Multilangauge Solution that doesn't require using segments

Question

I have looked at Multi Language Module and Multi Language Support add-ons as solutions for multi language support.

However, both of them require adding a segment in the url/ Something like

http://domain.com/en/page
http://domain.com/fr/page

Now, I really don't like this because it would break pages which rely on how segments are placed. For example, if I expected segment_3 to be X data in a page without the two-char language code in the url, adding the language code would break that page.

Are there other solutions/addons that don't need to do this? Maybe something like a global variable is set instead.

Or are there ways in the listed addons to circumvent this?

Answer 1

The language code within the URL wouldn't break the URL segment for the pages. It would be same as http://yoursite.com/en/segment_1/segment_2/segment_3

You can take a look at Multi Language Website with ExpressionEngine how a multilanguage website can be managed easily.

Answer 2

There aren't many solutions that don't require an addon. Here's how I did one recently http://digitalevangelist.net/blog/multi-lingual-expressionengine-practical and here's the one I've used that doesn't need an addon http://cwcrawley.co.uk/2010/01/multi-lingual-websites-in-expressionengine/

Answer 3

Now, I really don't like this because it would break pages which rely on how segments are placed. For example, if I expected segment_3 to be X data in a page without the two-char language code in the url, adding the language code would break that page.

Can't you just have a two character language code for each language, even the default one? This way your segment_x variables would always be consisent, segment_1 being the language, segment_2 being the first data segment?

Or if you have everything else working beautifully, but your only problem is that default language starts data from segment_1 and other languages from segment_2 (seeing for them segment_1 is the language variable) you could just replace the segment_x with your own variables.

Basically in your index.php just write a simple IF statement checking if the user is browsing the default language or not and based on that, set segment_x variables to your own variables, maintaining the same logic.

Default language:

• language = default
• part_1 = segment_1
• part_2 = segment_2

Other languages:

• language = segment_1
• part_1 = segment_2
• part_2 = segment_3

This way you can use part_1 in your templates and it becomes segment_1 for default language, segment_2 for others.

Answer 4

I developed a multi language website without add-ons. The technique I used is good both for subdomains as for different TLDs on the same server.

Take a look at my answer. I can explain again here, if you want to.