IBM recently released their updated Multilingual solution for Portal and Web Content Management V7. If you are familiar with previous versions of MultiLingual Solution, you will be comfortable with this latest version.
Localization of WCM Content
The basic concept behind localizing content is to have multiple WCM libraries, each set up to serve a different locale. One library is the master and the other libraries mirror the master, except they contain translated content. The diagram to the right comes from the documentation and does a good job of highlighted the solution.
When you create a piece of content in the master library through the authoring portlet, you can have that content item copied to each of the localized libraries. While that content won’t be translated automatically for you, you can have WCM’s workflow kickoff to notify the owners of each library to begin the translation process. I’d be interested to see if you could initiate an automated translation process through custom workflow actions.
Included in the solution are workflow actions that can be embedded into your workflows to keep the various libraries in-sync. So as you edit content, publish it, move it, expire or delete it in the master library, the workflow tasks implement these same actions in the localized libraries.
This new version includes enhancements that are worth noting:
- Installation of the solution is much easier. IBM included an install batch file that adds plug-ins, etc to the correct applications.
- A new portlet allows you to copy the master library to the localized libraries when setting up a new locale.
- Tips for creating localized versions of navigators and menus are provided in the documentation.
You must upgrade WCM to cumulative fix 8 to implement this new solution.
