Including Multilingual Support in jDownloads -Febuary 2025

Introduction

• Installing new languages
• Enable System Language Plugins
• Create Multilingual content (articles and article categories)
• Multilingual Menus for each language
• Set default Home page for each menu
• Display on Front End
• Make Associations
• Set Language Switcher Module

To see which language are installed in Joomla click on  and then in the  section click on .


This will show the languages that are installed in Joomla as illustrated opposite.

In principle if a site supports say four languages then there will be:
1. four sets of menus,
2. four sets of categories,
3. four sets of Downloads. 

Usually the downloadable file is independant of the site language.   jDownloads supports Downloads where the downloadable file is actually in another Download.

In this example the downloadable files are in the English language Downloads. 

Of course in some circumstances the downloadable file might itself be in language dependant so in that case each Download would have its own downloadable file.

In the jD 3.9 and above series the User Groups settings have been enhanced to allow 'Or from another Download' to be used in the front end.

See the article on User Groups Settings (opens in a new window/tab) for more details.

The view opposite illustrates that one download has a downloadable file () but the other three have their file located in another Download ().

As idicated, if you hover the mouse over the icon it will show which Download has the downloadable file and also its title.

Support for RTL languages

Support for RTL languages is available in jDownloads 3.9.7.x and higher.

An example is shown opposite in Arabic Unitag.

Adding Menus

When setting up a multilingual site a key stage is to setup a menu for each language and then later, after creating content, to add relevant menu items.

The image opposite illustrates the Menus set up in the example described below.

It has a Main Menu and 4 'language' based menus named Main Menu(en-GB), Main Menu(fr-FR), Main Menu(de-DE) and Main Menu(fa-IR). These will be used to add relevant menu items.  The 'Linked Modules' are created automatically.

Example Details

Assigning a language to jDownloads Categories and Downloads are by using the pull-down in the relevant option as indicated opposite.

Articles and Article Categories use option

• 4 article categories entitled as 'Article Cat-xx'
• 4 articles, one per article category, entitled as 'Test article-xx'
• 4 top level jDownloads Categories entitled 'Test Dir-xx'
• 8 subcategories, two per language, named as  'pdf files-xx' and 'zip files-xx'
• each sub category then had 4 downloads each, again with the title ending in -xx, giving a total of 32 Downloads.

 

Add jDownloads Menu Items

Add List All Cats

Create a jD 'List All Categories' Menu item in the .

Note this has a language setting 'All' and it is usually set as a 'Hidden' menu item. (see next section for details)

It is used by jDownloads when constructing links.  It is not used by users!

Hiding a Menu Item

To make a menu item 'hidden', click on the menu item in order to edit it as shown opposite.

Then select the 'Link Type' tab and set option 'Display in Menu' to No.

After clicking the button then the hidden label will be shown as part of the menu item in the backend.

Options - Frontend

There are only two jDownloads  settings relating to a multilingual setup.  These are in the  tab, section as illustrated opposite.

Note: the 'Use Image Flags' option does not appear until 'Show Associations' is set to Yes.
 

Associating jDownloads Menu Items

In the Joomla panel  click on click on Component then on Multilingual Associations.
Next click on the menu item you need to Associate, which in this case is 'list all categs-en'.

Note the French menu has alredy been Associated
 

This brings up the first stage which is to select the appropriate language, which in this example is German

Use the button.

This gives the view as shown opposite.
We now need to edit this to enter the German menu item details.

The items shown  by green arrows were modified to give the appropriate entry.

But one item, the Ordering, which is shown with a red arrow will need changing later.

So click on the button

Click on menu item as indicated, it requires associating with 3 languages German, French and Iranian.

Select Target Language, which is this example is French (fr-FR).







Then in Menu Item Type select the menu item which is
jDownloads - List My Download History as indicated opposite.


Next click on Save Target button

This shows that the French menu item is now associated.
So repeat process for German and Fasi languages.

Notes on Downloads

Change Language with Batch

In the example opposite there are three French JD Categories but the Language setting is All. 

So select all of them and then click on the    Batch button in the Actions pulldown. 

This brings up the Batch facility so use the Set Language pull down to select the target language.



Having set the language ensure that No is selected in the 'Do you want to move' - No is the default.

Then click on the button.
The result is shown opposite with all the relevant categories set to French.

Layout Place holder

The jDownloads Download and Download Details layouts have a placeholder {show_association} which generates a text such as shown opposite.





If, for example, you click on the French flag,, then the view switches to the associated French Download Detail view.

Language Text Selectors

Multi Language Associations

The key to a successful multilingual site are Associations.  When constructing such a site then each language has a 'language specific version' of each Category and each Download.  The principle aspect of an Association is that it lets the system know items are 'joined' so that if you switch between languages then the relevant associated item is shown.

Please note that you may also create multilingual Licenses.

In this article a four language site with Arabic, English, French and German items is used for demonstration examples.  So there will be "flags" like . which will appear at the top right of the view for a left to right language, and at the top left for a rght to left language.  Clicking on one of them will switch the entire site to the selected language.

As noted in the Options above  the flags, or language codes,  may also appear in the Download.  Actually when showing in say English then only the flags for the other languages are shown:  . Clicking on one of these flags will change to the associated Download Details view.

Creating Associations

In the following we show two methods of associating Categories and associating Downloads.

One method is to use the Control Panel Categories  or Downloads  entries as appropriate.
The other method is to use the Multilingual Associations  entry. 

In this article to hopefully make thing clearer, Categories have titles of the style "Test Cat-XX" where the XX indicates the language of the category.  Thus the top level categories are Test Cat-AR, Test Cat-EN, Test Cat-FR and Test Cat-DE.  Download titles have a similar convention.
Note: This is not a requirement, it is just an attempt to simplify the explanation!

Each of these top level categories has two subcategories, one called 'pdf files-XX' and the other called 'zip files-XX'.

The pdf-files-en sub categories are illustrated opposite.

Associating jD Categories

Click on  and then on . Next Select

  and then selecting the relevant language in the Search Tools gives a view such as shown opposite

Clicking on the name of one of the categories,  say 'pdf files-EN' for example, and then selecting the Associations tab shows the other languages.

After clicking on the  button for one of these languages, German say,  a list of available categories with that language setting will be shown.

Next click on the name of the category that is to be "associated" with the original category, in this example 'pdf files-DE'. 

This will then go back to the Associations tab which now looks as shown on the right.

After repeating for all the languages then  click on Save & Close which returns to the list of categories.

This shows that the associations have been set.  Also it is sometimes useful to choose a different Category symbol for each language.

If you hover the mouse over an association it shows the name of the associated item.

Associating Downloads

The sequence for associating Downloads is basically the same as associating Categories except of course it starts with in the control panel.

There is however one other critial point, namely the downloadable file.  In most instances the actual downloadable file will be the same for all languages. So when creating Dowloads in languages other than English one should use the facility to 'use file in another download'.

In the  Files Data tab scroll down to the select file from another tab as indcated opposite. Use the  button to find the coresponding -En download

Using Multilingual Associations

Clicking on the button  will show the current status of the Associations for either Categories or Downloads in the selected language.

In the image opposite all the Associations for the categories for each the languages were established using the first method as described above.

Using the pull downs at the top left select Downloads and the language.

Note that no Downloads have Associations established yet. 

Clicking on a Download title opens the Multilingual editing screen as shown below.

Initially the righthand side of the screen will be empty.

First use the Language pulldown to choose which language.

At this time there is no associated Download so the 'Create a Download' view is shown.

If a Download had already been associated in the selected language then the 'Edit' view would be shown.
But note the Select Target button, so click on it.

But note the button, so click on it.

This gives a list of all the Downloads in the specified language.

Click on the title of the Download that is to become associated with the Reference Download.

This returns to the Reference and Target 'double page' view.

Ensure you click on the  button and then on  .

If you do not Save the Target then all the effort is lost!

After closing the 'double page', the Multilingual Associations view is shown.  This now shows that, in this example, the English and German Downloads have been 'associated'.

Using Batch to create other language Categories and Downloads

1. Move multiple Downloads from the present Category to another Category and set the language, access or tags of the 'moved' Downloads ;
2. Copy multiple Downloads from the present Category to another Category and set the language, access or tags of the copied Downloads;
3. Just set the language, access or tags of multiple Downloads

1. When you COPY a Download only the Download is duplicated; no downloadable file is duplicated.
2. If COPY is selected then any other selected actions are applied to the copied item but not to the original item.
3. Preview Files and Images used in Downloads are held in a 'central' location with database entries indicating their location so those links are also copied.

Existing Multilingual Sites

There is a  function in both Categories and Downloads.

From the Downloads screen in the backend select (tick) the Downloads that you wish to copy to another Category then click on the Batch button.

This will bring up the batch function window.  Set the required language and target category  and click Process.

 

The example Downloads were renamed to match the language and the Associations set up as described above.

Remember that the downloadable files themselves will not have been copied.

 

So if you look at the Downloads listing, such as the one shown opposite, then you will find that the 'copied ' Downloads have no downloadable file as indicated by the red symbol.

If you click on the name of one of the files and select the Files Data tab you may either select a new file or select a file from another Download.   This facility is available in the Front End as well as the Backend.

 

Using the downloadable file from the EN Download was selected in the FR, DE and PA languages prior to creating the Associations.

After all the Associations had been created,  the list of Downloads is shown opposite.

The file icons in orange  denote the downloadable file is in another Download.

 

Hovering the mouse over the orange symbol, , gives the Category and file name of the actual downloadable file. Obviously this is repeated for the other language.

Converting to Multilingual

Other Text in jDownloads views

To make these items Language sensitive jDownloads supports language 'plugin' tags such as {en-GB}...{/en-GB}  for English. 

To determine the language tag for a language  go to Extension Manager -Language(s). This will show the list of languages installed in Joomla and the relevant language tag.

As an example let us modify the  Component Description in Options- Front End tab so that it looks as shown opposite.  Note that the text may also contain HTML.

The result for each language is shown opposite

Brief Note on Installing jDownloads Language Packs

To install another language in jDownloads use the regular Extension Manager - Install as if you were installing any extension.

Do NOT use the Install Languages tab. Now browse for the file then Upload & Install

For a more detailed explanation see Install a jDownloads Language Pack. (opens in a new window/tab)

Typically you will then see a message such as opposite.  You now have the jDownloads Language installed.

Appendix: Converting an Existing Site to Multilingual

These notes are based on a response by nizz0k in StackExchange

The process will require a number of steps. It is much less tedious to plan a multi-language site from the beginning, than to implement another language later. I recommend getting translations for your content in advance. These are the steps I went through to get satisfactory results.

1. Install the desired Joomla! languages through Extensions -> Languages.
2. Configure and add your Content Languages in the Languages Menu.
3. Enable the Language Filter Plugin. Optionally add and enable the Language Code module for better SEO.
4. Create Language Content categories and recreate your existing categories for each language.
5. Rebuild your menus. This is probably the most involved step because you will have to recreate your Main Menu in your "Main" language and then rebuild those menus for the additional language(s) you want to add. I found that using "Saves as a Copy" was really helpful in duplicating the pages. Remember to assign menu specific home pages and associating each page with its translation. To finalize the process you will have to add modules to each menu in the menu manager.
6. Translate/Add/Remap your content. You will need translations of every piece of content you want to display. Then you need to add the content, label it with the appropriate language, and associate it with the "Main language" versions. This will include creating new Language categories and subcategories. I also had to save copies and re-label a number of my modules to maintain language consistency. This also meant applying translations to a number of Custom HTML modules, and a few of my own modules.
   1. Add the Language Switcher Module.
   2. Iteratively check the site for consistency. As an FYI, any pages that don't show up in the menu it is probablybecause they not categorized in the correct language.

Associating jDownloads Menu Items

In the Main Menu click on Multilingual Associations.
Next click on the menu item you need to Associate, which in this case is 'list all categs-en'.

Note the French menu has alredy been Associated
 

This brings up the first stage which is to select the appropriate language, which in this case is German

Use the button.


This gives the view as shown opposite.
We now need to edit this to enter the German menu item details.

The items shown  by green arrows were modified to give the appropriate entry.

But one item, the Ordering, which is shown with a red arrow will need changing later.

So click on the button

Click on menu item as indicated, it requires associating with 3 languages German, French and Iran

Select Target Language, which is this example is French (fr-FR).

Then in Menu Item Type select the menu item which is
jDownloads - List My Download History as indicated opposite.

Next click on Save Target button