Multisite for multilingual

r3df.com
lumostech.training
Rick Radko
“Multisite for Multilingual”
WordCamp Toronto
November 15th, 2014
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© 2012 Rick Radko, r3df.com
A little bit about me
Rick Radko
Software, website and app designer/developer,
trainer, speaker.
 R-Cubed Design Forge: r3df.com
 LumosTech Training: lumostech.training
Creating custom web sites since 1996
WordPress sites since 2008.
 Lead organizer of:
 WordCamp Ottawa 2013, 2014.
 The Ottawa WordPress Group.
1

Making WordPress multilingual
In this session I will present:
 A quick backgrounder on multilingual WordPress
setups.
 Some new 4.0 language features.
 How to quickly install WordPress multisite.
 How to set it up for multilingual sites.
 Pros & Cons of multisite for multilingual.
 Some tips and tricks.
Slides: www.slideshare.net/r3df 2

WordPress is not multilingual!
“WordPress does not support
a bilingual or multilingual blog
out-of-the-box.”
3
codex.wordpress.org/Multilingual_WordPress

WordPress multilingual set-ups
There are 2 common approaches to multilingual in
WordPress:
 Single site approach:
 One WordPress site contains all language content.
 Multisite approach:
 One site per language.
Each approach has pros/cons under different
circumstances.
4

Single site multilingual
With single site, WordPress needs to manage
different language versions of:
 the content,
 the menus,
 the output from: themes, widgets and plugins,
and display them in the right language on every
page.
5

More on single site multilingual
Multilingual plugins for single site:
 WPML $
 qTranslate -> no longer supported
 Use: mqTranslate or qTranslate Plus
 Polylang
 xili-language
 Babble (github)
 + more
6

What is multisite?
 wordpress.com is a multisite.
 Multisite sites:
 Share the same WordPress installation.
 Themes and plugins are available on all sites by
default.
 Have separate database tables and media folders.
 Can share domains (URL's) or have completely
different domains.
 Appear to be independent sites to site visitors.
7

Multilingual with multisite
Advantages of using multisite for multilingual:
 Each site is a regular WordPress site.
 One language per site.
 Can easily have different themes.
 No special tricks needed for sidebars, titles etc.
 Performance.
 No custom tables.
 Fewer plugin issues with:
 Multilingual plugins.
 Other plugins.
 Different domains for different languages.
8

Setting up a multilingual multisite
Begin with a regular "5 Min" WordPress install
 codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
9

New to WordPress 4.0
Language choice on
install!
10

4.0 language selection
The moment you click
a language, WordPress
switches to that
language.
 Asfd
 asdfadsf
11

The usual install screens - but in French
12

Success! - The dashboard in French
13

The website - in French
14

Language setting in 4.0
There is a new language setting in 4.0:
 It's hidden if there are no added languages.
 English (United States) will always be available as
a choice due to the way WordPress is built.
15

3 quick steps to enable multisite
1. Enable multisite setup.
a. Optional: set a non-default permalink structure.
(Settings -> Permalinks)
2. Complete the Network Setup page.
3. Copy the Network configuration settings to the
required files.
2 of the many guides to that detail the full
process:
 halfelf.org/ebooks/wordpress-multisite-101/
 codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network/
16

Step 1 - Enable multisite setup
In your site's wp-config.php:
 Before the: /* That's all, stop editing! … */"
 Add: define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );
17

Step 2 - Network setup
18

Network setup - key setting
Select sub-directories to get URL's like:
 my-domain.com/en and my-domain.com/fr
19

Step 3 - Network configuration settings
Add the settings shown in part 1. to your
wp−config.php file.
20

Network configuration settings - wp-config.php
Add the settings below the previous line you
added, and above the "… stop editing ..." line.
21

Network configuration settings part 2
Add the second section of settings to the
.htaccess file. (If one does not exist, create one.)
22

Network configuration settings - .htaccess
Replace the original rules
with the new ones from
section 2.
23

And, that's it!
When you have completed the edits:
 Click the login link.
(at the bottom of the settings page)
 Log back in, and check out the site.
24

Network admin
25

Network Admin -> Sites page
In a multisite, the original site from the WordPress
install becomes:
 The main site, with a Site ID of 1.
 The path is "/".
 It's accessed at: http://some_domain.tld.
26

Adding a site
Add a new site with the path “en”:
27

The English site
The English site is URL is:
 http://some_domain.tld/en
28

The French site
The French site URL is:
 http://some_domain.tld
29

Another set-up
Alternatively, all “active” sites can be added as
sub-sites with a language path:
 http://some_domain.tld/fr
 http://some_domain.tld/en
 Etc.
And we hide the main site:
 http://some_domain.tld (is not used)
30

Hiding the main site
2 ways to hide the main site:
1. Redirect to one of the language sites:
 .htaccess code.
 Redirection plugins (there are lots).
github.com/r3df/r3df-multisite-redirect/
2. Use the main site as a language selector by
implementing a “splash” page.
 Governments and large institutions tend to use this
style.
 My WordCamp Montreal talk from 2013, “Tips and
tricks for building multilingual sites” covers how to
do splash pages. (my slideshare and wordpress.tv)31

Multisite language plugins
These plugins will:
 Relate content items between the sites.
 Provide widgets for front-end links between
different language versions of content.
 In some cases connect the editors in dashboards.
Some plugins:
 Multisite Language Switcher
 Multilingual Press
 Zanto WP Translation
 More?
32

Multisite Language Switcher installed
33

The site with a language switcher
A couple of plugins from the repository:
 MslsSelect adds a widget with a selector
 MslsMenu lets you add selectors to menus 34

Shared media libraries
Normally in multisite each sub-site has it's own
media uploads folder.
 For multilingual this may result in uploading
images etc. multiple times, once to each sub-site.
 There is a plugin for that:
 Network Shared Media
35

Issues with multisite for multilingual
Ecommerce can have issues:
 Selling/booking things with fixed inventories
- can’t share inventories between sites.
 Physical products.
 Event registration.
 Booking Calendars
Overstated “issues”:
 You need to set everything up 2 times (or more).
 Menus, plugins, widgets, etc.
 Entering content 2 times (or more).
36

Adding languages to WordPress 4.0
To add more languages to the site:
 Install the plugin
"Language Downloader".
 Need to use Network
Admin -> Plugins.
 Go back to any site
dashboard to run the
plugin.
37

Language setting in multisite
If all went well, the new language is loaded.
Select Spanish on the main site.
38

The website in Spanish
39

Hold it… that's not Spanish!
40

Add language files for themes & plugins
Under Network Admin -> Updates:
 Update translations.
 You need to do
this with the main
site set to the
language needing
updates.
41

Updated plugins and themes:
42

The theme now displays correctly
43

Dashboard language plugins
Dashboard language plugins:
 Allow you to select a language for the dashboard
separate from the site.
 Some have per user settings.
 Some have options for the front-end tool bar.
 Some have login screen language selectors.
 Some Plugins (there are more):
 WP Native Dashboard
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-native-dashboard/
 Backend Localization
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kau-boys-backend-localization/
44

WP Native Dashboard
45

WP Native Dashboard Fix.
Plugin on Github:
github.com/r3df/r3df-wp-native-dashboard-fix
46

Remove /blog on the main site
A quirk of multisite:
 the main site is forced to have /blog in the path for
the posts.
For a site with posts (a blog) called something
else, like “news”:
 Editing it out of the permalinks in:
Network Admin -> Site->Settings - is not safe
 Often reset unintentionally.
 Plugin on Github to fix it:
github.com/r3df/r3df-multisite-blog-slug-remover
47

Migration tools
 qTranslate Cleanup and WPML Import
wordpress.org/plugins/qtranslate-to-wpml-export/
 WPML2WPMSLS - WPML to Multisite Language
Switcher:
wordpress.org/plugins/wpml2wpmsls/
 WPML to MultilingualPress:
wordpress.org/plugins/wpml-to-multilingualpress/
48

Contact
Rick Radko
 email: wpinfo@r3df.com
 twitter: @r3designforge
Websites:
 r3df.com
 lumostech.training
Slides at:
 www.slideshare.net/r3df
49

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