Language Switcher

Description

A content item can be translated in several languages. Those languages are configured in the system and exposed in SiteAccesses via a prioritized list of languages:

When visiting a Content item, it may be useful to let the user switch from one translation to another, more appropriate to him. This is precisely the goal of the language switcher.

The language switcher relies on the Cross-SiteAccess linking feature to generate links to the content's translation, and on RouteReference feature.

Usage

Configuration: explicit translation SiteAccesses

Configuration is not mandatory, but can help to distinguish which SiteAccesses can be considered translation SiteAccesses.

Configuration: more complex translation setup

There are some cases where your SiteAccesses share settings (repository, content settings...), but you don't want all of them to share the same translation_siteaccesses setting. This can be the case when you use SiteAccesses for mobile.

Solution is as easy as defining new groups:

Configuration: using implicit related SiteAccesses

If translation_siteaccesses setting is not provided, implicit related SiteAccesses will be used instead. SiteAccesses are considered related if they share:

• The same repository
• The same root location Id (see Multisite feature)

In a template

To generate a language switch link, you need to generate the RouteReference, with the language parameter. This can easily be done with ez_route() Twig function:

You can also omit the route, in this case, the current route will be used (i.e. switch the current page):

Using sub-requests

When using sub-requests, you lose the context of the master request (e.g. current route, current location...). This is because sub-requests can be displayed separately, with ESI or Hinclude.

If you want to render language switch links in a sub-request with a correct RouteReference, you must pass it as an argument to your sub-controller from the master request.

• ezpublish.translationSiteAccess( language ) returns the SiteAccess name for provided language (or null if it cannot be found)
• ezpublish.availableLanguages() returns the list of available languages.

Using PHP

You can easily generate language switch links from PHP too, with the RouteReferenceGenerator service:

You can also retrieve all available languages with the TranslationHelper: