Thread

Hi

I would like to convert this site http://www.cactuslanguage.com/ to an EE site but have not used EE before though I know CI so am familiar with it.

I wanted to create a list of other multi language sites to see other sites our size that have it working.

I do not know if I will be able to list all our products into EE as they are admined in a backend but all other copy is static at the moment. We sell language training and so need to talk in 5 languages EN SP IT DE FR and also US and in 3 currencies EURO GBP and USD.

I guess with the SQL plugin I could pull the data from the existing database though.

Also would be interested how people pic which language they send people to. We currently have the bad system of using the browers set language and will be moving to using their IP location.

So please comment your multi-lang website here:

http://www.qualilangues.com/index.php/en/
(I think)http://www.koninklijke-balletschool-antwerpen.be/pagesUK/homepage.html
http://www.branchenwissen.info/index.php/magazin/index

http://www.readshotel.com/

http://www.listersgeotechnics.com/es/

We do have a Showcase Category for this, as well. =)

ok did not see that 😛 but maybe people have sites not listed there

Oh, if they do I’ll happily add them there, as well.  But it’s definitely a good starting place.  =)

This is interesting as it uses a redirect after the language change and does not have the language in the url
http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/

http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/lang/_fr/ gets redirected after the change.

Also would be interested how people pic which language they send people to. We currently have the bad system of using the browers set language and will be moving to using their IP location.

If you want my opinion: please, don’t. The language-header is mad for exactly that purpose. Personally I hate sites that try to secoond-guess my location based on IP-address. I might be travelling, I might accessing the web via a VPN or a proxy, I might be using AOL, for all you know: why would you want to disregard a stated browser preference “because you know better”? Make the option to change languages rather prominent, register such changes with a cookie to store for the next time, store preferences for registered users, but apart from that, by all means, stick with the HTTP header set by the browser.

what HTTP headers do you think I should use?

I have to use some way to choose language as it also sets default currency. And that is our most important thing. I want to make language choice an active element of the site but we have to set it in some way as people expect the currency they are looking at without looking at it and then think the values are too cheap or too expensive or not in there currency and then we get complaints and people ordering in wrong currency.
Thats the bottom line I report to.

I may give people a float over on first visit and then cookie that up for future visit.

Whats your experience of people using multiple languages Ingmar to make suggestions?

what HTTP headers do you think I should use?

Why, Accept-Language of course.

Whats your experience of people using multiple languages Ingmar to make suggestions?

I have built (and used) multiple language sites in the past. Quite often, wie have used country domains (example.com, example.de, example.co.uk), and Accept-Language in addition and/or where that was not possible.

From a user point of view, I hate it when I browse a site and suddenly see some partially translated content, becaue the site (based on my ip-address) assumes I want it like that. Give users a choice, is my opinion, and make very few basic assumptions. If the actually go to the troubel of definin an Aceept-Language header, chances are they’d like you to honor it.

This is interesting as it uses a redirect after the language change and does not have the language in the url
http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/

http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/lang/_fr/ gets redirected after the change.

I’ve seen it used with url_title in the URL. It’s neat, but not very good for SEO as the url_title only comes in one language.

My own site, which is bi-lingual, is rather complex as I have some sections in two languages, some only in Swedish and yet others only in English and all with different content which generate different kinds of visitors. It’s really a structural nightmare to work it all together.

I know that most Swedes read English, so I want Swedes to be able to reach all sections, whereas my international guests don’t have to.

I also know from site statistics that most Swedes visit certain pages and my international guests others. So I make my choices based on these parameters. The homepage is a mix since that is only the starting-point, a bridge to get to the different sections.