@count commentaires"
http://affinitybridge.com
What’s happening in Drupal 8
● Much more in core
● Much of i18n functionality rolled into core
● Better language detection and config
● Name transliteration for machine names
http://affinitybridge.com
Where to find more info & support
● Follow Gábor - http://hojtsy.hu/
● https://localize.drupal.org/news
● https://groups.drupal.org/internationalization
● #drupal-i18n (i18n = internationalization)
● #drupal-l10n (l10n = localization)
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Questions?