Beginner's Guide

Chapter 20

Multi-Language Websites

I live in Europe. The European Union has 23 ofﬁcial languages. If you are going to create websites

in regions like this, you have to think about multilingualism. Two things are especially challenging when

it comes to creating multi-language websites: the translation of the static Joomla text strings as well as the

translation of the content items. While the ﬁrst challenge can normally be overcome easily, the second

one presents the real challenge.7

The Joomla 2.5 core is available in more than 40 languages languages and more languages are

expected to come soon.

Let's build a multi-language website by using Joomla 2.5 core in this chapter.

JOOMLA LANGUAGE PACKAGES

You can download the translation packages from Joomla Code

or the Joomla extension directory

und install them using the extension manager (Read more: Extension Management). I have done this with the

German as well as the French language package. After installation you will ﬁnd the three installed

languages (Figure 1) by visiting Extensions → Language Manager in the backend.

Figure 1: Installed languages (EN, DE)

Language Conﬁguration

As of now, it is still necessary to have a look at the language conﬁguration to see whether the

languages are published (Extension → Language Manager → Installed) and the language content attributes

Joomla! 2.5 - Beginner’s Guide

Monday, 30 January 2012! Page 224

http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/jtranslation1_6/frs/

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/languages/translations-for-joomla