Multisite for multilingual

transcript

r3df.com lumostech.training

Rick Radko

“Multisite for Multilingual”

WordCamp Toronto November 15th, 2014

hello bonjour

guten tag Hola 你好

helló hej

hallo γειά σου

ciao sveiki halló cześć

alo 안녕하세요

привіт नमस्त hallå

A little bit about me

Rick Radko Software, website and app designer/developer,

trainer, speaker. R-Cubed Design Forge: r3df.com LumosTech Training: lumostech.training Creating custom web sites since 1996 WordPress sites since 2008.

Lead organizer of: WordCamp Ottawa 2013, 2014. The Ottawa WordPress Group.

Making WordPress multilingual

In this session I will present: A quick backgrounder on multilingual WordPress

setups. Some new 4.0 language features. How to quickly install WordPress multisite. How to set it up for multilingual sites.

Pros & Cons of multisite for multilingual. Some tips and tricks.

Slides: www.slideshare.net/r3df

WordPress is not multilingual!

“WordPress does not support a bilingual or multilingual blog out-of-the-box.”

codex.wordpress.org/Multilingual_WordPress

WordPress multilingual set-ups

There are 2 common approaches to multilingual in WordPress: Single site approach: One WordPress site contains all language content.

Multisite approach: One site per language.

Each approach has pros/cons under different circumstances.

Single site multilingual

With single site, WordPress needs to manage different language versions of: the content, the menus, the output from: themes, widgets and plugins,

and display them in the right language on every page.

More on single site multilingual

Multilingual plugins for single site: WPML $ qTranslate -> no longer supported Use: mqTranslate or qTranslate Plus

Polylang xili-language Babble (github) + more

What is multisite?

wordpress.com is a multisite. Multisite sites: Share the same WordPress installation. Themes and plugins are available on all sites by

default. Have separate database tables and media folders. Can share domains (URL's) or have completely

different domains. Appear to be independent sites to site visitors.

Multilingual with multisite

Advantages of using multisite for multilingual: Each site is a regular WordPress site. One language per site.

Can easily have different themes. No special tricks needed for sidebars, titles etc. Performance. No custom tables.

Fewer plugin issues with: Multilingual plugins. Other plugins.

Different domains for different languages.

Setting up a multilingual multisite

Begin with a regular "5 Min" WordPress install codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

New to WordPress 4.0

Language choice on install!

4.0 language selection

The moment you click a language, WordPress switches to that language. Asfd asdfadsf

The usual install screens - but in French

Success! - The dashboard in French

The website - in French

Language setting in 4.0

There is a new language setting in 4.0: It's hidden if there are no added languages. English (United States) will always be available as

a choice due to the way WordPress is built.

3 quick steps to enable multisite

1. Enable multisite setup. a. Optional: set a non-default permalink structure.

(Settings -> Permalinks) 2. Complete the Network Setup page. 3. Copy the Network configuration settings to the

required files.

2 of the many guides to that detail the full process: halfelf.org/ebooks/wordpress-multisite-101/ codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network/

Step 1 - Enable multisite setup

In your site's wp-config.php: Before the: /* That's all, stop editing! … */" Add: define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );

Step 2 - Network setup

Network setup - key setting

Select sub-directories to get URL's like: my-domain.com/en and my-domain.com/fr

Step 3 - Network configuration settings

Add the settings shown in part 1. to your wp−config.php file.

Network configuration settings - wp-config.php

Add the settings below the previous line you added, and above the "… stop editing ..." line.

Network configuration settings part 2

Add the second section of settings to the .htaccess file. (If one does not exist, create one.)

Network configuration settings - .htaccess

Replace the original rules with the new ones from section 2.

And, that's it!

When you have completed the edits: Click the login link.

(at the bottom of the settings page) Log back in, and check out the site.

Network admin

Network Admin -> Sites page

In a multisite, the original site from the WordPress install becomes: The main site, with a Site ID of 1. The path is "/". It's accessed at: http://some_domain.tld.

Adding a site

Add a new site with the path “en”:

The English site

The English site is URL is: http://some_domain.tld/en

The French site

The French site URL is: http://some_domain.tld

Another set-up

Alternatively, all “active” sites can be added as sub-sites with a language path: http://some_domain.tld/fr http://some_domain.tld/en Etc.

And we hide the main site: http://some_domain.tld (is not used)

Hiding the main site

2 ways to hide the main site: 1. Redirect to one of the language sites: .htaccess code. Redirection plugins (there are lots). github.com/r3df/r3df-multisite-redirect/

2. Use the main site as a language selector by implementing a “splash” page. Governments and large institutions tend to use this

style. My WordCamp Montreal talk from 2013, “Tips and

tricks for building multilingual sites” covers how to do splash pages. (my slideshare and wordpress.tv)

Multisite language plugins

These plugins will: Relate content items between the sites. Provide widgets for front-end links between

different language versions of content. In some cases connect the editors in dashboards.

Some plugins: Multisite Language Switcher Multilingual Press Zanto WP Translation More?

Multisite Language Switcher installed

The site with a language switcher

A couple of plugins from the repository: MslsSelect adds a widget with a selector MslsMenu lets you add selectors to menus

Shared media libraries

Normally in multisite each sub-site has it's own media uploads folder. For multilingual this may result in uploading

images etc. multiple times, once to each sub-site. There is a plugin for that: Network Shared Media

Issues with multisite for multilingual

Ecommerce can have issues: Selling/booking things with fixed inventories

- can’t share inventories between sites. Physical products. Event registration. Booking Calendars

Overstated “issues”: You need to set everything up 2 times (or more). Menus, plugins, widgets, etc.

Entering content 2 times (or more).

Adding languages to WordPress 4.0

To add more languages to the site: Install the plugin

"Language Downloader". Need to use Network

Admin -> Plugins. Go back to any site

dashboard to run the plugin.

Language setting in multisite

If all went well, the new language is loaded.

Select Spanish on the main site.

The website in Spanish

Hold it… that's not Spanish!

Add language files for themes & plugins

Under Network Admin -> Updates: Update translations. You need to do

this with the main site set to the language needing updates.

Updated plugins and themes:

The theme now displays correctly

Dashboard language plugins

Dashboard language plugins: Allow you to select a language for the dashboard

separate from the site. Some have per user settings. Some have options for the front-end tool bar. Some have login screen language selectors. Some Plugins (there are more): WP Native Dashboard

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-native-dashboard/

Backend Localization wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kau-boys-backend-localization/

WP Native Dashboard

WP Native Dashboard Fix.

Plugin on Github: github.com/r3df/r3df-wp-native-dashboard-fix

Remove /blog on the main site

A quirk of multisite: the main site is forced to have /blog in the path for

the posts. For a site with posts (a blog) called something else, like “news”: Editing it out of the permalinks in:

Network Admin -> Site->Settings - is not safe Often reset unintentionally.

Plugin on Github to fix it: github.com/r3df/r3df-multisite-blog-slug-remover

Migration tools

qTranslate Cleanup and WPML Import wordpress.org/plugins/qtranslate-to-wpml-export/

WPML2WPMSLS - WPML to Multisite Language Switcher: wordpress.org/plugins/wpml2wpmsls/

WPML to MultilingualPress: wordpress.org/plugins/wpml-to-multilingualpress/

Contact

Rick Radko email: wpinfo@r3df.com twitter: @r3designforge

Websites: r3df.com lumostech.training

Slides at: www.slideshare.net/r3df

Multisite for multilingual

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