Site Building

Spotlight: Interface Translation for Drupal 7

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We're keeping this page up as a courtesy to folks who may need to refer to old instructions. We don't plan to update this page.

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Sprout Video

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.

Additional resources

Using Drupal, 2nd edition Using Drupal source code

Using Drupal Book by O'Reilly Media