develop multi-language site

[madu]

Hi friends I have post my problem in javascript forum.
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/showthread.php?p=242089
but there was not any sufficient answer.I suppose you will help me....

this is my problem ,
"I would like to develop a multi-language web site.for exemple english/german/sinhala.. so when i click on german the page language will change to german(i.e content,menu etc...) , then i click english it change into english. as well as the web page should be download to client PC very quickly.

I don't know this is the correct forum to post this. I have no idea to how to do this. If there any tutorial or any thought Please suggest me. all replies are welcome"

pleeeeeeaasee help me...............

[Nile]

If you don't want to use google translate I don't think there's really anything else you could do unless you wanted to make a translated version of your site for every page. SO this: http://translate.google.com/translate_tools looks like your best bet. Besides, whats the chance that someone will navigate to your website and not speak at least one of the languages provided with the google translate option?

[djr33]

Machine translation, even the best, is awkward and will make your site less appealing to visitors. Use it only as a last resort.

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You will need to design your pages without any text. Instead, use variables or functions (explained below) that load translated text from another location. You can store these as text files or in a database.

I am currently making a site like you describe, on a large scale (it's a language learning site, completely language independent so that once a translation exists in a language, you can view it in that language). My approach is to just a function. Let's call it "translate()":

translate('homepage.title');
Then that function will look for the translated text in the current language called 'title' for the home page.


The standard terms for translation are "internationalization" and "localization". See here, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization

However, I find most existing systems to be overly complex, though they certainly work.

I developed my own, and you could try that too. PHP also has some functions for this.

There are a lot of ways this can be complex, but if you have a limited number of languages that helps. If you need to include right to left scripts (like Arabic), for example, that means a lot of design considerations. For English, German and Sinhala, that shouldn't be a problem.

If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask, but I hope this gets you started.