Don't Get Lost in Translation: Multilingual Site Building with Drupal 7

Multilingual site building with Drupal can be challenging. Depending on the type of site you’re building, the list of modules you’ll need and the configuration settings you’ll choose will vary greatly. Even a single project could include more than one method for translating menus, taxonomy terms, and content. Before you get started, you need to consider your audience, what type of content you have, and how all the pieces of your website will be translated. In this session, we’ll walk you through the steps of creating a multilingual website for an international organization. This will give you an understanding of Drupal’s multilingual architecture and how translations are managed for different parts of Drupal. You’ll learn which modules to use for different use cases, and what to ask your client before you start the project. Whether you’re a site builder or a developer working on your first multilingual Drupal 7 site, this session will help you plan your next multilingual project and get started on the right foot.

Outline

Introduction

  • Examples of typical multilingual requirements and use cases
  • Overview of the parts of the multilingual system in Drupal
  • Introduce the use case that will motivate the presentation

Building a Multilingual Site

  • Step 1: Installing and Configuring Languages
  • Step 2: Components of Multilingual UI: Variables, Built-in Text, User-Entered Settings
  • Step 3: Content Translation Methods: Content Translation vs Entity Translation
  • Step 4: Blocks, Taxonomy Terms, and Menu Items
  • Step 5: Additional Multilingual Modules
  • Step 6: Module Selection: Choosing modules that support multilingual

Conclusion

  • Outstanding Multilingual Challenges in Drupal 7
  • Drupal 8 Multilingual Initiative

Speakers

Time slot: 
Tuesday 3:45pm-4:45pm
Room: 
Track: 
Site building
Experience level: 
Intermediate
Questions answered by this session: 
What are the most important decisions to make when building a multilingual website?
What is entity/field translation and how is it different from content translation?
How is translating the user interface different from translating configuration settings?
Which modules should I use to build a multilingual website?

Comments

This sounds like a great session proposal! Hope it gets accepted.

In preparation for this talk, Suzanne wrote an extensive blog post on the subject. If you missed it on Drupal Planet, check it out here: http://evolvingweb.ca/story/content-translation-drupal-7

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