how to add multiple languages to an English website - multilingual

I am trying to add two additional languages to my website - Chinese, Japanese. User inputs could be in native language, in English or be mixed. E.g. search by product name. Likewise output can be all-English or be in mixed languages, depending on a user's preferences. I already have applicable translations so that is not a problem. It is a data intensive site. It uses web APIs to fetch JSON data objects, and uses angular and backbone, and jquery.
I will appreciate if you possibly refer me to some good books or pages that provide guidance for building multilingual sites. Are there any particular web standards that must be followed by websites and by browsers?
Googling yields a ton of links, but the discussion appears centered around specific packages such as wordpress, joomla, .net, drupal, etc. and appears more around automated translations. It still left me confused about the basics requirements of multilingual sites as I do not use any of these packages.
Thanks a lot.
ps: if you need to leave me a -1, np. But I would very much appreciate a comment as to why - so that it doesn't appear as if you just vented and offered me no opportunity for improvement.

Wells... when i need to build a bilingual website i just use a language selector menu and build the whole website in 2 languages (i think this way its more professional) cause usually translators doesnt 100% translate correctly and at the end you just get a bunch of stuff making no sense.
Maybe you could use Google Website Translator gadget for what you trying to do?? its paid service tho, you could use also the plugin for Wordpress http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-language-translator/
Or use the Google Ajax Language API https://code.google.com/p/jquery-translate/

Related

Multilanguage Website

I'm building a website for the company of my parents. However they want multi-language support. I was thinking of the different ways to implement this. However I am curious as to the best practices and how to make the website have a minimal upkeep.
It's just a static front-end (based on Bootstrap) informative website without CMS or active conten management.
Solutions I came up with so far:
Built all the pages twice in each language. Set the links manual: High upkeep
Built a front-end js script that reroutes dependant on the language cookie set? (Is this even possible)
Are there other best practices to implement this without resorting to a clunky CMS like Drupal / WordPress ...
The optimal solution also depends on how extensive the site is, how many languages it contains, and what functionality, scalability or Online Marketing is required for the future. Drupal meets all these requirements also in terms of language switcher, different META-Tags etc. Okay, Drupal needs a bit workforce for understanding, structured way of working and documentation. Django is more programmer friendly which demands more technical but Drupal is more user friendly.
With little effort you can offer your websites in other languages with Google Translate: https://support.google.com/translate/answer/2534601?hl=en
After thorough research: for a proper multilingual website which is easy to maintain. A framework / CMS is required:
Wordpress
Rails
Django
Drupal
...
One suggestion to your solution of building pages twice. You can have a template:
home_page.html_template:
<body>
<div> ${INTRODUCTION_TEXT} </div>
<div> ${SOME_OTHER_TEXT} </div>
</body>
I.e. you code the whole page structure once, but don't specify what text will be added. You store translations for each piece of text in two languages in two different files. Then you run a script to generate separate html pages for each language.
You could even go one step further and use google translate API to translate text for you on the server side, before generating html.

What tools should I use to develop a device neutral web application?

I am a computer science student in my senior year at my local university. I recently was hired on as an intern to create a mobile web application. The mobile web application is very simple; it needs to interface with a data base to both give a full data base view for an administrator and for end users to fill out a simple survey. I have never done anything in web development before, so I did a little research and the tools that kept coming up where html, css, java script, and php. However, I also ran into other tools with different applications, like AJAX with Jquery, HTML5, and micrsofts asp.net. I have a basic understanding of html and css, but I haven't committed to a development platform yet. I wanted some advice on which one to choose, based on the following criteria:
1) I want to develop a website that is device neutral. So I want it to work well on both desktops and mobile devices.
2) No one knows the future, but I would like to use the development platform that is likely to become or remain the standard in the future.
3) It needs to be available as a part of a standard server platform for a typical web host
4) It needs to be able to dynamically generate web content and interface with an SQL data base.
I would really appreciate some advice, input, ect. I don't know if I will pursue a career in web development, but sense I already have to learn at least one development platform, I figure I might as well learn the right one.
Thank you for any advice and input.
If you don't have a web developer background and don't want to spend time learning it thoroughly, I would recommend using Google's GWT. It provides you with all the tools to implement your application purely in Java, without caring too much about the front end. As the whole thing's in Java, all the SQL handling can be done there, with the results sent to the front end.
Then, you can add built-in elements (flexible tables, panels, buttons, images, etc.) to the app, again, using Java only. You can get some CSS templates from the web and apply the styles without any HTML knowledge at all.
Once ready, you can compile the whole thing into JavaScript, with several permutations of the code compatible with most of the modern browsers. Then all you have to do is to deploy these generated JavaScript and HTML files onto your HTTP server and enjoy :) You can also touch the HTML directly if you have something that can't be applied through GWT but in the case of a simple webapp this won't be the case...

Creating an online Asset Library/Catalogue? Help

I've been asked to look in to creating and online database for sorting flash banners. So its kind of like a big resource library where our client can log on search and browser for old/existing banner creatives.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should do/look in to. CMS Framesworks etc.
I'm pretty sure I could use Wordpress for this job via custom post types etc. But I think there's probably a better solution out there. Drupal? Joomla? Expression Engine? Or would it be better to just create a basic cms from scratch.
Features needed:
Kick arse search functionality (am guessing the client will likely try to search for creative by year, month, campaign, banner type.
Smart navigation
Sharing is convenient
Must be able to demo working demos of expanding banners as well as non-expanding
CMS so new ads can be easily added to the library.
Thanks in advance for you knowledgeable insights :P
cheers
Although basic Joomla has own extension for this purpose, here:
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/ads-a-affiliates/banner-management , you have got a whole set of advanced extensions which do the job for you in Joomla. Read opinions and choose your favourite

Suggested Language for Web-Based Intranet/Database

Hate to ask a question this borderline generic, but I'm looking to build a web based program that combines our company intranet with a forms-based database. I would be looking at Oracle's database product except that this definitely needs to be web based.
I'm currently investigating using Alfresco (java-based) as a repository, and some PHP engine for the front end. Does anyone know of PHP issues when the task at hand becomes too involved (I'm an amateur, mind you), compared to Python, for example? I would eventually like to be able to scale this project upward, even if I hired someone else to do it.
Pre-built modules would definitely help with the workload. I know Drupal has many, but I've never perused compilations of modules for other languages. I think the availability of modules may be the most important factor!
Alfresco is great for managing content (e.g. documents or static html pages) in a collaborative manner. It has excellent tie-ins to the desktop with WebDav integration. Drupal is better for more dynamic web content and more flexible web pages. Not quite sure what you mean by forms-based content.
With Drupal's CCK module (now mostly built into Drupal 7) and Views - you can create forms (as content types) for people to fill out and then present the results as either lists, tables, grids of nodes or almost any other filterable, list presentation you can think of using Views.
Every page in Drupal is really just a form that collects content to present in a particular way (e.g. the standard page is a Title field and a Body field), but a user profile is just another type of content form with a different set of fields.
Alfresco is currently getting better at Web Content Management (WCM). They recently rewrote the WCM feature set completely, and provide a Quick Start sample to, well, get you started quickly. Alfresco would provide you with a collaborative editing platform, with workflows, ACLs and extensive remoting capabilities (huge, extensible REST API, WebDAV, CMIS). You'll have configurable forms based content creation, plus a platform for your intranet.
The front end for Alfresco WCM would be than written using CMIS to retrieve content from Alfresco, APIs are available for Java, Python and PHP.

Which is the easier CMS to integrate with CakePHP?

I was trying develop a website with Cakephp and Joomla... But lately I've been founding a lot of barriers that create difficulties implementing things that would have been a lot easier if I only developped using one of the components.
So, in your point of view (as someone with more experience than me), is it worth to integrate CakePhp with a CMS?
If yes, what do you think its the best and easier CMS to integrate with?
Or use Croogo (http://croogo.org/)
A CakePHP CMS. I like Croogo's implementation more than Wildflower and the admin UI looks a bit similar to Wordpress.
From my point of view i wouldn't try. I think there would be a lot of crossover functionality and a lot of conflict. Either use Cake and write a CMS and the other elements you want or pick a CMS and develop the other elements you want as add-ins/plugins.
Joomla, Drupal, Xaraya, Expression-engine etc are all extensible so pick the one that is the best fit and has the ability to be extended or maybe already has plugins you require.
Another option would be to use Joomla as the CMS and Cake for the other element you want, keep them as separate entities but skin then identically and make the navigation seamless. In this case about the only thing you would need to integrate would be state.
There are some out there already that are on Cake from the ground up. Wildflower for example
http://wf.klevo.sk/
I have a cakephp site that is running wordpress in it's public_html/blog folder and it is doing great.
They are basically two separate sites, with two separate backend but it is fairly easy to create a model for the wordpress database if you want to pull in any data (eg. posts, pages, comments) and use it in the cakephp site.
As far a integrating the two I don't think it is a good idea if it needs to be a seamless experience for the backend users, most frontend users won't notice the difference because you can use the same style sheet and images.
If you want any more about my experiences with the combination let me know!
Cakeui is a rip of Croogo. Infinitas CMS could be what you're looking for if you want a full blown application or check this site for a list of good CakePHP Cms
As the developer of Croogo, I will be biased and recommend you to check it out at http://croogo.org. It comes with a web based installer too and you should be up and running in minutes.
Another CakePHP based CMS is Infinitas which has more features (including shopping cart). Both are based on the latest version of the framework (1.3 at the moment) and are actively developed.
I wrote a lot of CMS type apps with Cake and was thinking along the same lines. I've tried Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress but still had a dirty feeling in my mouth that I was failing by using Cake just for the sake of it or vice versa.
The most important common denominator, in my experience, is the back-end. It is re-used most often, but gets the least input.
Now I have built my own CMS with CakePHP. The intention is to 'opensource' it, but it's not quite ready yet.
I don't think it is worth the headache trying to combine, then maintain Cake and a 3rd party CMS. Save your best modules and components and build your own. The blog tutorial will give you a good head start and you can cherrypick what you like from other sources, rewriting it to suit your ideals. The benefit is you will then know the CMS inside out and have it working just the way you want. You'll learn a lot along the way as well.

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