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Magento multi language setup: surefire way to localize a Global store

20th Aug 2012 | Posted by Indies in Magento

3,125 views

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Magento allows implementation of multiple stores set up and management very easily. In my previous blog of Magento multi store management I explained at length how that mechanism works. If you are reading this first I’d suggest you read that article afterwards for a more thorough understanding.

There is a facility of adding more than one language to your store in Magento i.e. Magneto multi store management. You don’t have to code a lot for that. Say you have created a store view for Spanish language. So when someone wants to look at the store in Spanish language then the whole site can be translated to Spanish.

How does it work?

There are three ways to apply translation to your store. Inline, String list and Whole store. Inline translation allows you to edit Magento demo store directly and view the changes instantaneously. The string list method allows you to translate Magento by individual modules instead of each page on the demo site. You can directly check on the demo store how it translates and shows up on a real Magento site after translation in the language of your choice.

The third method of download allows you do download a translation package which is uploaded by the moderator. You can add this package to your magento store and the whole store is translated for a particular language.

To check the translations through inline and string list methods follow these steps:

1. Go to http://www.magentocommerce.com/translations and select the language of your choice. We were talking about Spanish. Just look at how many different versions of Spanish Magneto provides! You can also request a new translation package if you cannot find your locale mentioned in the list.
2. Select the language. Here we have narrowed it down to Spanish (Maxico) version. Once you select it you will be redirected to a page from where you can decided which type of translation you want to perform.
3. Clicking on inline link will take you to the demo store from where you can see the homepage of the demo store translated to Spanish. You can make changes and edit the demo store as you like to see how the translation pans out.
   
4. When you select String list method you will see a list of module of magento and translation of labels of all those modules. From here you can also select any one module or all the modules to look at the translation provided by Magento.
   

The red box shows the original text and the green one the translated text.

To apply Magento multi language setup in your store, follow these steps:

Well you might have noticed a folder named locale in your magento app folder. This folder contains language packages that contain CSV files for translation of the store. When you add a new language to your store and select it from the frontend Magento will look into app/locale to find a language pack and then translate the page according to that. What we have to do is get a locale package of our Spanish language and associate it with our store. Let’s see how it’s done.

1. Download the localization package which is the third option on our list after reviewing the translations through Inline and string list methods.
   
2. Extract the package and copy it to your Magento store. The package contains translation files for your themes as well. So it contains an app folder which you have to copy on top of your existing app folder.
3. Now go to your admin area and create a new store view for Spanish language. Once you have created a store view you can tie up the new translation files we downloaded with this store view. Go to System->Configuration and select Spanish store view from the left top box of setting up the store configuration scope. And from the left side from Locale Optionstab select Spanish as our current store’s locale.
   You will also have to include this new store view in homepage scope. So that when you select this store from frontend it doesn’t show up a blank homepage.
   To set up that go to your CMS->Pagesand select your homepage. From the first configuration screen select the new store view to display this homepage.

Save your customizations and clear your cache. Go to frontend and check out your new translation implementation. Just like we added Spanish you can add any other language of your choice following these same easy steps. If you face any difficulty in Magento multi language implementation then let me know. Comment here and you’ll get reply.

Magento multi language setup: surefire way to localize a Global store, 4.3 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

2 Comments

1. 
   
   
   Soulaimane
   22-Feb-2013

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   Hello,

   I installed two store views and configure each of it to support multiple languages. but in the frontend I don’t find how to switch from the default view to the other view. So how can I add this select list of views at the frontend of magento store.

   Thank you.

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2. 
   
   
   Indies
   01-Mar-2013

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   Hi,
   You can find the language combo-box in the template file , you have to refer Magento default theme for this file.

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