eZ Platform offers the ability of creating different language versions of all content in the repository.
How to create different language versions?
The multilanguage system operates based on a global translation list that contains all languages available in the installation. Languages can be added to this list from the Admin Panel in the user interface. Once this is done, any user with proper permissions can create Content item versions in these languages in the user interface.
See Using multiple languages for an overview of how to operate language version from the Admin Panel.
How to make translations available to the visitor?
Once more than one language is defined in the global translation list and there is content in different languages, the question is how can this be exposed to use by the visitor. There are two ways to do this:
- Implement a mechanism called Language Switcher. It lets you create links that allow switching between different translations of a Content item.
- If you want to have completely separate versions of the website, each with content in its own language, you can use siteaccesses. In this case, depending on the uri used to access the website, a different site will open, with a language set in configuration settings. All Content items will then be displayed in this primary language.
Fallback languages and missing translations
When setting up siteaccesses with different language versions, you can specify a list of preset languages for each siteaccess. When this siteaccess is used, the system will go through this list. If a Content item is unavailable in the first (prioritized) language, it will attempt to use the next language in the list, and so on. Thanks to this you can have a fallback in case of a lacking translation.
You can also assign a Default content availability flag to Content Types (available in the Admin Panel). When this flag is assigned, Content items of this type will be available even when they do not have a language version in any of the languages configured for the current siteaccess.
Multilanguage and permissions
LanguageLimitation allows you to limit users' editing rights depending on the language of the Content item. See Permissions and Limitations reference for more information.