Additional resources
There are two main areas of translation for your Drupal site: the user interface and the content. The user interface text is mostly provided by the software, stored in the code itself. This is sometimes referred to as "hard-coded." While content is generated by users of the site, and stored in the database. Drupal core comes with the Locale module, which works with the user interface text and gives you a nice set of tools that lets you import existing translations, create or edit your own, or export your site’s translations for use on other sites. In this lesson we'll take a tour of the Locale module and discuss translation files, translating strings, language switching, and how to get a localized installation.
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The first step to using any of Drupal’s multilingual features is installing a translation, so that Drupal has more than one language to choose from. As mentioned previously, you can use a localized distribution so that you install your language during the site installation process. Alternatively, you can easily add a language after you have installed the site by using the “Localization update” module. In this lesson we'll get the right pieces in place and get two different languages installed on the site.
Additional resources
Drupal Translations on localize.drupal.org
Using Drupal, 2nd edition
Using Drupal source code
With several language translations installed on our site, we need to make a choice about how and when Drupal will use our new languages. In this lesson, we'll review the Locale module configuration to make sure it is performing the way we want it to, by setting language detection and selection, and then enabling our language switcher.
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You may notice that even though you are using a translation that you have installed, there might still be some untranslated text peeking out here and there. This will become more likely as you add contributed modules. Almost no site will have absolutely 100% language coverage out of the box, so you will probably need to translate a few items yourself. Drupal has a built-in system to do this with the Locale module, but there is also a contributed “Localization client” module which extends this core feature. In this lesson we'll take a look at Localization Client, see why want to use it, and how it works.
Additional resources
Localization Client project
Using Drupal, 2nd edition
Using Drupal source code
When it comes to translating your site’s content in Drupal 7, we have two possibilities. There is the core “Content translation” module and the contributed “Entity translation” module. They have quite different approaches to translation. So, in this lesson we'll compare the Content and Entity Translation modules, and take a look at how node translations work.
Additional resources
Video about the difference between Content and Entity
Using Drupal, 2nd edition
Using Drupal source code
In this tutorial, I will show you how you can add a class to the wrapper markup for a field using Display Suite, Display Suite Extras, and Display Suite's field templates.
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In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how you can change the HTML selectors of the regions and layout wrapper markup using Display Suite.
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In this series of tutorials on how markup is affected in Drupal when using Display Suite, I showed you:
- How to affect markup using Display Suite (DS)
- How to create a custom layout to use in DS
- How to add and utilize custom CSS classes in DS
- How to configure custom markup wrappers
- How to utilize Display Suite’s field templates UI to customize markup output on fields
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In this tutorial, I'll give you a tour of the field templates interface in Display Suite. I'll show you how to enable Display Suite field templates and walk you through how to customize the markup for each type of field template. I’ll also demonstrate how CSS classes can be applied to various components of field output using the Display Suite's "Expert" field template.
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Building one Drupal site is a fair amount of work in and of itself. But what about working with multiple Drupal sites? Sometimes you have a few sites that make sense together, either from a maintenance perspective, or due to an overlap in content or users. There are a number of different ways to approach this in Drupal, and which path you follow varies considerably depending on the exact use case you need to fulfill. In this lesson we'll get a good look at the problem multiple sites can pose, and list out some common use cases. Then we'll take a look at three different broad categories of solutions, with some specific architectural approaches. The rest of this series will walk through managing multiple sites using Drupal core's built-in multisite system.
If you are interested in working with the Domain Access project instead of core multisite, you should look at the Introduction to Domain Access series.
When working with domain names and getting a website to show up in your browser, it can be a little confusing to sort out which bits of the puzzle are where. You need to be able to properly configure the domain name server (DNS) so your browser can match up a domain name with a web server, and then make sure the Apache web server knows which files to direct that incoming domain name to. In this lesson we're going to walk through the process from the browser request to the website files. We'll take a look at the Apache documentation on virtual hosts (or vhosts) and discuss where to find this configuration. Then we'll take a look at some example vhost files to see what's going on in there.
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