mulitlingual website in flash - Help!?

[zeech26]

Hello!
Our client has asked for a website that has 6 different language options.
My boss has decided to build in flash (12 pages, mostly photos with captions and information) and wants me to figure out the best way to switch languages. Anyone have an idea on where I can learn how to do this?

I am unclear on the terminology to describe what it is that we want to do.
Seems like something fairly easy to do in CSS, but not sure how to even begin or look for information in flash.

I assume there is a better option than building 6 different sites in flash.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Zack

[Medyman]

I don't know how you would create a multilingual site with CSS. Do you mind explaining that bit?

The route I would take for a such a project might depend on the client's technical knowledge and requirement to edit the site once up.

In brief though, you should use XML. It's easy, portable and flexible. Ideally, you should have a dedicated UI/CMS to edit the XML, but that's not necessary. Using images with captions as an example, you could use an XML structure like so:

<gallery>
  <item>
     <photo>photo.jpg</photo>
     <en>A picture of my dog.</en>
     <fr>Une photo de mon chien.</fr>
     <gr>Ein Bild von meinem Hund.</gr>
     <sp>Una foto de mi perro.</sp>
  </item>
</gallery>

From there, use dynamic ActionScript to draw which language you want to show. The easiest way is to send a FlashVars of which language to show. You could pass this via JS or PHP.

www.gotoandlearn.com has some Flash + XML tutorials if you need help with that.