4. Outline
1. Support of multilingual content in Drupal:
an overview
2. New multilingual features in D7 core
3. New multilingual features in D7 versions of
contributed modules (i18n etc.)
4. Summary of most important improvements in
multilingual functionality
A5.Problems and prospects
2
5. It’s a followup presentation to:
Multilingual sites in Drupal:
Problems, solutions, workarounds,
and “goodness on the way”
(DrupalCamp Kyiv 2009)
www.slideshare.net/Tinnka/multilanguage-drupal
gn.org.ua/drupal/presentations/DrupalCamp_2009-2010
2009 ----> 2011:
• Has anything essential changed with the release of
Drupal 7?
• Is “multilingual goodness” already approaching, or
still on the way?
3
6. What is ”i18n” and ”L10n”?
internationalization i18n
18 letters omitted
10 letters omitted
Localization L10n
These abbreviations are used in the names of
Drupal modules, such as “i18n” or “L10n_client”
4
7. If Drupal nodes were designed as
multilingual from the very beginning…
node/1
Title (lang1) Title (lang2)
(multilingual)
Body (lang1) Body (lang2)
Some field (lang1) Some field (lang2)
Another field (language-neutral)
Some file attached (lang1) Some file attached (lang2)
Another file attached (language-neutral)
comments
5
8. However, Drupal nodes are unilingual.
i18n is an external feature.
node/1 Title node/2 Title
(unilingual) (unilingual)
lang1 Body lang2 Body
Some field Some field
Another field Another field
Some file attached Some file attached
Another file attached Another file attached
comments
Drupal i18n system: I hereby declare node/1 comments
and node/2 to be translations of each other
6
9. Multilanguage: inside or outside?
Two possible approaches to i18n:
1. Multilingual features inside an object
2. Unilingual object, multilanguage features are
applied from outside as a system of
connections to other objects
“Object” can be a node, a block, a taxonomy term,
a menu, a menu item, and so on.
7
10. Inside vs outside
• Drupal uses both approaches (depending on the
object type), so improvements of multilang support
proceed in two ways:
– Making objects “more multilingual”
– Improving the system of i18n-related connections
between unilingual objects
• Each approach has its advantages and difficulties
• Until recently, approach to nodes was only “from
outside”
• Some problems caused by this approach will be
demonstrated below
8
11. No field-level language attributes:
Why it can be a problem? Example 1
node/1 Title Title node/2
lang1 translation lang2
Body Body
synchronization
Image field Image field
9
12. No field-level language attributes:
Why it can be a problem? Example 2
node/3 (en) translation node/4 (ru)
event info event info
nodereference nodereference
translation node/2 (ru)
node/1 (en)
location info location info
You need to synchronize nodereferences
(i18nsync)
10
13. Problem with multilingual views based on
nodereference
en/events/by-location/ ru/events/by-location/
Events grouped by locations: Распределение событий по
месту проведения:
– Kiev (6)
– Киев (6)
– Chişinău (4) – Кишинёв (4)
en ru
en/events/by-location/36 ru/events/by-location/37
List of events in Chişinău Список событий в Кишинёве
en ru
“Chişinău” (node/36) and “Кишинёв” (node/37) are different nodes,
so when you switch language EN -> RU while viewing the “List of
events in Chişinău” you will see an empty list instead of “Список
событий в Кишинёве”.
11
14. Inside vs outside
• However, the “outside” approach can have
some advantages, too
– It can be simpler to do or maintain
– It can utilize such node-level things as access
permissions for nodes having certain attributes (e.g.
when you have different people working with nodes
in different languages), and so on
• It’s highly desirable to have both possibilities,
and choose between them depending on the
specific situation.
12
15. Now, let us look at the D7 core
• Modules included in D7 core (same as for D6):
– Content Translation
– Locale
(disabled by default)
13
17. Regional settings
New in D7:
• Now you can set “Default country”
(to be used by contributed modules)
• More intelligent time zone handling
(with PHP 5.2+ DateTime objects)
15
18. Date and time settings
• More control over date and time format
16
19. Configuration of Languages:
Detection and selection
New in D7:
• Finer control over
language detection
and selection
• We can set order of
priorities
17
21. Contexts are intended for
per-meaning translatability
Context:
“May” as
Long month name
(not “may be”)
Context is a new feature; guidelines still need to
be developed. So far, used inconsistently. Not
supported by Javascript menu items and strings.
19
22. Localization auto-update
• Localization update module by Jose Reyero
(L10n_update)
• Works similarly to Drupal core update module
• Downloads translation updates from
localize.drupal.org (or from custom depository)
• Available both for D7 and D6
(v. 7.x-1.0-beta2 and 6.x-1.0-beta1
of 2011-May-31)
20
23. “Cheat sheets” for localizers
(“шпаргалки”)
• Drupal 7 localization cheat sheet
Drupal 6 localization cheat sheet
by Gábor Hojtsy
hojtsy.hu/files/Drupal7TranslationCheatSheetv2.pdf
hojtsy.hu/files/Drupal6TranslationCheatSheetv2.pdf
21
24. Now about content translation
Enable multilingual
support in content
type properties:
Looking for this in
“Publishing options”
is not really obvious
22
25. Now we can control ‘node.language’
attribute for nodes of this content type
• By default, a new node
is Language neutral
New in D7:
For language-neutral nodes, database field
node.language = ‘und’
‘und’ means ‘undetermined’
in compliance with ISO 639
23
26. Node translation
(same as in D6)
“Translate” tab is seen
when:
1. This content type has
multilingual support
“Enabled, with translation”
2. This node is
NOT language neutral
3. User is permitted to translate
content
24
27. “Translation set” (same as in D6)
node/1 node/2
Base node Translated node
node.nid=1 node.nid=2
node.language=‘en’ node.language=‘uk’
node.tnid=1 node.tnid=1
node/3
Translated node
‘tnid’ – translation set id node.nid=3
is shared by all nodes in a node.language=‘ru’
translation set node.tnid=1
is equal to ‘nid’ of the base
node
25
28. And now something really new…
D7 core has built-in support for field
languages!!! (via its new Field API)
However, D7 has NO built-in interface for
translatable fields
We need to use some contributed
modules
26
29. Entity_translation module
Can be used to translate fields
New item in “Regional and language settings” –
“Entity translation”
27
30. Entity translation
New option for multilingual support in content type properties
Field settings:
“Users may translate this
field”
28
31. Single node with multilingual body and
other fields: wow, it [almost] works!
example.com/node/1 example.com/uk/node/1
Node title is a different kind of field
and cannot be translated this way!!!
29
33. Single node with multilingual body and other
fields: now the title can be translated, too!
example.com/node/1 example.com/uk/node/1
Node title is now replaced with a
regular field using ‘Title’ module
31
34. Entity_translation + Title:
is this already the “multilingual field goodness”?
• These modules are very recent, still at the ‘dev’
stage (v. 7.x-1.x-dev)
• As of June 2, 2011,
– 130 sites currently report using ‘Entity_translation’
– 59 sites currently report using ‘Title’
• Still quite a lot of todo’s
• We need to test its interactions with views.
taxonomy, paths, and so on.
32
35. Now about the i18n.module
– Q: Can I build a multilingual site using only the
core D7 functionality?
– A: A very simple site – yes, but for more
complex things you’ll need the i18n.module.
i18n helps you handle multilingual blocks,
menus, views, synchronization of items
between nodes, and so on.
33
36. Enabling multilingual variables in i18n/D6: add their
names (site_name, site_footer,
theme_settings, etc.) to the settings.php file
$conf['i18n_variables'] = array(
// Site name, slogan, mission, etc..
'site_name',
'site_slogan',
'site_mission',
'site_footer',
'anonymous',
// Different front page for each language
'site_frontpage',
// Primary and secondary links
'menu_primary_links_source',
'menu_secondary_links_source',
// Contact form information
'contact_form_information',
// For theme variables, read more below
'theme_settings',
'theme_garland_settings',
);
34
37. i18n/D7 does not work this way anymore
Now multilingual variables are
controlled via
“Multilingial settings – Variables”
menu
(Depends on the new
variable.module) 35
38. Multilingual variables
A very convenient link to switch
languages
(especially if there is no language
switcher in the admin theme)
36
39. New in D7 and important:
Translation set API
(i18n_translation.module)
• Now we can create translation sets not only for
nodes, but for other things, too:
– taxonomy terms
– menu items
– paths
• Not implemented yet for blocks
37
40. Taxonomy terms
Connect different terms as translations of
each other:
This option was available in D6, too – but it
did not really work.
Now (I hope) it should!
38
41. New: Path translation (i18n_path.module)
• Intended for translation of generic paths
that don't have other way of being
translated.
• From any of these pages, the language
switcher will point to the other path for each
language.
• Note: path translations must be defined
without aliases.
39
42. Menu translation
• Thanks to Translation set API, now we can
translate menu items pointing to specific
nodes, e.g.:
(en) -> node/1
(uk) -> node/2
40
43. Blocks
• Translation sets not working for Blocks
yet(?)
• Improved UI and visibility options
• Block can be translated via string
translation
41
44. Other improvements in i18n
• More options and improved UI for content
selection and filtering by language
• More items can be synchronized between
translation set nodes (because more items are
available as Fields)
• Translation redirect (i18n_redirect.module):
redirect to translated path when available (SEO
optimization)
• Contact form translation (i18n_contact.module)
– recently added
42
45. Berlin Internationalization sprint
(May 11-15, 2011)
• i18nsprint.drupalevents.de
• reyero.net/en/drupal/berlin_internationalization_
sprint: “How i18n got some fresh blood and a
sexy facelift”
• i18n 7.x-1.0-beta6 (May 24, 2011)
includes improvements from Berlin i18n sprint.
New features:
– Consistent translation tabs for objects
– Contact form translation
43
46. Summary of most important changes
in D7 and i18n/D7
• D7:
– Translation of fields within a node
(no built-in UI yet, available via recently contributed
modules)
• i18n/D7:
– Translation sets
(connecting taxonomy terms, menu items, paths, etc.)
• Plus lots of less important improvements in UI,
content selection and filtering, etc.
44
47. References
• Drupal 7's new multilingual systems compilation
by Gábor Hojtsy
hojtsy.hu/multilingual-drupal7
• Drupal 7 Multilingual: What is new in i18n
by Suzanne Kennedy
evolvingweb.ca/story/drupal-7-multilingual-whats-new-i18n
• Multilanguage for Drupal 7: Internationalization module
(i18n beta1) by Jose Reyero
reyero.net/en/drupal/drupal7_i18n_beta1_overview
• Content Translation (field translation) in Drupal 7: First
steps by Randy Fay (read discussions in the comments,
too!)
randyfay.com/node/88
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