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Launching a Multilingual Blog Creation Service – Best choices, best options

Hi

I’m still working on a multilingual blog creation service and just want to be sure that I won’t have bad surprises in the future.

According to this post it looks like the following scenario would be the best way to build this project:

THEMES

Each of these subsites will be using a different child theme of the same parent theme. For example:

My parent theme is “exampletheme”

http://en.example.com will be using “exampletheme-child-en”

http://fr.example.com will be using “exampletheme-child-fr”

http://de.example.com will be using “exampletheme-child-de”

I think that by doing this I will have less problems in the future (language/translation issues…:wink: but maybe I’m wrong. Well, if you have an advice to give me about this it would be very appreciated.

PLUGINS

What’s about plugins like:

For example:

  • What would be the best way to show a TOS (terms-of-service) in English if the user creates an account on en.example.com and to show a TOS in French if a user creates an account on fr.example.com?

  • What would be the best way to show tooltips (easy-blogging-tooltips) in English for admins whose site language is set to English and to show tooltips in French for admins whose site language is set to French?

Of course, I have the same questions/doubts for the other plugins mentioned above.

Should I duplicate each of these plugins for every language? Example: plugins/signup-tos_en // plugins/signup-tos_fr // plugins/signup-tos_de or is that a stupid idea?

I also would like to offer a main support forum with bbpress. I’m not really sure if I should better create one big bbpress install with subforums for each language (http://example.com/forums/english // http://example.com/forums/francais // …:wink: or if I should better create different bbpress installs (one for each language: http://en.example.com/forums // http://fr.example.com/forums // http://de.example.com/forums // …:wink:. Of course every user should be able to login to the appropriate forum without creating a new account. What would you do if you were in my place?

Are there any other problems, questions or other options I might have to consider with this model? Well, finally what I would like to have is some kinds of portals like:

http://fr.wordpress.com/

http://es.wordpress.com/

http://de.wordpress.com/

Thank you for the care that you will give to these questions that are fundamental to every kind of multilingual WordPress multisite project. :slight_smile:

Laurent

P.S. : Feel free to move this post to a different forum if you think it would be useful for non registered users.

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:06:31
  • DavidM
    • DEV MAN’s Mascot

    Hi Laurent, you’ve brought up some very good questions and while I’ve considered how to best handle language concerns, I’m not sure of the optimal way to do it. While I take a look into some possible ways to do it, I’m going to mention this one to some other folks around here who have a bit more experience with languages.

  • Lorange
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Unfortunately I don’t think that this kind of plugins are a reasonable solution for large networks. As an example I don’t think that WordPress.com use a translation plugin for its language portals. And creating different subsites for each language portals offer the advantage to customize them for each community.

    Therefore I would like to get some advice about the plugins I’ve mentioned. There are probably different solutions. What would you do if you were in my place? And what’s about bbpress?

    These are really crucial questions for this project. I really need to make the best choices.

  • Philip John
    • DEV MAN’s Apprentice

    Laurent,

    As our plugins are localised you can provide multiple translations for each of them.

    When you create your individual language sites you can simply go to the General Settings page and set the language for each.

    Then, when you activate the plugins they will simply use the language you have set for that site!

    Cheers

    Phil

  • Lorange
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Hello Phil,

    Thank you for your answer. I know that your plugins are localized. But the plugins I’m refering to (please check my first post) have content that need to be entered in the admin panel. These contents are not saved in language files. This is the problem here. Or maybe I’m missing something? Is it possible to store these texts in languages files?

    Anyway, I need a way to display TOS in english for english-speaking users, a TOS in french for french-speaking users, … The same with the other plugins.

    And what’s about bbpress? What would you recommend?

  • Philip John
    • DEV MAN’s Apprentice

    content that need to be entered in the admin panel

    Can you let me know exactly what items of text you’re referring to that you need to translate and where they are please?

    You’ve referenced several plugins that obviously create a lot of content so it’d help if you could be more specific about your requirements.

    Phil

  • Lorange
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    Ok, here is an example for TOS: http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/network/settings.php?page=signup-tos (it’s a textarea)

    Here is another one for Global footer content:

    Site Admin > Settings > Footer Content (it’s a text area)

    And here is a new one that came with WP 3.1.1

    Since WP 3.1.1 there is now the possibility to define the content for new sites/blogs in Site Admin > Settings > New Site Settings (first post, first page, first comment, …:wink:. As with the plugins mentioned above, I would like to have a first comment in french on subsites set in french, a first comment in english on subsites set in english, …

    And beside this I’m still looking for the best choice for bbpress.

    Thank you for your efforts.

    Laurent

  • Aaron
    • Ex Staff

    That’s not how internationalization works in WP (or any other software). You only translate the static strings in the plugins (instructions, etc.) It’s not possible to do user generated content.

    You would need to code your own custom implementations for that.

    Another option is to use a multi-network setup, then network settings (like all those plugin text areas) will be distinct so you could translate them different.

  • Lorange
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    You would need to code your own custom implementations for that.

    Another option is to use a multi-network setup, then network settings (like all those plugin text areas) will be distinct so you could translate them different.

    Now you come to the REAL TRUE FUN-DA-MEN-TAL question! :slight_smile: So what is the best option? What would you do if you were in my place? (or let me say that in a different way: what would you do if you were going to build from start a new wordpress.com network, with different portals for each language (each portal displaying last n subsites of that language, last n members of that language, last n posts of that language, …:wink:?

    This is a really important question to me… maybe the most important of my whole project! This is why I’m asking for some professional advice as I don’t want to start on a bad foot. You may find more information about my multilingual project in this thread too: https://wpmudev.com/forums/topic/creating-a-multilingual-blog-platform-advices-and-experiences-welcomed (december 2010)

    If you think this would need some more time and that it would be better to contact you for a private and extra cost consultancy, please tell me. I just want to be sure to get the best advices and information I need.

  • Lorange
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    I just wanted to add that I know there is this multi-network plugin on Worpdress.org. But this doesn’t look very reassuring… And a lot of plugins (WPMU DEV plugins as I’m trying to limit my choice to your plugins) will probably not work as expected. If I decided to take this direction I would prefer to make separate installs of WordPress. The problem is that ideally I would like to have all subsites on the same domain.

  • Lorange
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    No, it’s not only stuff on registration.

    I hope this detailed post will help:

    PLUGINS

    To let you get a better idea, here are the WPMU DEV plugins that will have this kind of problems (and that I’m going to use)

    1. https://wpmudev.com/project/terms-of-service

    2. https://wpmudev.com/project/automatic-follow-up-emails-for-new-users

    3. https://wpmudev.com/project/admin-message

    4. https://wpmudev.com/project/moderation (report reasons, ex: spam, obscene, copyright infringement, …:wink:

    5. https://wpmudev.com/project/support-system (FAQs need to be entered in WP admin)

    6. https://wpmudev.com/project/blog-types (in all cases this would need to customize the plugin)

    And there are 3 WPMUDEV plugins that I haven’t checked yet but that might have some bits of custom text that need to be entered by the superadmin in WP admin: https://wpmudev.com/project/supporter / https://wpmudev.com/project/e-commerce / https://wpmudev.com/project/classifieds

    WP CORE SETTINGS

    Similar problems will occur with new WP core features:

    1. Default textual content for new sites/blogs as defined in Site Admin > Settings > New Site Settings (first post, first page, first comment, …:wink:

    THEMES

    Other problems will occur with network themes:

    1. themes descriptions (important)

    2. widgets area and page templates names (less important) –> see this post

    SPECIFIC PLUGINS

    And finally there are some specific plugins whose output should be different on each language portal (fr.example.com / en.example.com / es.example.com, …:wink:, i.e. filtered by language

    1. https://wpmudev.com/project/blogs-directory (blogs whose admin’s language is set to French on fr.example.com, blogs whose admin’s language is set to English on en.example.com, …:wink:

    2. https://wpmudev.com/project/members-directory (idem)

    3. https://wpmudev.com/project/recent-global-posts-widget (idem)

    4. https://wpmudev.com/project/blogs-widget (idem)

    SOLUTIONS THAT I CAN SEE

    1) Seperate WP instances for each language, each set as multisite on a different domain (problem: a) I want all subsites registered under the same domain name which is a killer one ; b) I would prefer to build my communication strategy on one single domain instead of several different domains)

    2) Seperate WP instances for each language, each set as multisite on a different subdomain (problems: a) I want all subsites registered under the same domain ; b) I heard that it’s better to have the main (master) site in the root… but is that really true?)

    3) One WP instance set up as a multi-network (problem: a) the multi-network plugin is not supported by WPMU DEV ; b) it will probably add a big layer of complexity and make problems with a lot of plugins and themes ; c) it will even be more difficult to get support by plugins and themes providers with such a complex and non standard installation)

    4) One WP instance set up as a normal network (multisite) with some customizations added to each of the plugins and maybe themes mentioned above.

    5) One WP instance set up as a normal network (multisite) with a custom plugin that should be developed and would let me define special languages conditions in the text input fields and areas of the WP admin or add a new input field/area for each language). Oh that would be great and solve most of my problems, even with plugins that require a lot of custom texts stored in the database (example: http://codecanyon.net/item/easy-contextual-help-for-wordpress/132014 <– this plugin is a really good example to figure out the problem that I’m facing). Of course that would still require some plugins to be customized (ex: members directory, blogs directory… but this could be easily done).

    I like solutions 2 and 5…

    What do you think of this?

    Would you recommend another one?

    Would you be able to help me further on this if I contact you through your contact form to talk about a possible custom work?

  • Philip John
    • DEV MAN’s Apprentice

    Hi Laurent,

    There is a lot there, for sure and it sounds like what you’re looking to build is pretty extensive. I think that a custom job would be best here, yes. We could go on forever in this thread….

    I’ll check with the guys but I’m pretty sure we’re fully booked up on custom work at the moment. There’s always the jobs board of course.

    Phil

  • Aaron
    • Ex Staff

    I would do number 3 as you seem to want to segment just about everything. All themes and almost every plugin should be fine in that setup. I think just about all of our plugins should be fine with it, some may need minor customization depending on how you want to segment data.

    You will have to hire a developer for this either way though. Good luck!

  • marfarma
    • New Recruit

    I have also just purchased that same plugin – and I also plan to purchase this one, http://wpml.org/ and expect to use their integrated translation service for things like terms and conditions, sales copy, etc.

    I’ve subscribed to this thread, and will share my experience. I look forward to following yours.

    I am curious, Laurent, if you considered the wpml plugin, and decided not to use it, why you decided against it?

    Pauli