Drupal for multiple languages, part one: core configuration

If you need to build a multilingual site, Drupal is one of the best choices available. Properly configured, it works fine for the admin, for the user and for SEO. It will require some extra work on your side, but you can bet it will pay.

This post covers the first part of the process: configuring Drupal.

Part one: install i18n module

First, download and install i18n module. In i18n project page you'll find other recommended modules. Have look at them. This site, for example, uses Language Icons, tContact and Translation overview.

Then, go to module administration page, look for "multilanguage" area and activate whatever components you'll need. Read every component's description carefully, as maybe you won't need to activate all them, saving some resources.

Part two: configure Drupal for multiple languages

Go to Site configuration > languages > add language and add the languages you want to use. Once you've added those languages, you'll probably need to download the language packages for them.

For your information, these language packages contain Drupal's interface translation. To load those in your system, go to Administer > Site building > Translate interface > Import and upload your translation package. Remember to choose the language you are going to upload, as Drupal will not try to auto-detect it.

The language package you upload can't be compressed. If you have a compressed copy, unpack it, then upload the extracted file.

Part three: configure multilingual system

Go to Administer > Site configuration > Languages > Multilingual system to "tell" Drupal how should behave regarding content. This site is configured this way:

Go to Administer > Site configuration > Languages > Configure to tell Drupal how to "negociate" the language. This site is configured as "path prefix only", which means that the URL of the site contains the necessary info for Drupal to know which language should it show. Just move around this site to see this configuration working.

Update: If you want to know how to configure your site to use a different domain name for each language, read this article by drupal-translation.com: Using a different domain name for each language.

OK, enough for today. There's still work to be done on the "content types" menu, but we're almost ready to go.

The second part of this article will show you how to configure content types properly, and the third one, own to modify our nodes and templates so creating content becomes easier, faster and more user-friendly.

Thanks for reading.