Multilingual approach: will this work?

  • Hi folks,

    I using WP to run a webcomic site and I’m wanting to start running both english and spanish versions of the strip. I’ve just been reading about Gengo, which apparently is incompatible with WP2.3 and also seems stalled in development a bit. I also note a general push for multi-lingual functionality as core feature of WP. But, since it seems that neither of these is ready to go at the moment, I was thinking of just running duplicate installs in third level domains (something like en.mysite.com for the english version and es.mysite.com for the spanish). I would like, however, to set things up so that if a visitor is on a specific page in, say, the english version, clicking on the spanish link would take them to the corresponding page in spanish (as opposed to just taking them to the spanish home page). I’m thinking that as long as my category numbers and posting dates always match up between the two sites, I should be able to make such links work by invoking the right sort of query (or, given a limited category set, perhaps embedding a function) and using that to create the link. I’m planning to pursue that route over the weekend but thought I’d ask if I’m on the wrong track first. I’m not looking for anyone to do the work for me, but it would be helpful to know ahead of time of there’s some fundamental reason why this wouldn’t work before I go trying to reinvent a wheel that won’t even roll. ??

    Thanks in advance,

    Matt

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • Before you put lots of time into doing it on your own, have you checked out these?

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.ads-software.com Admin

    These are also good things to read:
    https://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/02/05/translation-and-multilingual-wordpress-plugins/
    https://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+multilingual

    In other words, this has been done, no need to roll your own methodology.

    Actually, gengo has an updated version:
    https://code.google.com/p/gengo-wp23/
    and except a minor bug (next/prev link on single post view) it works with 2.3.1.

    Thread Starter muhkayoh

    (@muhkayoh)

    Thanks for the replies. I had in fact read about most of the options available and found most of them to be unsuitable for my situation – either because they didn’t address features I needed, were in an alpha stage, or because the links to the plugins were just dead. The best option seemed to be Gengo which is why I mentioned it specifically in the post.

    I was not aware of the new version of Gengo at the link moshu provided, but I note that it is also an alpha (not even a beta, but an alpha). Moreover, a webcomic site is pretty much all about the single post view, so problems there are a reason for pause.

    Given that I’m already “beating WordPress into submission” to run a multi-title webcomic site, it’ll probably be easier to do my own thing – less chance for incompatibilities.

    No need to answer my original question at this point; I’ve been tossing the idea around in the back of my mind during the day and am now fairly certain as to how to approach it with fairly minimal coding needed.

    Thanks anyway,

    Matt

    I’ll be interested to find out what you did to achieve this:

    to set things up so that if a visitor is on a specific page in, say, the english version, clicking on the spanish link would take them to the corresponding page in spanish (as opposed to just taking them to the spanish home page).

    Thread Starter muhkayoh

    (@muhkayoh)

    I’ll besure to come back and post my solution in case anybody else can use it.

    FWIW, one of the things pushing me in the direction I’m going is the Gengo experience. If I use a plugin and a subsequent upgrade of WP renders it nonfunctional, then I’ve got to scramble to fix a live site (and one that I hope to have some decent traffic at – but then don’t we all). My way, I’ve got one little function that basically toggles between free-standing versions of WP. The odds are low it’ll break and I’ll know how to fix it if it does. And worst case scenario, even if that one function were to break, I’d still have perfectly functioning sites in each language.

    So there’s that.

    Thanks again,

    matt

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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