How to Drupal 7 site with interationalization and translation - step by step tutorial

manager Wed, 02/15/2012 - 17:26

This week I tried to add internationalization and translations to a Drupal 7 site.  It took longer than it should have to figure everything out.  Adding a language pack was not too bad, but figuring out what modules I needed totranslate my field labels and how to translate menus took more detective work than itshould have.  I decided to document all of this in case I need to do it again, and to be nice I will post my step by step guide.

Install and enable the correct modules

1. Enable the module Content Translation (part of core)

admin/modules and check the box and save

2. Download and install Localization Update(this will automate downloading new languages)

#drush dl l10n_update

#drush en l10n_update

3. Add a language go to:

/admin/config/regional/language/add

4. Turn on user interface text language detection, I would start with Session, User, Browser

/admin/config/regional/language/configure

5. Configure Translation updates

/admin/config/regional/language/update

6. Download and install Internationalization and Variable 

drush dl i18n variable 

drush en i18n variable 

7. Under MULTILINGUAL - INTERNATIONALIZATION Enable Block languages, Field translation, Menu translation, and others if you need them.

/admin/modules/list

8. To translate a string in the user interface go to, search for the string to translate and edit:

/admin/config/regional/translate/translate

9. Enable Multilingual Support for your content type, go to

/admin/structure/types/manage/application

select Publishing options tab, and check Enabled, or Enabled with Translations.

10. To translate a field lable go to:

/admin/structure/types/manage/<content-type>/fields

Edit the field and then click on the translate tab

11. For security control which strings translators can access, go to:

/admin/config/regional/i18n/strings

12. If strings you want to translate are not showing up then go to, and pick the type to refresh:

/admin/config/regional/translate/i18n_string

13. Translate a menu

Visit the translation page: /admin/config/regional/translate/translate

Enter the string in the String contains, and click the filter button.