How to make multilanguage site with Joomla! 1.0.x

[Magyar verzió]
Making multilanguage sites sometimes is not easy. If your partner has special requirements, you can realize that there is not only one turnkey solution. In this article I try to review the basic situations. Don’t forget, I’m talking about Joomla! 1.0.x version.

What You Need to Start With

1. You need languages under Site Languages. It means that you can download the appropriate Joomla! language files and install these with Installers /Languages function. You have to check which Joomla! version for the language file and decide on formal or informal style. Try to check that the language file is complete and authentic.

2. Install Joom!Fish like component. Joom!Fish extension providing multilingual content within the content management system Joomla!.

Configuration of Joom!Fish

At Components /JoomlalFish /Languages check all languages to activate and fill the “ISO”, “Joomla filename” fields. Image filenames should be left blank first time.

After installing Joom!Fish, Joomla! creates a module, named “JoomFish language selection”. The parameters under Modules / Site Modules / Joom!Fish language selection should be set:

• Position: which position of the template will contain the language selector,
• Appearance of the language selector: listbox or icons,
• …
• Don’t forget to change the Published parameter Yes.

Mirror Contents

It means that the structure of menus, sections and categories are same through the language versions of your site. And all content items will be translated. This case we can build the site in the basic language, then translate menus and content items with Joom!Fish Translation.

This is the basic situation. Any other case needs some tricks.

Different Language & Menu

If the site you are building, needs different menu items and contents in each languages, follow the next steps. Suppose we build English and Hungarian versions:

• Create the contents (Items, static pages, etc.),
• Create the English and Hungarian menus,
• Build the menu items under both menus,
• Create two new menu positions: Site / Template Manager / Module Positions (fill the next empty fields with: umenu_en, umenu_hu),
• Assign these positions to the menu modules. At the Hungarian menu module set to umenu_hu and set the English module to umenu_en: Modules / Site Modules,

• The final step is to change the template index.php. With this code you can activate the appropriate menu depending on the language selection:

<!-- BEGIN custom language switch to load language-specific modules -->
<?php if ($mosConfig_lang== english ) {mosLoadModules ('umenu_en', -2 );} ?>
<?php if ($mosConfig_lang== hungarian) {mosLoadModules ('umenu_hu', -2 );} ?>
<!-- END language switch -->

If you published the JoomFish language selection (mod_jflanguageselection) module, you can try it. It should work.

Mixed Solution

Naturally you can combine the solutions above. Bigger sites or portals have complex demands. The only thing I can recommend is to plan the structures accurately before building.

Simple Language Selection and Different Front Page

OK, we can handle every situation … almost. Suppose that in one language we can use the Joomla! Front Page component, but in the other languages we want to show a static page or a specific article like the front page.
The solution is to modify the index.php, just simple add the HTML code containing links referring to the required first pages. Assign the URLs with the right language parameter “lang=..”. Just after the index.php use “?” and if there is further parameters, use “&”.

Example:

|<a href="http://.../index.php?lang=hu">Magyar</a>
|<a href="http://.../index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=81〈=en">English</a>
|<a href="http://.../index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=85〈=fr">Français</a>|

Alternatively you can create Joomla! menu for language selection.

Good luck!