Just like there is no one way to build a regular website, there is no one way to build a multilingual website. Every site is different and has its own use cases and multilingual demands. Check out amnesty.org, drupalcampmontreal.com, wunderkraut.com, reyero.net, and thesoundpost.com as some unique examples of multilingual Drupal websites.
You can use as much of Drupal's language support as you need. If you simply want a website that is only shown in German with no English text and no translations, then you can certainly do that. Or, if you want to support content in several languages but none of the content will be translated, you can do that too. For the book exercises, we will be building a fully multilingual site that includes translation. The next figure shows the different levels of language support you might need depending on your site's use cases:
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There are always plenty of things to worry about when designing a website. When you decide to make your site multilingual, the list just gets bigger. This section is not meant to be an exhaustive compilation of everything you need to be thinking about before diving in, but it should help to get you started. We will consider many of these items as we work through our hands-on exercises:
Should you use a domain, a sub-domain, or a directory per language?
Do you need translations of all content in all languages?
If there isn't a translation available, should it show the source content?
Will translations be done in-house or outsourced and by one person or a team?
Do you have special e-commerce needs while dealing with taxation or currencies?
Should the admin UI have a different default language from the end-user UI?
Do any of your languages need Right-to-Left (RTL) theming support?
Will the navigation be different for each language?
Has the Drupal UI been mostly translated for your chosen languages?
Although there are many ways you can create a multilingual site based on your language needs, the following are some examples to get you thinking more about Drupal's language support.
Jacob is a writer and has his own website where he blogs about his life and his work. He is fluent in English and Italian, and has a family in Italy where he often goes on vacations. He writes articles in English or Italian depending on the subject. He sometimes translates the blogs so that they are available in both languages, but not always. Jacob does freelance work in the United States. So his work-related content only needs to be in English. He is the sole user for his website but he allows comments to be left in both languages.
AJ Consulting is a small consulting company in Santa Cruz, California. Drawing from the large Hispanic community in the area, they have several bilingual employees who are fluent in Spanish and English. They specialize in catering to clients who need their services in either language. It is important that they maintain all site content in both languages, so their bilingual employees are in charge of translating content. All content must be approved by the owner prior to being published. The only users of the website are company employees. The general public is not allowed to leave comments anywhere on the site, but they can use the contact form in either English or Spanish.
Deutsch & Sons is an online store selling educational toys and books for young children. They sell their products internationally but mostly within the United States, Canada, and Mexico. To cater to their international market, they keep their product, store, and customer support content in English, French, and Spanish. They have different shipping and taxation handling based on the shipping country. Deutsch & Sons does not have any staff translators, so they rely on third-party translators who directly modify the site content.
To make things more realistic, our demo site has elements from the examples mentioned previously including blog articles, book content, comments, and user roles that allow more than one content contributor. You can use the demo website or your own site for the book exercises. The book is structured as a step-by-step tutorial. So, for maximum understanding, the best strategy is to work through the chapter exercises in order.