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xili-language provides for a bilingual (or multilingual) website an automatic selection of language (.mo) in theme according to the language of current post(s) or page. Theme's behaviour can be fully personalized through settings, hooks and api. Ready for CMS developers and designers.

• xili-language plugin provides an automatic selection of language in theme according to the language of displayed post, series of posts, page or articles. If the post is in gaelic, the texts of the theme will be in gaelic if the author checks the post as gaelic and if the theme contains the right .mo file for this target language.

• xili-language select on the fly the multilingual .mo files present in the theme's folder.

• xili-language uses custom taxonomy to specify language of post, page and custom post.

• xili-language plugin works on WordPress installation in mono (standalone) or multisite (network) mode.

Prequisite

• A project of a website with articles in different languages.
• A localizable theme : Every themes with localization (or translation-ready like twentyten) can be easily used (and improved) for realtime multilingual sites.
• A tool to translate .po files of the theme and built .mo files (poEdit or better xili-dictionary - see below ).

Links and documentation to read before activating

• Check out the screenshots to see it in action and other tabs here.
• multilingual theme and how to.
• news and history
• forum to read experience of users and obtain some support.

• For webmaster: A table summarizes all the technical features (widgets, template tags, functions and hooks) of this powerful plugin for personalized CMS created by webmaster.

• and finally the source code of the plugin itself if you read php!

Provided as examples

• Based on twentyten and twentyeleven themes. Since WordPress 3.0, the default theme named twentyten can be used without php coding for a multilingual site as shown here or for twentyeleven here.

What to prepare before and during installation before activating

• verify that your theme is translation-ready. Collect .po files of theme for target languages.
• if rtl languages are used, verify that theme contains rtl.css file.

TRILOGY FOR MULTILINGUAL CMS WEBSITE including xili-language plugin

• xili-dictionary plugin: With xili-dictionary, it is easier to create or update online, via admin/dashboard UI, the files .mo of each language.
• xili-tidy-tags plugin: With xili-tidy-tags, it is now possible to display sub-selection (cloud) of tags according language and semantic trans-language group (trademark,…).

That this plugin does not

With around 5000 php lines, xili-language is not everything…

• xili-language plugin does not create additional tables in the database. xili-language simply makes proper use of the taxonomy tables and postmeta table offered by WordPress to define language and link items between them. Because xili-language plugin does not modify deeply the post edit UI, it is possible to use iPhone / iPod Touch WordPress app to prepare and draft the post.

• xili-language plugin does not replace the author or the editor. No automatic translation. Content strategist is the master of the languages, the contents and the navigation inside the website. With xili-dictionary, webmaster can translate the theme's items. For design, the creator is free to choose text or graphic. xili-language does not provide flags ! Some good examples here.

Newbie, WP user, Developer,…

• Newbie: originally built for webmaster and developer, the plugin trilogy progress since 4 years to be more and more plug and play for newbies who can read and spend a little time mainly for translation.

• xili-language is also dedicated for theme's creator or webmaster with knowledges in CMS and WP and having (or not) tools to create .mo language files. Through API (hook), the plugin add automatic tools (or links or filters) for sidebar or top menus. Categories or Archives lists are translated also.

• xili-language provides also series of functions which can be hooked in the functions.php file of the theme that you create i.e. for a cms like multilingual website.

Licence, donation, services, "as is", ...

Free open source plugin does not mean free services

• Texts of licence: GPLv2
• Donation link via paypal in sidebar of dev.xiligroup site
• Services : As authors of plugin, dev.xiligroup team is able to provide services (consulting, training, support) with affordable prices for WP multilingual contexts in corporate or commercial websites.
• as is : see no warranty chapter in license GPLv2.

NEW Version 2.4.0, 2.4.1

2012-01-28

• Settings pages are now organized in 4 tabs with more online infos.
• automatic rtl.css adding if present in theme like twentyten or twentyeleven - So supports better arabic, persian, hebraic and other right to left languages.
• new way and options to manage dates translation using class wp_locale - before activation: read carefully this keynote

News from 1.8.0 to 2.4.0

• see tab and chapters in changelog

Roadmap

• Improved documentation for template tags and functions - started here.
• New dashboard UI incorporating latest WP core libraries.
• Delivery of a premium version (with attractive fees) packaged with professional support.

Authors: michelwppi, MS dev.xiligroup.com