Garfield introduces Drupal’s internationalization module

Sometimes, the most readily available interpreter isn’t exactly what you need. In the last couple of posts, we looked briefly at the services provided by the locale and content translation modules. They’re powerful tools, but it’s easy to see that sometimes a little more power is needed to get the job done. Sometimes you need a different interpreter. That’s where the internationalization module steps in.

Drupal’s core translation interface lacks three key items: taxonomy, custom menu, and CCK fields. Most of core has these items translated because they are system variables wrapped in the ‘t’ function. However, these three items are stored in the database, not in code, making them trickier to translate. The internationalization forms a bridge over this obstacle and provides a simple interface for translating all of the database items in the system.

So, when the locale and content translation modules can only get you from a meow to a squeak, take a look at Drupal’s internationalization module. It gives a simple solution for translating database items. We’ll look more at some more of its uses next time.