I am most of the time dealing with 3 Latin languages (English, French and Spanish), so I don't have any experience with non-Latin language design issues.
 
Pro's for language version per object (we tend to refer to it as horizontal translation) is often easier tracking of what needs translation.
 
Biggest problems setting up such a site are usually:
- what to do with pages that aren't (yet) translated? Don't show / display in foreign language / warning in the link text / ...
- what to do with content that isn't relevant in another language?
 
In any case, you'll have to deal with every single tiny word, alt text or other UI components that needs translation. This can slow a site down, unless you use three separate sites with the usual keywords hard coded.
 
My experience with customers in a previous life is that the first reaction is: "yes, everything should be translated 1-on-1". But after running through the workload and decisions that need to be taken, it's often downgraded to "well, let's start with the most important pages".
 
A lot can depend on how quick the content is updated.
 
As I'm writing this I would be more and more in favour of a site per language. Food for thought. But how would one be able to track if something needs translation or is updated in one language and not in others?
 
Alain


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Micha Schopman
Sent: 25 August 2005 10:24
To: FarCry Developers
Subject: [farcry-dev] Re: Multi-Lingual Content

Object based translations are usually a definite no go. You will not find object based translations in any medium or enterprise based CM system. There are several reasons for this;

 

a)       Not every type of content can be translated because they do not apply to the culture.

b)       Taxonomy might differ between cultures. So it could well be your translated objects are not accessible anymore, because a parent object was not suitable for translation

c)       Design might differ between cultures, ex. different products for different types of markets. Japanese phones require a different approach to sell, than US phones for example.

d)       It becomes difficult to manage other aspects of CM, like selecting audience (which culture), select profile options (which culture), select permissions (different user groups per culture?), select workflow (idem).

 

The most used approach is by creating multiple branches, a branch per culture, and you are then free to create a relation between two objects within two separate branches so you can easily switch from culture but still stay on the appropriate page.

Micha Schopman
Project Manager

Modern Media, Databankweg 12 M, 3821 AL  Amersfoort
Tel 033-4535377, Fax 033-4535388
KvK Amersfoort 39081679, Rabo 39.48.05.380

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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gary Menzel
Sent: woensdag 24 augustus 2005 22:12
To: FarCry Developers
Subject: [farcry-dev] Re: Multi-Lingual Content

 

 

I have been following this thread in the multiple places it has been happening.

 

I agree with Geoff.  I had a major role in looking at multi-lingual for an Australian State government and (with representatives of different linguistic backgrounds) it was generally agreed that providing a site in multiple languages required different site designs and not just translations of content.

 

For example, the order and placement of menu items often needed different cultural VS. linguistic treatment.  A design that works for a Latin language will more than likely fail for an Asian or Arabic based one.  You only have to go and have a look at some of the Japanese or Chinese sites that are targetted to those audiences to see this.

 

So, I think the jury is still out on CMS management of multi-lingual sites.

 

Having said that, if all you want is translations, I'd think changing the core content object to have an array (i.e. one to many table) of the different languages for an object node could be one possible solution.  But, as Geoff also point out, it would probably have to be added by someone who wants the feature.  That's how FarCry has become a "community" project.

 

Regards,

Gary


 

On 8/25/05, Geoff Bowers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Robertson-Ravo, Neil (RX) wrote:
> I think without a better Multilingual Content feature set FarCry will
> stumble - which I don't want to happen.

Actually this depends entirely on how you approach multilingual content.
  Building a site in one primary language and simply translating it
blow for blow is often totally unsatisfactory.

If you need stackable translations then you could always sponsor the
development ;)

-- geoff
http://www.daemon.com.au/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ] On Behalf Of Geoff
> Bowers
> Sent: 24 August 2005 02:49
> To: FarCry Developers
> Subject: [farcry-dev] Re: Multi-Lingual Content
>
> Robertson-Ravo, Neil (RX) wrote:
>
>>Asked before but cant remember if we resolved it ;-) what are people doing
>>when creating Multi-Lingual front end sites? How are they creating/editing
>>this content?  The ability to add and create multi-lingual content is
>>paramount for us and I cannot see off hand an easy way to do it.
>
> Multilingual content by branch only at this time.  There is currently no
> capacity to "stack" translations on a single content item.
>
> There's been a lot of debate about multi-lingual content and how it
> should be managed.  We have several ideas for the technical
> implementation of "stacked" translations (both for core and project
> customisations) so its certainly feasible.
>
> -- geoff
> http://www.daemon.com.au/

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