With Joomla 2.5 and 3.x it's relatively easy set up a multilingual website without using 3rd extensions... in 10 steps!
- Install Language Pack
- To translate Joomla's system labels like "Read more..." in different languages
- Define Content Languages
- Add languages that can be assigned to content (categories, articles, menu items, modules, etc)
- Enable & Configure "System - Language Filter" plugin
- Add language code to URL, enable "Menu Item Association" (see 8.)
- Create Root Category for every Language
- For easier maintenance it's better to group all categories for a language under a "Language Root Category"
- Create Articles
- Assign the right Category + Language to each article
- Create Menus (every Language own Menu)
- Create a Menu for each language
- Create Menu Items & Menu Item Association
- Create Menu Items, set a default homepage per language, group similar menu items from different languages
- Create Menu Modules (every Language own Menu Module)
- Create a Menu Module per language and assign to that language's Menu
- Create Language Switcher Module
- Create this Module to display the language icons that can be selected to select one of the languages
- Redirect old incoming links
- A tip for collecting huge amounts of old URLs,
and creating redirects to the new URLs using:- A sitemap component (Xmap)
- A browser (to display the HTML source)
- A spreadsheet (Excel / OpenOffice Calc)
- and .htaccess
- A tip for collecting huge amounts of old URLs,
Presentation given at:
- October 4th 2014 - Joomladay UK 2014, Ascot, United Kingdom
Joomla 3.x multilingual website without 3rd party extensions:
http://www.slideshare.net/pe7er/joomla-multilanguage-website-without-3rd-party-extensions-joomladay-uk-2014 -
August 17th 2012 - Joomladay Cape Town 2012, Cape Town, South Africa
Duo presentation together with Matthew Philogene who presented the 3rd party multilingual content manager Josetta.
For Joomla 2.5: http://www.scribd.com/doc/103234410/How-to-set-up-a-multilanguage-website-in-10-steps-Ideas-Setups-and-Tips - March 5th 2012 - Joomla User Group Den Bosch, Netherlands
Joomla 2.5 multilanguage without using 3rd party extensions - February 25th 2012 - Joomladay Thailand 2012, Bangkok, Thailand
For Joomla 2.5: http://www.scribd.com/doc/82768844/Joomla-2-5-multi-language-website-without-using-3rd-extensions-in-10-steps - August 12th 2011 - Joomladay Norway, Drammen, Norway
For Joomla 1.7: http://www.scribd.com/doc/62212848/Joomla-1-7-MultiLanguage-Site-in-10-Steps-without-3rd-party-extensions