Designing a Multi-Language Site

[Acorn]

The OP of https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-on-SOME-pages got me thinking.
How to best deliver a multi-language site?

These are my ideas.

1. Don't use Country Flags as icons.
   
   1. Not all are recognisable.
   2. Not all indicate which language will be shown (Switzerland / Canada / The Netherlands).
   3. A right mess for Accessibility - how many would add Alt text?
   
   
2. Better to use ISO 639-1 Language Name as labels (English | German | French | Italian) or even (better) (English | Deutsch | français | Italiano).
3. Have all sites at the same folder level.
4. Use ISO 639-1: two-letter codes for sub-folders - (en | de | fr | it).
5. Code so a click on a language link, jumps to the identical page in that language.

The Website > HTML Code (Head) for this is simply:

<script>function changeto(lang) {
  addr = document.location.href;
  addr = addr.replace('/en/', '/' + lang + '/');
  addr = addr.replace('/fr/', '/' + lang + '/');
  addr = addr.replace('/de/', '/' + lang + '/');
  addr = addr.replace('/it/', '/' + lang + '/');
  document.location.href = addr;
}
</script>

For the français website, you add links:

• English - javascript: changeto('en');
• Deutsch - javascript: changeto('de');
• français - javascript: ; [or leave as - javascript: changeto('fr') as I might code to change the session variable (see below) for a match to not then jump; all language bars on all pages and sites would then be identical]
• Italiano - javascript: changeto('it');

You just set the language bar to Repeat on all pages: English | Deutsch | français | Italiano

You will need a launch page for visitors arriving without a picked language.
I personally would use localStorage.setItem("language", lang); in the changeto() above and an onLoad check if this variable was set and redirect to the right sub-site so the launch page is thereafter bypassed.

You would also need to plan for errors:

• Sub-site page not found - code to jump to its index page.
• Sub-site not found - server 404 page to offer other sub-sites or unset language variable and jump to the launch page.

Overall, a richer experience for the international visitor.

Acorn

[StewKriti]

Hi - I'm a newbie that has been tasked to create a site for our small Town here in Crete and look for all advice about making multi lingual site...your advice look solid and will have to give it a go. Would I have to duplicate all pages and then translate with google and then point to them or will this script handle the language as well..TIA

[Acorn]

StewKriti, each language site has its own pages in a sub-folder/sub-site.

There is no way an enterprise would rely on Google translate alone. Most time the text length will be different and so the result would be a mess.
It's all hand-crafting. If you want different, you buy a product to do it for you at a great cost.

The sub-site page filenames will have to remain the same throughout all-sub-sites.
Coding is possible to overcome this limitation.

Acorn

[StewKriti]

Hi Acorn - not sure if I will be able to do this for them then...our budget is zero and I'm giving my time. So I will have to make the translation into Greek - a friend is helping with this and replace all text in site and save as Greek version and then could link to this?
Thanks again