Localization overview

Introduction

You can get a complete overview of the page tree and page translations by using the Web > Info module and choosing the Localization Overview function.

Localization Overview in Web > Info module — Overview of existing translations in a blank Introduction Package

All the green entries indicate which languages the respective page is available in. The gray areas mean that no translation is available, but access to the page specifying this language is tolerated. It is also fast to create new translations from this module: use the checkboxes and hit the Create new translation headers button.

Translating several pages at once — Creating translations for a whole selection of pages at once

Hiding pages if no translation exist

If there is no translation of a page, it will still appear by default in the website menu when this language is used. Here the home page of the Introduction Package is in German (as can be seen from the translate page title in <title> tag), and all other (untranslated) pages still appear in the menu, albeit in the default language (English).

The menu with untranslated pages — The German home page with untranslated pages appearing in the menu

This behaviour can be changed. Let us edit the "Customizing" page. In the Behaviour tab, check the Hide page if no translation for current language exists:

Hiding the page if not translated — Hide the page if it is not translated

This is reflected in the Localization Overview:

Hidden translation in the overview — The Localization Overview reflects the change in visibility of the "Customizing" page

From this it is clear that when viewing the website in German the "Customizing" page is not accessible. The menu reflects this in the frontend.

Hidden translation in the menu — The "Customizing" page does not appear in the menu anymore

Trying to access the "Customizing" page directly with its ID will produce an error.

Missing translation generates error — An error message indicates a missing translation

Hiding default translation of pages

If you want pages only in the alternative languages you must still create a default language page in the page tree which simply acts as a placeholder. Setting this status is done by selecting the checkbox Hide default translation of page:

Hiding the page in default language — Hide the page in the default language

This is reflected in the Localization Overview:

Hidden default language in the overview — The Localization Overview shows the page as being unavailable in the default language

Note

The page also appears as being unavailable in Danish, because Danish falls back to English and English is not available.

On the web site, the menu now looks like this in German:

German menu with language-specific page — The German-specific page shows up in the German version of the web site

and in English:

English menu not showing language-specific page — The German-specific page does not show up in the default version of the web site

Trying to access the "Nur für Deutschland" page in the default language will yield an error.

Hiding pages in the default language is probably a rare thing to do, but it is possible to imagine cases where the topic of a page or section is only relevant in one of the alternative languages. Especially, if a language of the site is not only a translation but may serve subsidiaries of a company in a local context.

Inverse control of hidden translations

It is also possible to hide all untranslated pages by default with a global setting:

EXT:site_package/ext_localconf.php

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['FE']['hidePagesIfNotTranslatedByDefault'] = 1;

The Localization Overview reflects this immediately:

All untranslated pages hidden by default — The Localization Overview shows that all untranslated pages are hidden by default

Note how the behaviour of specific localization setting for the "Customizing" pages has been inverted. We had earlier defined the page to be hidden if no translation existed. Now it is forced to display even if no translation exists (this is reflected by its background being gray instead of red).

When editing the page properties, the label of the corresponding checkbox has changed:

Show page even if no translation exists — Inverted behaviour: choose to show the page even if no translation exists

Final notes

Summary of colors in the Localization Overview:

Green background: Page is translated and viewable in this language. For translations it means that an active Alternative Page Language overlay record is present.
Red background: Page cannot be viewed in this language and you will see an error message if you try. Menus should automatically filter out links to pages with this translation.
Gray background (not available for default language): Page will fall back to the specified fallback mode for content. It depends on the language fallback configuration set in your site configuration.