The same news archive on two language websites.

[tetrijeb]

Hello,

I will try to explain my problem as clear as I can.

I've created two versions of the website (Serbian Cyrillic /*fallback language*/ and Serbian Latin).

Now, I have to use the same news archive on both websites without changing global language variable $GLOBALS['TL_LANGUAGE'] value. Is that possible at all?

I was thinking to change the news item link depending of active language $GLOBALS['TL_LANGUAGE'] but I can't find where it is generated:

Something like this:

if lang = lang1 
then href = .../news-lang1-page/news-title
else href = .../news-lang2-page/news-title.

/*showing news item from the same news archive*/

where news-lang1 and news-lang2 are pages where news readers are located.

I am trying to avoid creating separate news archives, because the language is the same, I just need to convert strings from Cyrillic to Latin with function I made.

As I understand, by default, separate news archives have to be created for different language websites.

[Andreas]

You're only talking about news archive, but there are Newslist, News reader, News archive and News archive menu.

If you only want News archive, that is simple - include the same module on both pages. (Make a linked content element type content element for the second language.)

Page en - CE type Module (Fallback tree)
Page de - CE type Content element (links to CE above)

If you have other modules, maybe a reader, try to give the reader pages in both trees the same alias, sometimes this is all you need.

In your template you can get the language of current page with

echo $GLOBALS[TL_LANGUAGE]; 

Or you can get more details about the page with

global $objPage;
echo $objPage->alias;
var_dump($objPage);
// or with
echo $this->getPageDetails([yourPageID])->alias; 

[tetrijeb]

Hello, Andreas.

You have guessed right. Actually, I managed to get newslist, news archive menu and news archive to work. The newsreader remain to be a problem, but I will try what have you suggested and I will report it here.

[tetrijeb]

If you have other modules, maybe a reader, try to give the reader pages in both trees the same alias, sometimes this is all you need.

I tried this, but with no success.

Page alias couldn't be changed to the existing value using Backend settings (it asks for unique alias). But, I use phpmyadmin and I was able to change it manually. But, It hadn't help.

The problem is that when I click on "Read more" link, whether it is from Newslist or News archive, it forwards me to the page which belongs to the main language - fallback tree.

E.g. - one news item is shown on the page as:

<div class="layout_simple block<?php echo $this->class; ?>">
<?php if ($this->date): ?><time datetime="<?php echo $this->datetime; ?>"><?php echo $this->date; ?></time> <?php endif; ?><?php echo $this->linkHeadline; ?> 
</div>

produces

<div class="layout_simple block first even">
06.10.2015<br><a href="index.php/news/this-is-a-text-headline" title="Full article">This-is-a-text-headline</a> 
</div>

So, I guess I have to find way to manipulate with $this->linkHeadline depending of variable $GLOBALS[TL_LANGUAGE].

But on another hand, I am thinking it could be more easier to introduce one new session variable without the second tree, and change the news templates?!

if $SpecVariable='sr-lat' echo function_cyr2lat($this->text) else $this->text

[Spooky]

First of all, you should be able to use the same Alias if you either use different Domains or you are using the same Domain, but different languages and you are using the language fragment in the URL.

Secondly, you could simply create your own news_latest Template and build the URL to the correct Reader Page manually.

You could also do this in a parseArticles Hook. In this Hook you simply check for the current language and then change the linkHeadline, more, etc. variables of the news entry to point to the correct news reader page.

[Andreas]

Page alias couldn't be changed to the existing value using Backend settings (it asks for unique alias). But, I use phpmyadmin and I was able to change it manually. But, It hadn't help.

As spooky told already you are able to set the same page alias in different "Website roots". Check again why this is not possible. Never do change a value in the DB manually!

You also can post a link to the page so help will be more easy for us.

[tetrijeb]

Well, my first association after I have read Spooky's post and went to check my settings in Backend was that cartoon with little Sylvesters son (if someone watched this):

First of all, you should be able to use the same Alias if you either use different Domains or you are using the same Domain, but different languages and you are using the language fragment in the URL.

After I noticed that I didn't check the option "Add the language to the URL", I did that - and now it works!

Since I didn't checked language URL, both language URL was the same, so I wasn't be able to give the same alias to the page. Now I succeded, and news reader is working.

Never do change a value in the DB manually!

It was just an experiment. After that I returned it to the original state. However, I have to say to anyone who read this - don't try it at home.

To sum up (for someone who could need to make something similar in in future):

- I have created function that is replacing output string characters (Cyrillic to Latin and vice versa). Function checks the language parameter of the page.
- I modified Contao templates I use so wherever some output text is printed from the database, I use function to check whether text should be transliterated.
- I have created 2nd website root (with copies of all pages from the fallback language root) with different (new) language parameter
- I have used [changelanguage] extension from Catalog Manager to make "language switch" in Front End

There are some things I have to clean up, like some page links that I manually created in some parts of website, some templates adjusted, etc., but in general, it works now.

Thank you, Andreas and Spooky. One thing is sure, I wouldn't figure out this without your help.

[Andreas]

- don't try it at home.

ROFL

Nice to see that it works