Joomla and Languages: How to Actually Combine the Two

One of the most frustrating things about Joomla is it’s lack of thorough documentation.  Yeah, there’s an API… yeah there’s a Wiki… but it just seems like there are a  lot of gaps and holes that don’t necessarily have to exist. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to implement languages in your component in Joomla! 1.5.

First off, lets talk about why this tutorial is important.  Let’s say you’re creating a component to give site admins a way to easily create a special Links (yes, there’s already one for Joomla, it’s 2am, just go with me on this) section.  On the back-end, you’ve got an “Add Link Category” page that takes admins to a nice form that lets them create a category for links in this component.  So you’ve got text for “Name:” and “Description:” and maybe even “Category Image:” if they want to use an image with the text.  You finish your component and release it, and someone in the Joomla community wants to make a Spanish version of your component.  They would have to dig into your source code and basically re-write all of your inline html that you’ve written; essentially necessitating a while new release of your component in an “English version” and “Spanish version.”

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My Staff Master Joomla! 1.5 Component Has Finally Launched..

Man, I’m all over the place lately.  Actionscript 3 projects… PHP Development… what’s next?  Crochet you say?  Maybe finally master Bocce ball?

So, I’ve been working on a new project as of late.  In doing a site redesign for an older site of mine, I’ve been using Joomla!Framework to structure and build the new site.  I’ve used a number of different PHP frameworks and CMS’s over the years, notably Joomla, Drupal, CakePHP, CodeIgnitor, and WordPress, and I just really, really love Joomla.  Maybe thats because I’ve spent so much time ‘under the hood’ in development, but to me, this CMS/Framework just makes sense and speeds up my development on new sites.

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So I Jumped Out of a Plane…

I don’t think we realize how much we take for granted that the ground we’re walking on is actually right under our feet.

13,000 feet up… …it’s sortof … not… right under your feet.  And it wasn’t really until I was sitting at the edge of the open plane, dangling my feet into the 60-70knots wind and looking down at the ground that I thought, “Damn, was this really a good idea?”  But by that point it’s too late and you’re out the door and everything is silky smooth.

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