Multi language site: Changing the front page for the English language changes the other languages front page too.

[bd0bd]

In French version

/fr/admin/config/system/site-information

I have indicated Accueil for Default front page.

Then in German version

/de/admin/config/system/site-information

I have indicated Home for Default front page.

When I go back to French Site information I see Accueil is replaced with node/37

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Related Issues:

• Translated Nodes do not switch languages properly when set as the home page. Translated Nodes do not switch languages properly when set as the home page. #4785
• Front page to be configurable by language Front page to be configurable by language #3500

[klonos]

In general, I don't think we are handling this very intuitively. Most common use case scenario would be to have a single node as front page, translate this to various languages and when people switch to these languages, show them what they expect: the respective translation of the front page node.

I'm not saying that there won't be use cases where people will use different nodes for each language front page (or a node for some languages and a view for other and something else like a slideshow for others). It's just that these cases would be extreme ones and should be handled differently (a "use a different front page for this language" checkbox/setting perhaps).

What we should do here is to have the same node set as front page for all languages. Based on language detection, switch to the respective translation of it. If there is no translation of the front page node for a specific language, we should fall back to the source language node (perhaps show a "not translated to [language] yet" link that leads to the add translation page of the source node for that language?).

In the site info settings now, we should show the pretty, pathauto-generated URL of the node. If the user switches the admin UI to another language, then again show the pathauto-generated URL of the front page node but for the language they switched to. If there's no translation of the node, again fallback to displaying pathauto-generated URL of the source node.

[bd0bd]

Most common use case scenario would be to have a single node as front page, translate this to various languages and when people switch to these languages, show them what they expect: the respective translation of the front page node.

It would be OK for me to have a single node named home. But how to do it? It seems it does not work.

[klonos]

The way content translation works for nodes AFAIK is that when you create a node and select a specific language for it, it is marked as the "source" node. Translations of that node are separate nodes that have different language and point to the initial node as their "parent" node for which they are translations of. So, I don't think that you can have a single node and at the same time have it translated to other languages.

Also, you can have as many nodes as you like with a title of "home", but their actual non-pretty URL cannot be the same (they will be /node/1, /node/2, /node/3 etc). Their pretty, pathauto URL also CANNOT be the same (you cannot have the path /home belong to many nodes).

[bd0bd]

@klonos, thank you very much for all your help and time but I do not understand how to make everything in the right way if this is possible with Backdrop CMS. I do not need anything unusual. For now it forces me to quit and go to another friendly CMS or install 10 separate Backdrop CMS in each language prefix URL (en, de, fr etc).

I do not understand how to make all 10 languages Home menu items (and headers Company Name) links exactly to home URLs:
domain.com/fr
domain.com/de
and NOT to
domain.com/fr/Accueil
domain.com/de/Home
etc
I have illustrated it:

I do not understand how to make a default language version (for example - English) to have all menu items link to
domain.com/about
domain.com/services
and NOT with en prefix I have it now :
domain.com/en/about
domain.com/en/services
etc.

I do not understand why on English home page (node) is displayed French content node and so on. If I translate it then I get in another problem - French site has the English home page node.

Best way to understand - to see a demo version of properly working multi language site.

Thank you!

[bd0bd]

@klonos has marked this issue like a bug report 29 days ago but still it is not fixed.
I am sorry, may I ask when it might be fixed - in how many days or months? 😄
Thank you!

[klonos]

@bd0bd I replied on the other issue you have opened. You need to be patient as there is no plan to work on full multilingual support until Backdrop 2.0.0. Unfortunately, we have not set a date for it either, so I cannot possibly tell you when. It will take long I am sure because it is a very complex task.

[bd0bd]

Thank you!