Multilingual site building with Drupal can be challenging. Depending on the type of site you’re building, the list of modules you’ll need and the configuration settings you’ll choose will vary greatly. Even a single project could include more than one method for translating menus, taxonomy terms, and content. Before you get started, you need to consider your audience, what type of content you have, and how all the pieces of your website will be translated. In this session, we’ll walk you through the steps of creating a multilingual website for an international organization. This will give you an understanding of Drupal’s multilingual architecture and how translations are managed for different parts of Drupal. You’ll learn which modules to use for different use cases, and what to ask your client before you start the project. Whether you’re a site builder or a developer working on your first multilingual Drupal 7 site, this session will help you plan your next multilingual project and get started on the right foot. Presentation by Suzanne Kennedy from Evolving Web and Florian Loretan from Wunderkraut.

2. Site Building
Don’t Get Lost in Translation:
Multilingual Site Building with
Drupal 7
Suzanne Kennedy and Florian Loretan

3. Suzanne Kennedy Florian Loretan
Co-founder Co-founder
Evolving Web in Montreal Wunderkraut in Munich
evolvingweb.ca wunderkraut.com
@suzanne_kennedy @floretan

4. Before you start
• What kind of site are you building?
• Planning your multilingual site
Building a Multilingual Site
• Getting Set Up
• Translating the UI
• Translating Content
• Translating Everything Else
What’s Next?
• Challenges in Drupal 7 Multilingual
• Learn More & Contribute

5. What Kind of Multilingual
Site are You Building?

6. Foreign Language Site

7. Multilingual Site

8. Multilingual Site + Translation

9. Questions to Ask
Before You Start

10. 1. What Language Support
Are You Providing?

11. Souce: http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/89857146/ Source: http://www.lilith-ezine.com

12. Fully Symmetric Experience
English Polish

13. Asymmetric Experience
French English

14. Mixed Language Experience
French English

15. 2. Do You Want to Show
Untranslated Content?

16. Showing Untranslated Content

17. Hiding Untranslated Content
French English

18. 3. Are language and region
related?

19. Language = Region

20. 4. Who’s Doing the
Translation?

21. Translation Workflow

22. Translating the Admin UI

23. 5. What’s the Default
Language of the Site?

24. Default Language
Language Fallback
Site User

25. Default Language
Language for Configuration Strings
Site Admin

26. 6. How Will Language Affect
the Design?

27. Space Requirements
English
French

28. Right-to-Left Languages

29. 7. What Type of Text are
You Translating?

30. Different Types of Text

31. UI: Variables

32. UI: Text in Code

33. UI: User-Entered Strings

34. Content: Nodes

35. Content: Other Entities

36. Text Groups

37. Text Groups

38. Translation Checklist:
UI Text
Variables
Text in Code
User-Entered Strings
Content
Nodes
Entities (comments, users, terms...)
Text Groups (blocks, paths, menu items...)

39. Building Your
Multilingual Website

40. STEP 1:
Setting up Languages

41. Installing a Language
Configuration > Regional & language > Languages

42. Choosing a Default
Configuration > Regional & language > Languages

43. Detection and Selection
Configuration > Regional & language > Languages > Detection and Selection

44. Detection and Selection
example.com/fr/user

45. Detection and Selection
example.com/user

46. STEP 2:
Translating UI Text

47. Translating Variables

48. Translating Variables
Configuration > Regional & language > Multilingual Settings > Variables

49. Translating Variables

50. Translating Variables

51. Translating Text from Code

52. Translating Text from Code
Configuration > Regional & language > Translation Interface > Translate

53. Translating Text from Code

54. User-Entered Strings

55. User-Entered Strings

56. User-Entered Strings
Configuration > Regional & language > Translation Interface > Translate

57. User-Entered Strings

58. STEP 3:
Translating Content

59. Translating Content

60. Settings per Content Type

61. Translating a Node

62. Field-Level Translation
• Entity Translation module (contrib)
• Translation of fields instead of nodes
• Fields are translatable in core

63. $node->field_body['en'][0]['value']

64. Semantic structure

65. Setting up Field Translation

66. works for
nodes
users
taxonomy terms
comments
...

67. Translatability
• Can be translated • Can’t be translated
• All fields • Author
• Additional • Promoted
per-translation
metadata • Creation date
• Modification date
• Title...

68. Title Module
$node->title
$term->name
$term->description
$node->field_title
$term->field_name
$term->field_description

69. Use field_title in
views, not title

70. Language fallback

71. Combination with i18n
• Enable • Disable
• i18n_menu • i18n_select
• i18n_fields • i18n_taxonomy

72. :-)

73. :-(
integration with other
modules needs work

74. :-(
revisioning

75. :-(
menu items needs to be
translated separately

76. :-)
for many use cases,
it’s still a lot better than the standard
content translation

77. STEP 4:
Translating Everything Else

78. Other Elements to Translate
• Blocks
• Field settings
• Menu items
• Paths

79. Translating Blocks

80. Translating Blocks
• Block Translation module (i18n)
• Make blocks translatable
• Display blocks only in certain languages

81. Translating Blocks

82. Translating Blocks

83. Translating Blocks

84. Translating Field Settings

85. Translating Field Settings
• Field Translation module (i18n)
• Translate field settings
• Only core field settings

86. Translating Field Settings

87. Translating Field Settings

88. Translating Menus

89. Translating Menu Items
• Menu Translation module (i18n)
• Menu per language
• Translate or localize menu items

90. Translating Menu Items

91. Translating Menu Items
Menu Link to a Node

92. Translating Menu Items
Menu Link to a Single-Language Page
i.e. Events View

93. Translating Menu Items
Menu Link to a Generic Page
i.e. Home Page

94. Translating Menu Items

95. Translating Menu Items

96. STEP 5:
Extending Multilingual
Functionality

97. Localization Update
drupal.org/project/l10n_update

98. Localization Client
http://drupal.org/project/l10n_client

99. What’s Next?

100. Outstanding Challenges
• Choosing contributed modules
• Translating custom elements (Webforms)
• Improve Translation UI
• Out-sourced translation workflows
• Keeping track of UI strings that require
translation

101. Drupal 8 Multilingual Initiative

102. Learn More & Contribute
• Entity Property Translation BoF Wed 11:45
• Multilingual BoF Wed at 2:15
• Config + Translation BoF Thurs at 9:00
• D8MI Codesprint on Friday + Saturday

103. What did you think?
Locate this session on the
DrupalCon Denver website
http://denver2012.drupal.org/program
Click the “Take the Survey” link.
Thank You!