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Multilingual Site How-to?

  • Although this is my first post, I am not new to forums, so yes I did search. I could not find any information regarding how to setup a multilingual static html site. I've tried searching on Google and various blogs like Smashing and here and the only thing I can find are multilingual Wordpress plugins.

    Can anyone point me to a tut, how-to or clue me in on how this is done?

    I have found on a couple sites they have a smal JavaScript function like < a href="javascript:goSpanish();">En Español</ a> however, I can't find in any of the scripts where that function is being called, if that makes any sense?

    Any help is greatly appreciated.
  • There's a couple of ways you can do this...

    You could have two or more different versions of the site running in subdirectories e.g. /en/, /es/, /fr/ etc and then just redirecting to the different subdirectory (becomes a pain to update though)

    Or you could simply set a cookie using JavaScript or PHP (probably PHP), postback the page and then on load read the cookie and choose the correct language text to show.

    It's a pain in the arse to maintain though and should only be done if absolutely necessary
  • Hi, I have just finished creating a multilingual website which you can take a look at here http://johnathangrimes.hostei.com/clients/General Communications/

    The method I used for the site above is search engine friendly and remembers what language the user has selected before.

    To use the method I used your site would have to be coded in PHP. The text then will come from seperate language files.

    If you are interested in the method I have used, I will email you over everything that is needed to do it.

  • Thanks everyone, your replies really help.

    grimslayer, I would appreciate it if you could email me the files needed for that method. I would like to have that option as well as the others to present to my client. My email is in my profile.

    Thanks again, Stan
  • I saw this tweet show up a few days ago in my timeline, tweeted by smashingmagazine. You can see it here, don't know if it's useful though as I haven't done multi lingual sites before.. http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/build-multilingual-site-wordpress Interesting concept to think about though!
  • Grimslayer, I would like the code as well. BTW, if I already have a site built in html in English, is there a way to add the same pages built in Spanish and have the navigation work correctly for each? Thanks!

  • Hi, I want to create multilingual website in Core Php.But I have no idea about it.So Mr. grimslayer If you have created multilingual website then help me and give some advice. If you have some function then email me. Thanks.....

  • Google has a service that automatically translates the website text depending on what country your website is being viewed in.