Localized content

Introduction

There are two strategies for handling the translation of content on pages:

Connected mode

Translating content will create a direct connection between the original language and the language you translate to. This means that moving an element or setting meta information like start time or end time will be taken from the original content and you will not be able to set these values on a translated content element. Translated records will hold the connection to their original language record in the l10n_parent field. This mode is best for a strict translation workflow.

Free mode

Copying content will take the content elements from the source language and create copies in a different language. This means that you will be able to move content elements around freely, but you will not have the benefit of being able to compare changes made in the source language later on. Use this mode, when the translated pages content can largely differ from the original language and you want to have that freedom in designing your translated website.

When you start translating a page, the Web > Page module will ask you about this choice when clicking on the Translate button:

The Translate button corresponds to the connected mode, the Copy button to the free mode. Furthers details on how to proceed with translations are found in the Editor's Tutorial.

Connected content

If you opted for the connected content strategy, this is the default way that translated pages will be handled in the frontend and requires no further configuration in the site configuration. In the site configuration, the fallbackType "strict" would look like this:

languages:
  -
    # ... other language settings ...
    fallbackType: strict

In this connected mode, TYPO3 will first internally fetch the records of the default language, then overlay them with the target language. If a record is not translated into the target language, then it is discarded and not shown at all.

The German version will be reduced to the actually translated elements:

Another way to view connected content in the frontend is by creating a fallback chain. For this we have to adjust the site configuration and provide a comma-separated list of fallback languages:

languages:
  -
    # ... other language settings ...
    fallbackType: fallback
    # 1 = Danish, 0 = English
    fallbacks: '1,0'

In this mode, TYPO3 will also first internally fetch the records of the default language and then overlay them with the target language. If no translation exists for the target language, it will now go from left to right through the fallback chain and first try to find a translation for the language ID 1 (Danish) and, if that is a miss as well, fall back to language ID 0 (English).

Free content

With the free mode content strategy, the site configuration will have to be adjusted accordingly:

languages:
  -
    # ... other language settings ...
    fallbackType: free

This means, TYPO3 will directly fetch the translated records and not care about the records in the default language at all.

The "All" language

When using overlays, it becomes possible to use a particular language called "All", which will be automatically visible across all translations. The uid of that particular language is "-1".

It is also marked with the special language icon in the Web > Page module:

Note that no Translate button appears, the new content element is valid for all languages.

Localizing inline elements (IRRE)

When localizing a record with inline elements (IRRE), the inline elements will be grayed out and not automatically localized. TYPO3 will display two buttons to help you localize and keep the elements in sync.

Localize all records creates localized versions of all inline elements from the default language in your current language so that you can translate them. Each element that has not yet been localized will also have a Localize button that will allow you to localize individual elements.

Synchronize with original language can be clicked when you have translated the elements and the content in the default language changed.