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expressionengine

Multi Language Approaches with ExpressionEngine


So it's been two years since I last built a multi language site and I'm starting a new one strait away.

The last site I built I used the biber multi language module which seems to have had a name change since then and is now called Multi Language Support. With the last build I used matrix and an a drop down to set the language setting for each row, thus ensuring that each page was all in one entry and it would be easy to add additional languages, just by adding an additional row to the matrix field.

My question is twofold. Are there other approaches to consider at this point, since it's been two years since I last built a multi language site.

Secondly with the last site all the SEO (meta description, meta keywords and title tags were in English only) The new site will need all of this in both English and French. I typically use the SEO Lite module to handle SEO, but I don't see a way to have multiple languages available with this. Is there a simple way to set this up or will I need to go with matrix fields as mentioned above?

Am open to any and all approaches that are available for me to evaluate.

** UPDATE **

Will not be using Structure so that does not need to be a factor.


Solution

  • I have been using a few different approaches:

    • Transcribe is have been using recently. It works very well with template rewriting, language variables. It's pretty easy to set up, but is also sometimes a bit too powerfull. It's supposed to work well with structure, but i have not yet really investigated it. one of the benefits is that you are not required to have all pages in all languages.

    • Structure With structure and Low Variables you can easily set up a tree like:

      home /about us /products /nl/home /nl/over ons /nl/producten

    You can reuse your field groups and not all content has to exist in the different languages