Translation and localisation of websites developed on the Drupal platform
WEBSITE LOCALIZATION, OR HOW TO REACH CUSTOMERS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD
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HOW TO TRANSLATE A DRUPAL WEBSITE?
The Drupal content management system is one of the most customisable website development platforms, which is why it plays a significant role in the Web 2 market. Thanks to its wide range of features and functions, Drupal poses significant competition to other content management systems. However, developing a multilingual website with Drupal without professional translation and localisation tools or CAT support can be a very difficult task.
Similar to WordPress and Joomla, Drupal – the world’s fourth most popular content management system – website localisation and translation is a practical way to offer its functionality, content, and themes to visitors in their native language. Drupal includes a website language switching tool that allows visitors to easily select their preferred language. This makes professional translation and localisation solutions for website content even more important.
If you are ready to translate a Drupal website and want to make the translation process as simple as possible, follow the instructions below.
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STEP BY STEP ON HOW TO TRANSLATE A DRUPAL WEBSITE
To effectively manage the website translation process, four modules must be installed in the Drupal system: language, content, configuration, and interface translation modules. Go to Manage -> Extend-> select the Multilingual section, select all four modules and click Install:
ADDING A LANGUAGE
Let’s start with the language selection. Add one or more languages to the website and select the default language. Please note that all four modules must be installed first.
Then go to Configuration -> Regional and language -> Languages and click on Add Language.
In order for website visitors to switch between languages, the language switcher must be enabled. To add a language switcher, open the Manage section -> Structure -> Block layout. To add a language switcher, click Insert block in the second section of the toolbar. Select the language as accurately as possible. For example, Portuguese PT is different from Portuguese BR.
HOW TO CALCULATE THE NUMBER OF WORDS TO BE TRANSLATED?
The source texts of a website are located in different places, so first prepare a list of all the content to be translated. For example, interface, menus, headers, blogs, widgets, themes, comments, multimedia, embedded codes, etc.
To estimate the size of the website to be translated, we recommend sending the files to Skrivanek. We will process all website content using CAT tools and prepare a precise quote. If you want to check everything yourself, you can use one of the methods listed below.
- Save the website content as text documents, for example, .docx, and view the approximate word count.
- Perform an SQL export. Go to PHPMyAdmin, check the rest of the MySQL database, and add the total word count.
- Export all content in CSV format and make a copy in case you lose the website content during processing.
- Count the words in static copies of the website from downloaded HTML files. To download HTML files, you can use a free open source website copier such as HTTrack or WebCopy.
INTERFACE TRANSLATION
To translate the interface of a website developed on the Drupal platform, such as Home, Contacts, 404 page content, and other similar texts, activate the Extend -> Multilingual modules and add the target language as described above. Translations of basic menu items will be added immediately after importing the language pack.
DRUPAL THEMES AND MODULE TRANSLATION
Drupal includes a theme update – Twig, which replaces all PHP template files. This makes all themes compatible with this update easy to identify and translate into the original language of the website.
In short, following the steps above makes translating modules very easy. All you have to do is add the target language code to the relevant module and translate the files using a special add-on module.
TRANSLATING USER-GENERATED CONTENT ON A DRUPAL WEBSITE
Now is the time to tackle the most important task – translating user-generated content, such as blogs, website pages, etc. As with most content management systems, you can translate online – in the panel or offline – by working with XLIFF files. These files allow you to send website content to a translation agency.
ONLINE TRANSLATION:
OFFLINE TRANSLATION:
Install the Translation Management Tool (TMGMT). This module is used both for exporting and importing content in XLIFF or HTML format and for connecting to popular translation tools such as Trados Studio and Memsource. The modules are activated in the Extend -> Translation management section. To configure XLIFF export, go to Translation -> Providers and set XLIFF as the default export format. Please note that the target language field is empty. This allows you to export and send files to your translation service provider.
Select the content to be translated, import it in the desired XLIFF or HTML format, and integrate it into any third-party translation tool. Here is a typical translation workflow using the XLIFF format. To export and import a translation job, you must first create it by clicking on the Sources tab.
- Select the content to be exported.
- Select the source and target languages in the Checkout box.
- Click Request translation.
- In the Configure provider box, select File exchange.
- Select the XLIFF file format.
- Click Submit to provider.
HOW DOES TRANSLATION WORK ON A TYPICAL DRUPAL WEBSITE?
Now that you know how to translate a website developed on the Drupal platform, let’s briefly summarise the translation process.
- Select all the content to be exported for translation.
- Enter the target language or select any regional language.
- To start the process, request a translation.
- Use the web copier to calculate the number of words and configure file exchange.
- Select the format (preferably XLIFF).
- Click Submit to continue with the translation of each file one by one.
To review and edit the translation, go to the job overview and click on any XLIFF file. Drupal also offers a free validation tool that allows you to check HTML tags or preview translated pages.
CONCLUSIONS
Translating a Drupal website doesn’t have to be a complicated process. The platform includes many user-friendly features that greatly simplify the translation process. At the same time, keep in mind that files exported from Drupal are not backup copies and may not be very useful in case of data or content loss.