"You will now have two new global variables available to you in your templates and add-ons."

base_url & user_language are the two that were mentioned.

I'm testing this on a local drive and I placed the variables in the path.php file in my root folder. I've also changed the base_url reference in the path.php files in the language folders to the correct link. I'm sure the php is working correctly as well as it has been tested.

It displays an "en" at the top of the page. I'm assuming this is what it's supposed to do, right? I didn't see that until you had me test it.

Excellent! I switched to my spanish view and the text changed as well, just as promised! Now it's up to me to simply implement it correctly.

All in all the variables just weren't displaying in the Global Variables tab, but they are there.

For anyone reading these let it be known that these were my faults, not the developers, yet he STILL offered me help. This is an EXCELLENT module and I will recommend it to anyone attempting to turn their EE site into a multi-language site.

You can be expecting a long time customer and again, Ben, thank you for all of your help and for designing such a wonderful module!

Ok so I've implemented it onto the live web site but I'm having an issue I didn't face on my dev site. The language I created is gb. When added to the index url it works fine, but when it is added to any other page it re-forwards you to the main index page. You can test it out on the site to see for yourself what it's doing. Any ideas as to what could be?

Apparently there is some code embedded in the templates:
//If the went to a non-existing category, kick them back to the index page.
if(mysql_num_rows($result_catID) == 0)
{
header('Location: http://www.mysite.com');
exit;
}
That must be removed to avoid this problem. Hope this helps somebody.

Update: That was not a complete solution as the same code is on the dev site where it works fine.

Still open for possible solutions...

That wiki explains how to remove index.php from the URL, correct? So instead of reading mysite.com/index.php/category_1 it would be mysite.com/category_1? If so, that was never performed on the dev site as all of its URLs contain index.php.

Hi Ben

Is it possible to override ""user_language" => "es"" in path.php by hardcoding some php into the top of the EE template? If so, I could use this with my current multilingual site.

Cheers


Jim

Feature request:
Provide a way for the english and french (for example) versions of the page to have different urls. Could this be done by hijacking the Pages module's mod_rewrite functionality in some way? This would make your module almost the ideal solution for all multilingual sites!

Why am I asking about this? Because from an SEO and usability point of view it's much more attractive to have:
domain.com/fr/a-propos-de-nous/ and domain.com/en/about-us/

rather than:
domain.com/fr/about-us/ and domain.com/en/about-us/

If you can find a way to do this I think you'd be onto a real winner ;-)

Cheers

Jim

Hello Ben,

I support the feature request from Jim, this would be a big improvement from SEO point of view.
While I'm busy posting feature requests :-) another challenge, but I guess it's a very hard one... I would be extreme useful if the entries could have different instances, one for each language. By that I mean eg a dropdown that is available in each entry that allows you to select the language instance of the entry you want to edit and that duplicates all of the fields that normally exist in a weblog. We would then be able to output those fields using the (custom) fieldname + {userlanguage} or even better and override of the {fieldname} function that read the correct language based on that variable.

I know it is a hard one, Leevi Graham is working on something similar but you might first.

best regards,
Tim.

This module looks like the perfect solution! However i don't understand why base_url is needed for templates. If you copy the path.php file into a subfolder you can simple set the $site_url and all normal path links will automatically have that domain in your templates.

I'm not sure I get what this can do. Can it help me create a multi language site where it's possible to switch the whole language of a site from say en to fr including site navigation? Is there an example site I can see please.

Thanks
Lee

Hi,

I was trying out the module and a question I had was why does it not support Norwegian.

When I try to add a new language ISO 639-1 code for Norwegian (no)
and update the bar on the top does not display "Norwegian"

Any hints, Kippi

Sorry, my question was a little premature:-)

I found where to add language phrases in the:
lang.multi_language.php

Ben,

I think this is the right tool for me but I am confused about the "phrases" . Do you have to wrap the tag {exp:multi_language:phrase... around each word that needs to be replaced? I am sorry to ask such a basic question but I am not sure how to implement the phrases in my templates. It would be completely impractical to wrap each phrase but if you have to specify the index then it would seem that you would have to.

I am not sure I "get" that aspect of it. The global variable and weblogs it seems can be done without the module.

Thanks so much

Mr Ben,
Can you please explain how to go about the main site Navigation in both languages?
Plus, the LG addon updater is alerting me about an update for this module is now available, is that correct?

Thanks

Hi,
I've sent you a mail,have u got it?
Thanks

does this add-on work with categories, subcategories and entries? the phrasea are a very helpful idea and the different custom fields for the weblog are a good solution. Does this add on support categories though?

would love to get an answer so that I can either buy this add on or look for a different solution.

"does this add-on work with categories, subcategories and entries? the phrasea are a very helpful idea and the different custom fields for the weblog are a good solution. Does this add on support categories though? "

thanks.

Ben,

I have a 500 error occuring and I am pretty sure the problem is with the .htaccess file in the fr directory. I opened the htaccess you provided in the es directory and then change the language to fr for french. I i saved and ftp and when I try to view the mysite.com/fr directory i get the 500 message. If i remove the .htaccess file I can see the site in the fr directory but the links do not work. here is the .htaccess file any ideas?

I am using the exclude method and the en version is working fine should i be adding an eclude rule in this .htaccess as well?

# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*
Options All -Indexes

RewriteEngine on

# Remove index.php
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /fr/index.php/$1 [L]


order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all


order deny,allow
deny from all

I get the following error when trying to add "zh-cn" as a new language (i've added it to the language file).

MySQL ERROR:

Error Number: 1064

Description: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '-cn TEXT' at line 1

Query: ALTER TABLE exp_multi_language ADD phrase_zh-cn TEXT

Hi Ben,

Is this module compatible with the Multi-Site Manager? We've have a requirement for a number of websites for a company - each website will have at least 4 languages.

How do you see this working?

Ger

I just wanted to update you letting you know the module is working great.

It does everything I need it to do and works like a dream.

Thank you very much for such a wonderful module Ben!

Hello,
Thanks for the great module :-)
It works perfectly on my site..

One question:
I also want to use the language on my subdomain. (cpanel)

All is setup as it should be, I hope, but I get a error when I use .htaccess
Using:

RewriteEngine on

# Remove index.php
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /nl/index.php/$1 [L]

http://subdomain.4elements.com
http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/

Path is set and in the subdomain

Content path.php in the subdomain:

$template_group = "designscan";
$template = "index";
$site_url = "http://designscan.4elements.com/";
$site_index = "";
$site_404 = "";
$global_vars = array(
"base_url" => "http://designscan.4elements.com/",
"user_language" => "en"
); // This array must be associative

?>

Path set in the nl folder, located in the subdomain folder.

$template_group = "designscan";
$template = "index";
$site_url = "http://designscan.4elements.com/";
$site_index = "";
$site_404 = "";
$global_vars = array(
"base_url" => "http://designscan.4elements.com/nl/",
"user_language" => "nl"
); // This array must be associative

?>

What went wrong?

Kind regards
Martijn

When I try to access the subdomain.4elements.com/nl/about with htaccess enabled I get:

Status: 404 Page Not Found

But subdomain.4elements.com/nl/ doesn't give me an error.
(the about page is available)

But what I noticed is that when i access

http://subdomain.4elements.com/about/nl/
it's not giving an error.

Ben, i Have a htaccess in my root and a htaccess in my nl folder.
But that's not the problem, my current site is handling the language like a charm.

The problem is that I made a subdomain, using cpanel this will give me an extra folder in my root folder.

Part of the site is setup to run though this subdomain, and is working as it should be.

But when i try to enable my nl language on the subdomain it won't work.

http://subdomain.4elements.com works (is the main US language)
http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/ does not work.

I tried with htaccess but whatever i try.... no luck.... I'll get an 404, page not found....

Hello Ben,

I tried.
But when accessing the url it adds index.php to the url:
http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/index.php/

Works.
But when I try:
http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/about
I get an error 404?

htaccess:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/index.php/$1 [L]

Yes.

http://subdomain.4elements.com/
http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl
(by it self it changes the url to http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/index.php/)

http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/index.php/designscan/about/
instead of:
http://subdomain.4elements.com/nl/about/

YES!!!

It's working now.
The problem was the template group. (template group name = subdomain name)

So http://subdomain.4elements.com/about was not possible (template name within the template group)

Now I created a new template group "about" with their templates and it's working like a charm... accessing trough the subdomain :-)

So Ben,
Thank you for all your help :-)

Hi, is it possible to have some kind of fallback in case the translations are "not quite done yet"! e.g. if it does not find an entry in the weblog it simply says "awaiting translations" ? Im gonna look into it a bit more...

Sussed it. I used this. Let me know if there is a more efficient way?

{if user_language == "en"}{news_snippet} {if:else}{news_snippet_{user_language} } {if {news_snippet_{user_language} == ''}

Sorry, this content is currently awaiting translation.

How should we use {title_permalink} variable on multilanguage websites for weblog linking?
Is there any rule? If not, what to use instead of it?

Ben sorry i posted this on the sitemap page by mistake. I am using the multi language module with great success but client asked to switch primary language to french instead of english. I have a lot of hardcoded links with the /fr/ path. Is there anyway to simply switch the site so that it is initially in French?

Thanks Ben,

I would like to do a simple redirect lest they change their minds again but essentially once i do it it always redirects the home page so it seems like i need to add in a en directory and start over again. I tried changing the base_url too but it messed up all the paths and doesnt let me get back to the english.

Alas I was looking for an easy way out and I dont think there is one.

Why do I not receive the plugin?
Have sent you several messages about it and a copy of my PayPal receipt.

Hi Ben

I have emailed you about acquiring a license for a non-profit charity project I am working on but have not had a response. I would consider paying for the module but without having a response from you I'm reticent to do so.

Please can you double check your emails sent on May 22.

Thanks

Aaron

In the example above for removing index.php from the url you mention the exclude method. But how would this work when using the include method (which is more SEO friendly)? Where does the language segment fit in in the rewrite condition?

Hi Ben,

Are there any plans to make the module searchable? Ideally, with Jquery or something?
I only have 50 or so phrases but I would like to have a lot more and it is already hard to find what I need.

(By the way, it is almost impossible to read the white text on the yellow background in your entry form)

Se

Hi Ben,

I meant the 'Leave a Comment" fields here on your webpage.
(Firefox 3 on a Mac, in case it makes a difference)
Cheers,

Se

I have purchased the license and am playing around with it, very cool.

Question; I know there was a question already about using title_permalink and you mentioned it doesn't support that. Is there any workaround? I have weblogs that link to full entries and can't use the {path} or {base_url} variables. Please tell me there is something that works with the multi-language add on!!

As a workaround, I am using:

{base_url}templatename/{url_title}

which seems to work fine

what about conditionals to check for language?

simplest example would be for the language switch links?
if fr/ show the link to the english version, if blank or en/ give the link to the french version.

thx

^ nevermind, missed a few comments that covered this

Hi,

just bought this and it is looking great. However I get this message.

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in [path to installation]...\modules\multi_language\mcp.multi_language.php on line 317

I have PHP 5.3 on my server.

Best,
Sammi

I posted a fix on the forum thread.

Best,
Sammi

Will this work with EE 2.0?

Thanks

Hi, Ben

Congratulations for your job.

I want to ask you some question that is driving me insane:

I've been using around all the site for the navigation your syntax
{if user_language == "es"} {/if}

And it worked great, but when I try to link from inside a custom field of an entry, the link doesn't parse the variable prperly and it's shown literally.

Something like:
{base_url}/template}

Instead of:
http://www.mysite.com/template

Did you ever heard about it? I tried the change the type of the custom field ( XHTML, Auto br) and also disallow the convert urls ans emails automatically to links, but nothing happened.

Thank you and congratulations for your nice module

Hi does this module allow translatable 404 pages? Also can the base url of your translated site be domain based, like http://de.hello.com or http://www.hello.de or does it have to be a sub directory like http://www.hello.com/de/ ?

Love this module - it's working a treat.

One thing for anyone wondering how links work so you maintain the same language, don't use your usual {title_permalink}.

Use a combo of {base_url} and {url_title}, so that something like:

<a href="{title_permalink='site/workshop'}">{title}</a>

becomes:

<a href="{base_url}site/workshop/{url_title}">{title}</a>

Then you stay in your preferred language!

Hi Ben

I'm trying to migrate a working EE installation from an Apache setup to a Nginx setup on a different box. One of the issues I've run into is configuring the Multi Language Module.

Have you any experience with setting this up on an Nginx server, and if so can you offer any pointers?

Cheers

Aaron

Just managed to answer my own question. In case anyone is interested, this is how I configured the rewrite rule on NginX:

location /es {

  if (!-e $request_filename) {

    rewrite ^/es/(.*)$ /es/index.php/$1 last;

  }

}

For anyone wondering how to do keep the language intact when you're paginating through, you need to extend the weblog:entries tag, and not tinker with the auto_path.

weblog:entries has a parameter where you can change the functionality of the auto_path - it's paginate_base. A typical tag would read like this:

[code]
{exp:weblog:entries weblog="weblog_name" limit="5" status="open|news|whatever" orderby="date" sort="desc" paginate_base="{if user_language != 'en'}{user_language}{/if}/weblog/template_name"}
[/code]

Now the auto_path knows to follow the paths normally laid out by the module, so auto_path works as it "cut-and-paste" should.

Big props to Ben for his support in figuring this out.

I started a discussion on the EE How-To support board instead of posting little bits to this comments panel. You can find it here:

http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/147304/

Hello Ben, I'm new in Expression Engine, but I'm thinking to give it a try for a multilanguage site I have to do.
I would like to ask, what about the search using your addon ? If the current language is, lets say spanish, the search will be only throught the spanish post?
Thanks in advance,

Guillermo

Hi,

I've been using you're module on a clients site, but they've just decided to move servers and bought a load balanced set of 3 windows 2008 servers (without my consultation :/).

Is there any chance this add-on would work under windows??

:(

:: ed

Hello,

What about permalinks? How do I remove the index.php from the permalinks?

With kind regards,

Hi Ben. Very interested in this module, but do need to find out two things:

1. Does it work with the EE Multiple Site Manager?
2. Will there be an EE 2 version one day?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Hi Ben. Sorry, I didn't see the link to show the extra comments, but when I did I found the answers to both my questions. Sorry about that!

Hi Ben. I have added "Thai" as a language, using the ISO 639-1 code ("th"). The language is added successfully, but the word "Thai" does not appear at the top of the column. The same thing happens with Khmer ("km") and a few other Southeast Asian languages. Is there any way this can be fixed? It's just a tiny little interface glitch, I know, but it has the potential to upset my users a little -- all the European languages seem to work okay ...

Thanks in advance for any help you can give

Hi Ben,
is your Multi Language module compatitible with the EE 2.0?

I've been trying this out. For the most part it works pretty well, but I have two questions:

1.) When I search for content in languages other than the default (English), I keep getting a message indicating that "Your search did not return any results." I assume this is because the custom fields for the other languages are not being included in the search, right? Is there a way to change that? It doesn't do much good to have a site full of multilingual content if the users can only search for it in English.

2.) In some cases, there may be content that has not yet been translated, in which case I would prefer for the English content to be shown rather than nothing at all. What would be the best way to go about setting that up?

Thanks for your work on this module! Assuming I can get these two issues resolved, it will be exceedingly useful for my multilingual sites.

So, any word on the EE2 version?

Your roadmap says "Planned for March 2010".

Hi Ben

I was also checking back in to see if the EE2 version was ready yet, so it would be great to know if there's any update to the roadmap. (I'd also like to ask about Exchange Rates too, if you don't mind.)

Cheers
Andrew

Hi Ben. Thanks heaps. It's great to hear that things are getting closer!

Cheers
Andrew

Hey there - thanks for a great plugin!

It appears to have minimal support for caching - we have caching turned on (for performance reasons) and the user_language variable appears to cache with it, without regard for the URL

Do you have any suggestions on how to handle this?

I just purchased and installed the module on a 1.6x install and I'm getting a message that there is an update available. This doesn't seem correct as I just downloaded the zip. Any thoughts on why this is happening?

Hi

Is it possible that snippets in EE 2 don't render the global vars of the index.php files?

Both base_url and user_language become unavailable in snippets but apperently the exp:multi_language:phrase tag does work

Hendrik

I ordered the language module but I can't get the .zip file to open. I keep getting errors. Can you email it to me.

This language module works great in EE2. Ben also offers fast and efficient support.