Multilingual Strategy for Drupal OC Drupal - Feb 2013Mariano Crivello
Every day large multi-national companies are selecting Drupal as their web system of choice
Large companies choosing Drupal
● Scalability● Cost● Ability to manage multiple
language content from a single system
● Which Languages?○ Regional logic?
i.e. Spain serves : English, Spanish, French, Italian
● Who will be translating content?○ Web service
■ Cheap■ Prone to error■ Not good for Industry specific terminology
○ Translation service■ Works■ Expensive. (starts at about $350/pp.)
Questions you should ask
How will you manage workflow?● Quality Control
○ How will you manage the sign off of content?
● Wait for translations to publish?○ What is your publication time dependencies
● Is there Industry specific terminology○ Mapping terminology upfront is important for
agencies and services alike.
Questions you should ask (cont.)
● Content translation (i18n, locale)
● Entity translation (the future)
Two Major Methods for Translation
Comparison Chart
Content translation Entity translationonly works with nodes works with any entity type
one node per language (copies nodes) one entity for ALL languages (fields are translated)
uses core node title field Requires Title module for titles
need multiple menu links for one node can theoretically use one menu for all translations
breadcrumbs just work breadcrumbs can show wrong translation
Views language filtering just works Views language filtering needs a patch/module
XMLSitemap works XMLSitemap doesn’t work (work in progress)
Metatags Quick works per language Only works for English nodes
Bean blocks don’t work Bean blocks work nicely
● Can help manage regional language logic.● Permission structure for regional content
managers.○ Allows for independent workflows for each
region
Organic Groups
● Microsoft (Bing) Translator (machine)● Google Translate (machine)● Nativy (human)● MyGengo (human)● Supertext (human)● One Hour Translation (human)
Translation Services
XLIFF (XML Localisation Interchange File Format)
is an industry standard format that has been adopted by most translation systems and agencies.
Translation Standard
● Workflow module○ Build publication process○ Quality control
● The Translation Management Tool (TMGMT) module ○ Interfaces with external web services
Workflow management
● Menu translation● Taxonomy translation● Cost for human translation
Pain Points
Modules: ● Entity translation● Translation Management (TMGMT)● Workflow
Resources
BOOK - Drupal 7 Multilingual Sites
Resources (cont.)
http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-7-multilingual-sites/book
Resources (cont.)