froscon2007 - 0.96

FrOSCon
Free and Open Source Software Conference

Speakers
Gábor Hojtsy
Schedule
Day 2
Room HS6
Start time 14:00
Duration 01:00
Info
ID 41
Event type Podium
Track Drupal
Language English
Feedback

Human language support from Drupal 5 to 6

Exploring localization and translation possibilities

Content translation, interface translation and system localization are key issues when building a non-English or multilanguage web site. Drupal is great software to grow web communities or simply build web sites, but strong multilanguage features for not included in Drupal 5. Drupal 6 is about to change that with a set of improvements for end users and developers alike.

It is important to have the terminology straight, so we will walk through the meaning of different concepts first. Drupal 5 already has some interface translation features built in, but the i18n and localizer module sets fill in the role of content translation and better localization support. We will look at the problems these modules solve and the challenges faced by their maintainers. We will also look into how some of the other open source systems solve these problems to have some context on possible approaches.

The main focus of this talk however are the language improvements in the upcoming Drupal 6 version, including automatic interface translation management, better language setup, right-to-left language support, language dependent URL aliases, content language support and so on. We will look into what do these offer and what's still in store for contributed modules to improve on. Drupal 6 still leaves a big opportunity for contributed modules to build solutions tailored for specific needs.

(The event picture I used was made by Eric Gundersen, Development Seed, http://www.developmentseed.org)