[Zope-dev] Re: [Zope] Multi-lingual sites and workflow

[Petr van Blokland]

Lee Hunter wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone here has used Zope to create
> bilingual/multi-lingual/localised websites.
>
> I've done a number of bilingual (French and English) projects in recent
> years using plain old html where the two language versions had to be kept
> mostly symmetrical and its been a bit of a pain as the site grows to keep
> the two versions in synch and make sure the translations are done on time
> etc.
>
> Its seems that Zope might help manage these kinds of projects - by smoothing
> the workflow - tracking what needs translation, perhaps sending stuff to the
> translator automatically, reporting on what's been done by who and comparing
> the two language versions to make sure they are parallel. And perhaps even
> sharing a common architecture - so that you didn't need two sets of DTML
> methods etc.
>
> I'm wondering if this fits into other generic Zope workflow products that
> people have talked about developing or if it would have to be built from
> scratch.
>
> Anyone have thoughts on this subject?

Yes. Look at our bilingual site at http://www.petr.com
In the url: http://z.petr.com/buro/p/index_html?language=en
the parameter 'language' is available in the whole object tree.
Only text modules need to know how to react on this parameter.
Pages, images, navigation, templates etc. are not aware of the language
(though they may if needed, e.g. changing the layout)
So there in only one tree of pages, one set of navigation.
The text modules have syntax like:

<dtml-if "getform('language') == 'nl'">De kracht van het werken met klein
team...
<dtml-else>The strength of working with a small team...
</dtml-if>

Pages only contain references to text modules and the name of a template
to be used.

Kind regards, Petr van Blokland
buro@petr.com