How to Build Multilingual Drupal Sites

tutuploadsmedia_1326929592271.png

There are many different languages available for a Drupal installation, but what if you want to have a site with more than one language? Drupal is up to the task, but it’s not a trivial procedure. There are two areas that need translation.

First, you’ll need to translate the interface, which includes the button texts, drop down menus, messages and other languages you use to interact with the site. Customizing the interface is fairly simple, and there are language files you can download that will help you make short work of it. Drupal developers often refer to this as localization.

Second, you’ll need to translate the content. There are some modules that will make this possible, but this does require more effort than translating the interface.

Let’s take a look at how you can translate the interface and the content.

Step 1: Download and install modules

These are the basic modules you must have to make the translation work. Download and install and enable all of these modules before moving on.

Step 2: Enable and configure Locale

tutuploadsStep_2__Enable_and_configure_Locale.png

This is a native module and will be found in the core section of the module page.

tutuploadsmedia_1326858686932.png

Start by making sure that the Locale and Localization Update modules are installed and enabled. Localization Update is added when you install the Entity Translation module.

Step 3: Configure languages

tutuploadsStep_3_Configure_Languages.png

Go to Configuration and scroll down to the Regional and Language section. You will see two new options: Languages and Translate interface. Click Languages.

tutuploadsmedia_1326857306494.png

On the Languages page, click Add Language.

tutuploadsmedia_1326857397128.png

In the PREDEFINED LANGUAGE section, choose a language from the drop down menu. If you don’t find the language you want, you can define your own language. That’s beyond the scope of this tutorial. You can find downloads of contributed languages on this site http://localize.drupal.org.

Add all the desired languages and then save the configuration by scrolling to the bottom of the screen.

Step 4: Choose a detection method

tutuploadsStep_4__Choose_a_detection_method_and_enable_it_with_a_ch.png

Check the box next to the method you want to use. Scroll to the bottom to Save Configuration.

Warning: do not disable or change the default language. This will cause serious problems and unexpected results. Your default language doesn’t have to be English. If you used one of the international versions of Drupal, leave whatever default language you started with.

Step 5: Configure Translation Updates

tutuploadsStep_5_Configure_Translation_Updates..png

From the Translation Updates tab you can configure automated updates for your language files.

tutuploadsmedia_1326860356104.png

Go to Configuration, then in the Regional and Language section, click on the other option you just added “Translate Interface” (see Step 3 if you forgot where it is). Here you will see various tabs that allow you to import, update and manage the interface strings.

tutuploadsmedia_1326860773347.png

The language file you installed will do the most common translations for you. Using the tools on this page, you can search for and find any string (line of text) you want to translate.

In the image above I searched for the string “An AJAX HTTP error occurred.” The string must be entered exactly as it is shown on the site. Click edit to start translating the string.

tutuploadsmedia_1326860938401.png

You can now add the text in the various languages so that the string will be translated for those languages. If you don’t enter a translation, the string will still be visible to the user, but only in the default language.

Step 6: Add the translation to the website

tutuploadsStep_6_Add_the_translation_to_the_website.png

Enable the following modules if you haven’t already done so.

  • Entity Translation
  • Title
  • Internationalization
  • Entity API
  • Variable

After enabling these, go to Structure, then Content types.

tutuploadsmedia_1326922982363.png

Click edit on the content type you wish to work with.

tutuploadsmedia_1326923055299.png

Click Publishing options and enable Multilingual support.

  • If enabled, a language selection field will be added to the editing form, allowing you to select from one of the enabled languages.
  • You can also turn on translation for this content type, which lets you have content translated to any of the installed languages.
  • If disabled, new posts are saved with the default language. Existing content will not be affected by changing this option.
  • If entity translation is enabled, it will be possible to provide a different version of the same content for each available language.
tutuploadsmedia_1326923446012.png

Click Multilingual settings. Choose your extended language options and support. Click Save content type. Repeat this for each content type you have on your site.

Step 7: Make each field translatable

tutuploadsStep_7_Make_each_field_translatable.png

Go back to the content type you are editing and click on manage fields. You will now see the Title on the manage fields tab has an option to replace it. Click replace.

tutuploadsmedia_1326924079411.png

If you check Replace title with a field instance, the title legacy field will be replaced with a regular field and will disappear from the Manage fields page.

tutuploadsmedia_1326924160600.png

You will now get a confirmation message.

Step 8: Activate the language option for each field

tutuploadsStep_8_Activate_the_language_option_for_each_field.png

Click the field name in the Field column. You will need to do this for each field included in the content type.

tutuploadsmedia_1326925225904.png

Check the box to allow the field to be translated. Save the field settings.

Step 9: Create some content

tutuploadsStep_9_Create_some_content_and_activate_the_translation_f.png

Click Add content and add a content type that you have already enabled multilingual capabilities for. Choose a language and save your entry.

tutuploadsmedia_1326927322414.png

After you’ve saved it, there will now be an additional tab on the editing page. Click Translate.

tutuploadsmedia_1326927391598.png

Click add translation in the new dialog box.

tutuploadsmedia_1326927572410.png

Make the translations and save your work. In the example above, I’ve done the French translation for the title and the body.

Step 10: Repeat for each language

tutuploadsStep_10_Repeat_for_each_language.png

Do the same for each language you want to use on the site.

Step 11: Add a block for the language switcher

tutuploadsStep_11_Add_a_block_for_the_language_switcher.png

Go to Structure, then Blocks and find the Language switcher (Content) and Language switcher (User interface text) blocks.

tutuploadsStep_12_Add_the_block_to_your_site.png

Add one or both of these to your site by specifying the position.

tutuploadsmedia_1326928781631.png

Click Configure on the block page. Click Languages. Choose the visibility settings. The default is to show regardless of language.

tutuploadsmedia_1326928955792.png

In the image above, the block is positioned in the footer. Clicking an icon or a word will change the site language.

tutuploadsmedia_1326929117337.png

Here’s a picture of the page after I clicked the Afrikaans flag in the block. Notice that some labels are not translated. You’ll need to address those individually as described in Step 5. It may be translated in a language file update at some point in the future, or that word may not exist (or be the same) in the language you chose.

Now you know how to add both interface translations and content translations to a Drupal site. There are a lot of steps and it’s easy to get lost in the process. Work slowly if you’re a novice, and make sure the early steps work before you move on.

Author

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

25 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Simon Peter
Simon Peter
12 years ago

Great tutorial! It would be nice if you can record it as a video 🙂 I believe you have more to share in this tutorial.

God bless you
God bless you
12 years ago

thank you very much for the tutorial

jameser
jameser
12 years ago

Have a Drupal 6 site that needs this functionality. Not sure whether it is more of a job to do this same thing in D6 or upgrade to D7. Any thoughts on how to do this in D6?

Juan Siesquen
Juan Siesquen
12 years ago

Great! This tutorial is very useful!

Amazing
Amazing
11 years ago

Excellent presentation!

Question about step8
Question about step8
11 years ago

In step 8 under field settings I get the message, “There is data for this field in the database. The field settings can no longer be changed.” Any idea of what direction I need to go to resolve this?

mahesh v
mahesh v
11 years ago

This is not working for arabic language it is showing error error in translation..im working in localhost..

melisa
melisa
11 years ago

how do you translate the name of the blocks and menus?

tommy
tommy
11 years ago

great work guys!

baseball
baseball
11 years ago

DEAR:
THX FOR YOU POST.
IN STEP 9, I should use 「ENABLE WithTransation」, THEN THE ARTIOCLE SHOULD SHOW 「TRANSATION」TAB.
USE 「EBALE」,IT WILL NO SHOW 「TRANSATION」TAB.
AND,IF I BOTH ENALBE THE 「Publishing Options」–>「 Promoted to front page」AND 「PUBLIC」
THEN ,BOTH ARTICLE SHOWED ,HOW CAN I USE EN ON ‘EN SITE’,TW ON ‘TW SITE’
THX

megha
megha
10 years ago

Thanks a lot for this great tutorial..but please help me in one small issue..when i am adding translated content for a post.all available language for that post is getting listed.Please help..

krijesh
krijesh
10 years ago

i couldnt see any multilingual settings under the content type

Sadeghbayan
Sadeghbayan
10 years ago

Great

Dr. Shekhar Sarbhai
Dr. Shekhar Sarbhai
9 years ago

translated post not visible on front page ?? how all front page post translated in other language front page

Eliezel
Eliezel
8 years ago

Interesting post – Incidentally , if anyone require to merge two images , my colleague came across a tool here [url=http://goo.gl/w1CTGv]http://goo.gl/w1CTGv[/url]

Akhtar Husain
Akhtar Husain
7 years ago

After installing these modules and setting up the config, I can’t edit the content types and menus. It shows a 500 error.

Please help to resolve it.

Daniel Pickering
7 years ago
Reply to  Akhtar Husain

akhtar,
Unfortunately error 500 is a generic message. It usually means something is wrong with the server configuration. Can you still access the admin panel? Does your host have dedicated error logging enabled?
Daniel

Akhtar Husain
Akhtar Husain
7 years ago

Some modules were not working from i18n module on my localhost, so i disabled them and now everything is working fine with translation.
Thanks Daniel for your quick reply.

Daniel Pickering
7 years ago
Reply to  Akhtar Husain

Great job Akhtar 🙂

Hasan Raza
Hasan Raza
7 years ago

Nice, Setting up multilingual on a Drupal website can be very good for international site visitors

Abhilash jo
Abhilash jo
6 years ago

hi, this was a great tutorial but I would like to know what can we do for hole website need to be displayed like google translator??

handsomeboy
handsomeboy
4 years ago

No use. Drupal 7 can’t translate include the menu tab!

Jordan
Jordan
2 years ago

This is going to be awesome

sk8rdog
2 years ago

Are the images going to be restored soon for this content?

Robbie Adair
1 year ago
Reply to  sk8rdog

Yes, thank you for bringing it to our attention, the images have been restored.

25
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x