Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions Cookbook
Over 80 great recipes for taking control of Joomla! Extensions
- Set up and use the best extensions available for Joomla!
- Covers extensions for just about every use of Joomla!
- Packed with recipes to help you get the most of the Joomla! extensions
- Part of Packt’s Cookbook series: Each recipe is a carefully organized sequence of instructions to complete the task as efficiently as possible
The reader would benefit from the previous article on Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions for Using Languages.
Getting ready…
Joom!Fish is the most popular extension for building multilingual Joomla! websites. Download the latest version of Joom!Fish from http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsrelease/11315/45280/JoomFish2.0.4.zip, and install it from the Extensions | Install/Uninstall screen. It installs one component, two modules, and several plugins.
How to do it…
After installation, carry out the following steps:
- From the Joomla! administration panel, click on Components | Joom!Fish | Control Panel. This shows the Joom!Fish :: The multilingual Content Manager for Joomla! screen.
- Click on Language Configuration. This shows the Joom!Fish Language Manager screen, and lists all the installed languages.
- In the Active column, enable the checkboxes to activate the required languages. If you don’t see an image for a language, type the image’s URL in the Image filename field. Then click the icon displayed in the Config column. This shows the Joom!Fish Language Manager – Translate Configuration screen.
- In this screen, you can translate some common phrases, for example Offline Message, Site Name, Global Site Meta Description, Global Site Meta Keywords, a help site URL, mail settings, and so on. Type in the translations and click on the Save button in the toolbar.
- Now click on Translation, select Bengali in the Languages drop-down list, and select Categories in the Content elements drop-down list. This shows the translatable categories.
- Click on a category name and you should see the Translate screen, with the original text and a textbox to insert your translation.
- Type your translation in the Translate fields, enable the Published checkbox and then click on the Save button in the toolbar. Follow the same process for translating other categories. When finished translating all categories, select Contents in the Content elements drop-down list on the Translate screen. This shows the list of available articles for translation.
- Click an article title to translate. This shows the Translate screen with the original text and textboxes for translation.
- Type the translations in the Translation fields, enable the Published checkbox, and click on the Save button in the toolbar.
- Similarly, change types in the Content elements drop-down box and translate other content including Modules, Menus, Contacts, Banners, and so on. When finished translating, click on Extensions | Module Manager. This shows the Module Manager screen, listing the installed modules. From the list, click on the Language Selection module. This shows the Module: [Edit] screen:
- Select Yes in the Published field and select a module position from the Position drop-down list. From the Module Parameters section, in the Appearance of language selector drop-down list select how you want to display the language selection box. You can choose from Drop down of names, Drop down of names with current language flag, ul-list of names, ul-list of names with flag, ul-list of images, and Raw display of images.
- Preview the site’s frontend and you should see the site in the default language, with the language selection box at the specified position.
- From the language selection module, click another case, in my case Bangla, to show the site content in that language.
- Visitors to your site can now switch to any active language through this language selection module. Note that the URL of the site now appends language code, for example, http://www.yourjoomlasite.com/index.php?lang=bn, where bn stands for the Bangla language.
There’s more…
Note that in Joom!Fish, you can translate almost anything—articles, modules, menus, sections, categories, and so on. These translations are done through content elements. You can see any component or module by clicking on Components | Joom!Fish | Content Elements.
You can download content elements for new extensions from http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/joomfish-extensions and http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomfish/frs/. After downloading content elements, click on the Install button on Content Elements screen. This shows the Joom!Fish::Content Element Installer screen.
Click on the Browse button, select the content element file, and then click on the Upload File & Install button. This installs the content and you can translate the content for that particular component or module.
Summary
This article covered:
- Manually translating your site’s content into your desired language
Further resources on this subject:
- Adding an Event Calendar to your Joomla! Site using JEvents
- Showing your Google calendar on your Joomla! site using GCalendar
- Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions: Adding a Booking System for Events
- Joomla! 1.5 Top Extensions for Using Languages
