Custom or duplicate menu file / multi-country multi-language

[LowNotesB]

I'm hoping I can get this to work but I'm not sure if it is possible.

I'm using seblod multisite to allow multiple domains to access the same website

I'm attempting to build a multi-country multi-language website.

it.domain.com/it - italy country / italian language
it.domain.com/en - italy country / english language

To accomplish this each country / language combo will have their own menu and their own articles/categories, unless "ALL".

The problem that I see has to do with the default language menu item only being able to be in one menu. It doesn't seem possible to have more than one menu that shares a language.

My hope for a solution would be to be able to create a duplicate language pack, so a copy of english that could be used to make the default menu item.

Please help if you have any experience here.

Thank you.

[imanickam]

My hope for a solution would be to be able to create a duplicate language pack, so a copy of english that could be used to make the default menu item.

Suggest reviewing the extension Localise at http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... n/localise.

[LowNotesB]

Thank you for your reply. I've downloaded the extension and it looks very useful for managing translations.

I was wondering if you could give me a bit more detail on how this can be used for a solution for what I'm running into.

I guess I need some guidance on the concept of copying languages so that I can have a unique language for each menu.

Any additional advice you could give would be most appreciated. Thank you.

[imanickam]

You have provided some in your first post of this topic.

Please provide a detailed picture of what you want to accomplish. For example, do you want to have sub-domain for each of the country?, whether the content would be different for the same language in different countries?, are you planning to build one site for all the countries and if so, is there a compelling reason for that?, and so forth.

[LowNotesB]

Thank you for your reply and I apologize for not being more clear.

I'm attempting to build one site (single db) joomla. This is not a case of same content translated many times. Rather this is a case of unique content per country, as well as some common content that is shared. In the end we will have about 10 country sites where the content is targeted to people who are viewing from within that country. I plan on using auto geoip routing as well as menu selector as ways to show the appropriate domain as well as giving option to navigate all countries.

Originally I was hoping to keep it all one domain, but have now ended on the path of using multiple subdomains
it.domain.com
fr.domain.com
es.domain.com
...

I'm using a Gantry 5 template with Seblod multi-site. For every country/lang I have unique template outline, menu, content category/sub categories. In some cases there are documents that I could associate with similar on other country pages, but this is more of a case of a multi-country website, then it is a multi-lingual. Multilingual in the sense that we might want 1 or 2 secondary languages for a country.

So for every country, like it.domain.com, we would have italian (the primary page for visitors in italy), and then also english.
it.domain.com/it
it.domain.com/en

for spain
es.domain.com/es
es.domain.com/en

I have all of this working, except for an issue with the fact that you can only assign a main menu item once to a language, yet I will need a menu for every country/lang variation that I need content for. The solution that I'm hoping exists is to create a new language file when needed so that I can assign a main menu item to it.

As to your question about the compelling reason to try to build one site is that there is common content and also a management issue of 1 vs. 10 websites.

I really would have preferred to keep it all one domain as well, which I think would have been better for seo, but i could not figure out how to do it without building 10 separate websites.

Thank you for your help.

[infograf768]

It is evidently possible (for example with com_localise) to create multiple variations of the English language en-GB (some are already available as installable registered packs : en-US, en-CA.) You could create also en-HK, en- ANYCOUNTRYCODE.

Then it will just be a matter of using the Languagecode System plugin to change in site source the code ONLY.
For example: en-HK will be presented as en-GB (or whatever you need) in source. This is very useful for SEO and would let you create as many Content Languages as necessary with their own Home page.
Then you would have to batch copy items already tagged to en-GB to the new Content Languages.

Something to take into account are the language strings for 3rd party extensions. You would have to create all ini files for each Content Language, based on the reference one. I.e. You may need to create from each en-GB ini the equivalent en-HK.ini.

[Charles Steiner]

Look into this extension Language Domains by Yireo
http://extensions.joomla.org/profile/ex ... ge-domains.

You might find it handy, as it allows a separate domain to be assigned to each language. You specifiy in the plugin. example
en-UK=joomla.org
fr-FR=joomla.fr
es-ES=joomla.es

It's really as easy as that. You use the same database and everything. Everything is done as it is with a regular multilingual site, but this plugin is used instead of the the stock filter plugin.

[LowNotesB]

Hi Charles, thank you for your reply about Language Domains. That looks interesting, and actually something I ran across a few days ago. I was curious about this extension as it seems less intrusive.

Right now I'm a bit down the road on using Seblod's multi-site approach, which uses an ACL model to keep everything separated. So far it seems to be working, especially now that I'm learning how to create new language files with the the help from above.

Thanks again for the suggestion, i will check it out as a backup. i'm using Seblod already on the site so it was already there for me.

Also, thank you Jean-Marie for your help with understanding duplicating languages. I thought that might be possible but i just wasn't sure.