Hi all,
it’s been a while since I looked at EE (even bought it some eons ago).
My basic question: Has anything changed in regard to content translation?
Basically offer an editor to enter translated content for defined fields (i do not mean not automatic translation via a an translation service). Just some basic out-of-the-box content translation functionality (like most CMS’es support Typo3 for example) without manually duplication fields?
Thanks in advance & best regards Jens
The nearest things to the translation modes offered by Typo3 are two commercial add-ons for ExpressionEngine:
Publisher - a full featured translation system that offers features similar to Typo3’s Translate mode.
Transcribe - another full featured translation system that is perhaps closer in operation to Typo3’s Copy mode.
HTH
Well each CMS has its own strengths and weaknesses, you just have to choose what is best for you.
EE appears to use a quite different model for content management to Typo3 (which from what I can see uses a WP style “page-tree” based approach); EE’s channel based system provides some development advantages / flexibility gains over the page based approach, particularly for complex sites.
What surprised me looking at the Typo3 site was the amount and range of branded swag … I wonder if anyone really does buy a branded ‘ring’ (€15), a logo pin (€5) or branded t-shirt (€20)?
I’m not comparing EE to Typo3 (it was just meant as example of a free CMS with relatively solid content translation support 😉). Typo3 APIs are a sh*tshow 😕.
Looks like EE still can’t decide if it wants to be a glorified blogging software or a “traditional” CMS.
The search continues (now Statamic looks like a contender 😉).
Thanks again & best regards Jens
> The search continues (now Statamic looks like a contender 😉)
Interesting - Statamic is a very different animal to either EE or Typo3, and with (from what I know of) no significant multi-lingual capabilities (which presumably means it fails your the core system is missing content translation functionality test): apparently the only option being a machine-translation add-on very similar (but I’m sure not nearly as good as…) my own Auto-Translate add-on for EE which you clearly rejected as a solution in your first post here. If Statamic is a good contender with no multilingual options of note, EE is surely a better one as it definitely has multiple multi-lingual support options.
Statamic is also relatively expensive at $259/site.
Good luck with your search… I hope you find what you are looking for.
To be honest, if you really want a fully localized website, its not enough to just translate text and phrases.
What is the point if images are also not translated or videos or any other content? Eventually you will hit problems like some JS or CSS is external and also needs to be different to your main language website. At this point the more you localize, the more you are basically just building a separate website, same structure, but everything else is different, even the HTML tags.
My best suggestion is to use different channel groups and different templates for different languages. This is also the best approach because every local site has its own unique URL and management.
Usually one person that speaks one language would manage all the templates and channels for his section only, and you can separate the staff or editors that way.
If the sites are huge, using the multi sites features would be even better, but for most sites just create a different group and assign them a different channel.
Example:”
Template group “about” for english but “acerca” for spanish.
Then assign a different channel for each template and this way the channel settings are also properly set for each page. You can even modify the template code.
I also think this is best for performance, over generating everything on the fly.
And you really want different channel entries for different languages. I don’t think EE is different to any other CMS is this regard.
Managing a multilanguage site can be hard on any CMS, depending on what you want to achieve. If anything, EE approach forces you to separate content, which is the best approach and the way most professional localized websites are build. You can re-use the same page structure and maybe only generate some small tags differently, like:
Simple approach:
en_news es_news
More advanced approach:
In your template you then have the same code for every language, but the tag is replaced on the fly such as:
{language_news}
It then replaces the tag for “en” or “es” in your template, it can even detect user language or browser settings and then change the tag on the fly which would automatically pull the proper channel entry for that language.
Note that is not a real example, but I think you get the idea. You can then use the same tag on every template and EE will replace the language tag only, assuming you want to have the same HTML code for every template.
Of course if you only use 2 languages it’s even more simple as you have one default language you don’t need to replace and simple if and else variables will fit, but I assume here you want or need more languages in the future.
The approach also really depends on who will be managing the content. Will the same person translate everything? Or multiple persons? Is the translation only for basic content, or the website actually has to be fully regionalized for a specific country.
Personally, I think you don’t need third-party add-ons at all. EE is able to manage different languages fine, and it can do it in many ways.
EE can be a simple blog if you want, or a huge global corporate multilanguage website. It depends on how you approach the structure and design from the start.
The nice thing about EE is that you are not forced to any specific way, which I despite in other CMS. You can decide to use the control panel for content or not, or use your own IDE to code HTML’s pages without touching channels if you don’t want, or a mix of both. It can do all, which means you can fit it to any type of website or user, or even mix things.
Do you want one channel with multiple boxes for each language, so someone can enter all languages at once? While not the best approach, also possible.
Or use a unique, different channel for each language, but still let someone enter all the content in the same screen? Again, possible, just build the channel forms on a custom template that those people get access for content management.
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