Drupal Learning Journal 10. "Using Drupal" – Chapter 8 – Multilingual site

Chapter 8 of Using Drupal starts of with a few definition. Internationalization, abbreviated as i18n, “is the underlying structure that allows software to be adapted to different languages.” Localization, abbreviated as l10n, “the process of actually translating the software for use by a specific locale.” (page 269)

  • The Locale module (pat of core) can take care of the translation of most, but not all user interface text. (page 271) The rest will be done with the i18n module. (page 271) It is in alpha for Drupal 7
  • The Content Translation module (part of core) can take care of the translation of most, but not all user-generated content. It supports RTL (right-to-left) languages. (Page 272)
  • You can download .po files, containing strings of texts translated to a particular language from here. (Page 273)
  • Interface translation setup is at: Administer->Site building->Translate interface (Page 273)
  • Language switching requires setting up the language negotiating options and language switcher block (page 274/5)
  • Each translation of a node is a new node, that Drupal connects. (page 277)
  • Installing a translation (page 278):
    1. Download a translation from here.
    2. Uncompress to root
    3. Enable the Locale module
    4. Allow admin to administer languages and translate interface in permissions
    5. Add language in Site configuration->Language
    6. Select the language to add
    7. Files will be imported to Drupal
  • Setting up translatable content: set it under the workflow area of the specific Content type, e.g. Book. (page 284) Set permission for authenticated user too.
  • Translating the interface:
    1. Site building->Translate interface
    2. Search for “multilingual support” in the search tab
    3. Edit, if necessary, what the interface snippets the search found
  • The Localization Client module “helps you fix translations on your site as you see the issues” (page 289) Drupal 7 version is in beta.
  • The Internationalization module gives you Taxonomy translation  Multilingual variables, Multilingual blocks, Language selection (page 294) Drupal 7 version is in alpha.
  • Site-wide variables needs translation too:
    1. Type into sites/default/settings.php
    $conf[i18n_variable’] = array (
    ‘site_name’,
    );
    2. Set its permissions to 444
    3. At Site configuration ->Site information you will see the site name being a “multilingual variable”
    4. Switch to another language, change the site name and save config.
  • Additional useful modules (page 308)
    – The Language icons module provides icons for language links. (7 in alpha)
    – The Translation Overview module provides a table listing the site’s nodes and showing what’s been translated into each language. (7 in dev)
    – The Auto Timezone module automatically updates the time zone setting on users’ accounts. (6 in dev)

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