We will share our experiences developing bilingual websites as well as adding a second language to an existing unilingual website. Building multilingual websites in Drupal has evolved over the years. New to version Drupal 7, we now have field and entity translations in addition to the trusted node-level translations. In this presentation we will cover: what’s new for multilingual websites in Drupal 7, differences between field, entity and node level translations, techniques for translating various parts of your site, experiences working with translators, and building multilingual websites while being a monoglot.

1. Building Multilingual Websites
in Drupal 7
Robin Puga
Language embodies the intellectual wealth
of the people who use it. ~ Kenneth Hale

2. Overview
● Covering the basics
● Multilingual websites in Drupal 7
● Working with translators
● What’s happening in Drupal 8
http://affinitybridge.com

3. Basics
● Gettext is an internationalization (i18n)
system used for writing multilingual programs
● Drupal Code
$str = t("My name is @name.n", array('@name' => $user->name));
● fr.po file
#: src/name.module:36
msgid "My name is @name.n"
msgstr "Je m'appelle @name.n"
http://affinitybridge.com

4. Blasts in the past - Drupal 5 & 6
http://affinitybridge.comhttp://s.coop/d6convertlang

5. Drupal 7
● Definitive Guide by Gábor Hojtsy
http://hojtsy.hu/multilingual-drupal7
Read it!
● Books
Drupal 7 Multilingual Sites
By Kristen Pol
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6. Drupal 7
● University of Ottawa Calendar
http://uocal.uottawa.ca
English / French
● Participedia
http://Participedia.net
English then German
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7. Modules for Drupal 7
● Locale module in core
● Internationalization or i18n module
● Localization Update module
● Entity Translation module
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8. Setup for Multiple Languages
● Add languages
● Import the .po files
● Configure detection and selection
● Configure your site content types
http://affinitybridge.com

9. Node level translations
● Now using Entity Translation module
● Setting up the content type
● Synchronizing fields
● Translating content using translate tab
●
http://affinitybridge.com

10. Entity translations
● Allows translations for entities in Drupal
● User accounts fields
● Comments
● Any entities
http://affinitybridge.com

11. Field level translations
● One node with translatable fields
● Use case: Products in Commerce
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12. Other Modules for Drupal 7
● Variable module
● Translation Table module
● Potx module
● Localization Client module
● Translation Helpers module http://affinitybridge.com

13. Translating your site
● Menus
● Same page hierarchy - translate menu links
● Different page hierarchy options:
● One menu per language, or
● Add menu links in different languages
● Blocks
● Now translatable. Works great for static blocks
http://affinitybridge.com

14. Translating your site
● Taxonomy terms
● Localize - one term with translated title
● Translate - different terms per language
● Views
● Filter content by user language
● Translate view titles via Translation Interface
http://affinitybridge.com

15. Translation Interface
● Overview
● Translation Table
● Translate - find strings & translate them
● Import - import .po files
● Strings - refresh translation strings
● Update - grabs po files and updates strings
● Export - export po files from db strings
● Extract - export po files from code files
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16. Potential Pitfalls
● Indexing in Solr
● Index language fields and filter views by language
fields.
● Adding new language to existing site
● Synchronized fields created in English that have
translations added later can cause problems.
●
http://affinitybridge.com

17. Code Example
Grab this install profile for En/Fr with tools:
https://github.com/robinpuga/multilang
drush make --working-copy
--translations=fr stub.make ../multilang_site
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18. ● Translation workflows offline
○ Working with .po files
○ Can be difficult to understand string context
■ “Home” = house or homepage
● Translation workflows online
○ Localization Client
○ Access to Translation Tools
○ Identifying content that needs translation
Working with Translators
http://affinitybridge.com

19. Basics
● Gettext is an internationalization (i18n)
system used for writing multilingual programs
● Drupal Code
$str = t("My name is @name.n", array('@name' => $user->name));
● fr.po file
#: src/name.module:36
msgid "My name is @name.n"
msgstr "Je m'appelle @name.n"
http://affinitybridge.com

20. .Po files beyond the basics
● Translation Contexts
$str = t("Home", array(), array('context' => 'Navigation');
● Plural strings
// These strings are run through the t() function.
$str = format_plural($count, ‘1 comment‘, ‘@count comments’);
● fr.po file for plurals
#: src/name.module:36
msgid "1 comment"
msgid_plural "@count comments"
msgstr[0] "1 commentaire"
msgstr[1] "@count commentaires"
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21. What’s happening in Drupal 8
● Much more in core
● Much of i18n functionality rolled into core
● Better language detection and config
● Name transliteration for machine names
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22. Where to find more info & support
● Follow Gábor - http://hojtsy.hu/
● https://localize.drupal.org/news
● https://groups.drupal.org/internationalization
● #drupal-i18n (i18n = internationalization)
● #drupal-l10n (l10n = localization)
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23. robin@affinitybridge.com
Questions?