Language Packs - are they for translating after building site in English ??

Hello,

Q1. If I wanted a current website converted into French on a new Domain to target French speaking shoppers can I copy the existing English language site on to the new domain and then use the French Language Pack plugin to convert that new English language site into French? ... or does the plugin not work that way? The particular plugin doesn't have a 'read me' file however the question applies to any language pack.

Q2. If the Language Pack(s) do in fact translate after the site is built how practical or viable is it to efficiently run a site in a language that one doesn't speak? e.g correspondence would require relying on Google Translate I suppose. I ask because there is substantial business to be had for some of my products in markets where English is not the prime language.

cheers,
Mike

The language packs provide a pre-existing translation to generally provide the same "concept" or verbiage that may be expected by those using the site in that language. There is no "automated" translation in the language pack usage. In fact if your site has modified the verbiage of a define, it may be necessary to modify the equivalent alternate language's define.

Also, language packs are usually generated at a version of ZC. Sometimes between versions there are other defines that need to be incorporated, dropped or otherwise modify.

As to doing business in alternate languages, well, there could be worse things than having to rely on a computer to translate, but if business can successfully be done using an online translate tool, why not? Yeah, would be better I think for you and them if you spoke/wrote the language, but...

As to general language instruction perhaps this FAQ would help a little: https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...-are-they-used

In its early days, Google Translate was clunky and inefficient. It seems to have improved over the years and now handles DYNAMIC CONTENT sites a little better, but remember... an ecommerce site is far more compex than just parsing delivered HTML through a translator such as Google offers. There are issues like currencies, and currency symbols, and some very complex PHP that will render prices and shopping cart totals in the appropriate currency.

As mc12345678 indicates, the language "plugins" deal with all the verbage that Zencart throws out by default - most of which is contained in LANGUAGE DEFINES in various language files - though there are some HTML files too - and the issue of EZ-pages, where the text is housed in the database.

Typically. a language module acts in the same way as the "over-ride system", where the code is told to look for a modified (or different) file (if and when they exist), rather than using a default file.

But text that is housed in the database - such as category and product descriptions, for example (there are others - like EZ pages), has to be manually entered, and "assigned" to the language it refers to.

What is really important to consider is the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. It's no good relying on something like Google Translate if it ends up confusing (or annoying) your customers - so to just enable Google Translate in the belief that it will make your foreign language customers happier can be shooting yourself in the foot.

In my opinion, it's far better to install and configure a version-compatible language module, and to get a professional translator to deal with all your category/product/ezpage texts.

It takes time - and may cost a few pennies - but at least you will be providing your foreign language customers with a good USER EXPERIENCE.

To actually answer your questions you need to understand that all the text you see on your site comes from either a constant in a file (this is the language pack containing loads of files with generic text strings) or the product/category descriptions you have entered that are stored in the database.

ZC comes with english constants/files.
To add another language you add a language pack which means copying another bunch of files into your site that have the same generic texts in them as the english files but in the new language.
Then you tell ZC these new language files exist. At this precise moment ALL the product and category descriptions YOU have added into the database are duplicated (obviously in english) to be used in conjunction with the new language pack when selected by the customer. YOU now have to translate all those descriptions into the new language.
Now either you can offer english AND the new language, OR force only the new language to be offered to the customer.

So now you see there is no "conversion" at all. It is duplication and the languages exist in parallel.

As for administering a site in a language you do not speak, well you need to have a pet translator.
You add your new product in english then poke them to translate it into the new language as you need.
The order confirmation emails go out in the language as selected by the customer anyway.
You can answer direct queries using google translate and copy and pasting. A couple of our suppliers do that, it adds some smiles to the day with the gibberish it comes out with, but we get there in the end.

Thank you all (mc12345678, schoolboy, torvista) for your responses. I think I have a basic handle on it now however I need a little more input/advice.

I get the 'customer experience' aspect of the likelihood of mis-translations however I am putting that to one side for the moment in my assessment process, but not ignoring it at all.

So have I got this right? In a nutshell, the language pack will take care of everything that is Zen Cart controlled but anything I input such as product names, meta tags, descriptions etc and ez pages, i.e. any content I control, will need to be translated by a translator (real live person)??

Here is my situation. I have tasted a little success at the quality end of the market with a product line with dotcomAU and dotcom version sites (both ranked on Google page1) and would like to try some other language markets. My ETSY store(s) have good penetration into these other language markets through Etsy's auto translation system so I figure maybe I can do it with my websites.

The objective is to have Google return my site in the 'local' search results. My plan is to register dotcom domain names (relating to the product) in French and Spanish and then provide my existing English language website to those domains in a 'translated' version. Preferably I would like to host those domains in the appropriate countries to assist rankings but have not investigated that aspect as yet.

So having said that, if I utilize a language pack and additionally use Google Translate to translate the text I control (product descriptions, titles, ez pages etc) would it likely work? The dilemma I have in spending money on a real live person translator in the first instance is that I have no real feel for how successful I may be in ranking in Google search for those languages. I kinda figure that Google will be OK with the translation (their own) and that should not be a negative as far as ranking goes - the rest is up to content and other aspects as it has been in ranking the English versions. Once I could see some positive ranking I would then be more inclined to spend the money for more accurate translation (now is that the horse before the cart or the cart before the horse?).

I am asking for some critical advice here because I respect the combined experiences of you people.

cheers,
Mike

p.s. I initially thought of putting Google Translate on my dotcom site however that doesn't get the site showing up in search in the various languages which is the primary objective - I soon realized it's only use is someone searching in English who may prefer their native language 'once they arrive at the site' - so I will probably add it for that reason - extra 'customer experience'.