Multilingual Global Sites on Drupal

Drupal is the ideal platform for global sites. It has all the essential building blocks for creating complex content, an elaborate editorial process and localization management.

The vast number of available modules gives an endless array of options for building global sites. Naturally, some combinations fit together better than others. This article covers one specific configuration, in which all parts fit together and work in harmony.

Let’s start by looking at a typical workflow:

1. Author creates new content
2. Editor reviews and approves (or sends for revision)
3. Translation service receives content and translates
4. In-country reviewers read and comment
5. Content is published on different domains in different languages

If we’re publishing just a few pieces of content per month, people can supervise this process manually. They would use Excel sheets, stickies and email as management tools and would compile reports for management.

However, when we manage thousands of pages for different departments, by different authors and with many budgets, things get a bit more complicated. The CMS needs to manage it all, since it all happens there.

Here is how this process would look like in Drupal.

1. Content Authoring

The writer uses the Drupal interface to create the content. When they have finished the initial version they would save it in a draft state pending in moderation.

2. Editorial Process

When the content is reviewed it can either be published immediately or it could be marked for translations so that the original and translations are published at the same time.

3. Content Translation

Content that has been marked for translation can then be sent for translation via the Translation Management dashboard. The translation dashboard has many filters to search for content in various states. e.g. “Marked for translation” or "Translation needs update", etc.

4. In-Country Review

When translation is complete and the translated nodes are created they are created in a draft state pending review.

Country-specific reviewers can go over all content, in their language.

5. Publishing

The translations become available via the language switcher on the site.

Translation can appear on the same website, a different subdomain or complately different domains.