Language selection menu

To properly navigate a multilingual web site you probably want to have a language selection menu somewhere. This menu should show an entry for each possible, with variation of aspect depending on translation availability:

  • Translation exists
  • Translation exists - currently selected
  • Missing translation
  • Missing translation - currently selected

This kind of menu can be made by either using a LanguageMenuProcessor on a FLUIDTEMPLATE or using the HMENU content object with special type language.

LanguageMenuProcessor example

The Introduction Package comes with a text-based rendering of the language menu, located in the footer:

Text-based language menu

A text-based language menu, with active and disabled states

This is the corresponding TypoScript code, that sets up a LanguageMenuProcessor on the page level:

EXT:site_package/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript 
page = PAGE
page {
  10.dataProcessing {
    40 = TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\DataProcessing\LanguageMenuProcessor
    40 {
      languages = <insert language-id> or "auto"
      as = languagenavigation
    }
  }
}
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The value for languages is a list of comma-separated language IDs (for example: 0,1,2) or auto to load from site configuration.

The menu is then passed as a hierarchical array to Fluid in the variable {languagenavigation}. The Fluid template iterates through the array and creates the language links:

EXT:site_package/Resources/Private/Templates/SomeTemplate.html 
<f:if condition="{languagenavigation}">
    <ul id="language_menu" class="language-menu">
        <f:for each="{languagenavigation}" as="item">
            <li class="{f:if(condition: item.active, then: 'active')} {f:if(condition: item.available, else: 'text-muted')}">
                <f:if condition="{item.available}">
                    <f:then>
                        <a href="{item.link}" hreflang="{item.hreflang}" title="{item.title}">
                            <span>{item.navigationTitle}</span>
                        </a>
                    </f:then>
                    <f:else>
                        <span>{item.navigationTitle}</span>
                    </f:else>
                </f:if>
            </li>
        </f:for>
    </ul>
</f:if>
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