Joomla veteran and Prototaph Interactive lead Justin Kerr presents on Building Multilingual Websites using Joomla at the September 10, 2014, meeting of the JoomlaChicago-Palatine users group.

1. Building Multilingual
Websites Using Joomla!
JoomlaChicago-Palatine Users Group Meeting Sept. 10, 2014

2. About Your Presenter:
Justin Kerr
● Prototaph Interactive
www.prototaph.com
justin@prototaph.com
312-560-1115
● TeleGuia Media
www.teleguiamedia.com
jkerr@teleguia.us
● Twitter: @Pomond

3. About Your Presenter:
Justin Kerr
● Prototaph Interactive
www.prototaph.com
justin@prototaph.com
312-560-1115
● TeleGuia Media
www.teleguiamedia.com
jkerr@teleguia.us
● Twitter: @Pomond
● Joomla since 2005
● Internet pro since 1994
● Websites … and more
● JoomlaChicago-Loop
joomlachicagoloop.com
… meeting on Sept. 23!
● Deutsch und … ?

4. Why Build a Multilingual Website?
?

5. Why Build a Multilingual Website?
● Multilingual
constituencies
● Penetration into new
markets
● Serve hungry audiences
● First-to-market
opportunities due to
culture lag
● International customer
base
● Local market
opportunities
● Competitive differentiator
● Cross-cultural
communication
● SEO advantages

6. Why Use Joomla?
?

7. Why Use Joomla?
●Multilingual in core
●Multilingual since Joomla 1.0
● 57+ official language packs
Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic Unitag, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan,
Central Kurdish, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, English (Australia), English (Canada), English (USA), Estonian,
Finnish, Flemish, French, French (Canada), Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew,
Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Macedonian, Malay,
Montenegrin, Norwegian (Bokm l), Persian, Polish, å Portuguese (Brazil),
Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin),
Sinhala, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Syriac (East), Tamil (India), Thai,
Turkish, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Vietnamese, Welsh

8. Why Use Joomla?
●Multilingual in core
●Multilingual since Joomla 1.0
● 57+ official language packs
●Multilingual front- and
back-end

9. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Language options begin at Joomla installation:
“Select Language”

10. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Multilingual config continues after installation
● Today's examples use Joomla 3 and focus on core
● Before starting:
– Decide what languages you'd like to support
(for both front- and back-end)
– Finalize your website taxonomy/architecture
(and its translations)
– Establish your plan for generating and managing
translated content

11. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
Step 1: Go to Extensions > Language Manager

12. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
Step 1: Go to Extensions > Language Manager
… review installed languages for Site and
Administrator

13. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 2: Add an official translation pack

14. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 2: Add an official translation pack

15. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 2: Add an official translation pack

16. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 3: Create a new Content Language

17. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 3: Create a new Content Language

18. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 3: Create a new Content Language

19. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 4: Enable the Language Filter Plugin

20. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 4: Enable the Language Filter Plugin

21. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 5: Create Multilingual Content Structures
(e.g. Joomla Article Categories)

22. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 5: Create Multilingual Content Structures
(e.g. Joomla Article Categories)

23. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 5: Create Multilingual Content Structures
(e.g. Joomla Article Categories)

24. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 6: Create Multilingual Content Items
(e.g. Joomla Articles)

25. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 6: Create Multilingual Content Items
(e.g. Joomla Articles)

26. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Tip: Use Joomla's Batch processing tools

27. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 7: Build out parallel multilingual menus

28. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 7: Build out parallel multilingual menus

29. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 7: Build out parallel multilingual menus

30. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 7: Build out parallel multilingual menus

31. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 7: Build out parallel multilingual menus

32. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 8: Set default home pages for languages
… retain default Home page link in Main Menu

33. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 8: Set default home pages for languages

34. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 8: Set default home pages for languages

35. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 9: Implement item Associations
– Associations tab in Category, Article, Menu Item, etc.

36. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 9: Implement item Associations
– Associations tab in Category, Article, Menu Item, etc.

37. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 9: Implement item Associations
– Associations tab in Category, Article, Menu Item, etc.

38. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 9: Implement item Associations

39. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 10: Implement multilingual Modules
– Create parallel Modules ala Articles, Menu Items, etc.

40. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 10: Implement multilingual Modules
– Create parallel Modules ala Articles, Menu Items, etc.

41. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 10: Implement multilingual Modules
– Create parallel Modules ala Articles, Menu Items, etc.
– Menu choice + language filter; no “associations”

42. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 10: Implement multilingual Modules
– Create parallel Modules ala Articles, Menu Items, etc.
– Menu choice + language filter; no “associations”
– Modules assigned to a language only appear when that
language is active.
– Setup main menus; keep original main menu (w.
default “Home” link) unpublished or in unused position

43. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 11: Implement language switcher Module

44. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 11: Implement language switcher Module(s)

45. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Step 11: Implement language switcher Module(s)

46. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Also … multilingual SEO:
– Menu Item, Categories, Articles, etc. allow for
language-specific meta tags
– Plugin Manager > System – Language Filter
SEF URLs and meta tag controls

47. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Also … multilingual SEO:
– Menu Item, Categories, Articles, etc. allow for
language-specific meta tags
– Plugin Manager > System – Language Filter
SEF URLs and meta tag controls
– Language Manager > Content > [language item] > Site
Name

48. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Also … multilingual SEO:
– Menu Item, Categories, Articles, etc. allow for
language-specific meta tags
– Plugin Manager > System – Language Filter
SEF URLs and meta tag controls
– Language Manager > Content > [language item] > Site
Name
– Plugin Manager > System – Language Code
– Parallel content items allow for additional control:
alt tags, text inside head tags, etc.

49. Joomla Multilingual Site Process
● Also … third-party extensions for multilingual
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/languages

50. In Conclusion ...
● Joomla rocks for multilingual websites!
● Any questions or follow-up?
Justin Kerr
● Prototaph Interactive
www.prototaph.com
justin@prototaph.com
312-560-1115
● TeleGuia Media
www.teleguiamedia.com
jkerr@teleguia.us