Multilanguage websites 17 March 2006

Art. Lebedev Studio Online Store works in two languages—Russian and English—using one script and common XSLT templates. We use four techniques to create pages in different languages. Three of them involve XSLT.

Technique 1
This one is convenient for displaying messages concerning the current situation—availability of ordered goods, user anonymity, etc.

Strings for each language are saved into separate XSLT files—one file per language (for example, ru.xml and en.xml):

<locale lang="en">
	<session>
		<cart>Order</cart>
		<enter>Log in</enter>
		<exit>Log out</exit>
		<username>E-mail address (login)</username>
		<password>Password</password>
		<submit>Log in</submit>
		<registration>Registration</registration>
	</session>
	. . .
	<cart>
		<price>Price</price>
		<add>Add to&nbsp;cart</add>
		<missing>Available soon</missing>
		<empty>Your cart is empty.</empty>
		<proceed-cart>Complete your order</proceed-cart>
	</cart>
	. . .
</locale>

Access to strings in these files is enabled through $locale, a variable containing a copy of one of the files:

<xsl:variable name="locale-strings">
	<xsl:text>locale/</xsl:text>
	<xsl:value-of select="$lang"/>
	<xsl:text>.xml</xsl:text>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="locale" select="document ($locale-strings)/locale"/>

To display a certain string, you need to select the appropriate node in this tree:

<xsl:value-of select="$locale/cart/missing/text()"/>

Technique 2
This one is used for inserting text into form fields.

All web form XML scripts look similar to this (and there is no way different languages can be used here):

<form>
	<fieldset>
		. . .
		<field type="submit" str_res="register-proceed" name="btnSubmit"/>
	<fieldset>
</form>

In order to display required text, the form XSLT code calls function (a named template) string-resource and assigns to it the value of  str_res:

<label for="radio-{@name}-{@value}">
	<xsl:text> </xsl:text>			
	<xsl:call-template name="string-resource">
		<xsl:with-param name="id" select="@str_res"/>
	</xsl:call-template>			
</label>

Function string-resource uses the key value of str_res to search for the proper string in the resource files mentioned above:

<xsl:template name="string-resource">
	<xsl:param name="id"/>
	
	<xsl:copy-of
		disable-escape-encoding="yes"
		select="$locale/resources/item[@id = $id]"
	/>
</xsl:template>

Technique 3
This one is useful for storing large text fragments in different languages.

Any text element in the page XML code, such as <p> or <div>, can contain optional attribute lang:

<div lang="ru">
	<p>
		Телефон: (495) 540-18-00<br />
		Электропочта:
		<a href="mailto:store@artlebedev.ru">store@artlebedev.ru</a>
	</p>
</div>
<div lang="en">
	<p>
		Phone: + 7 495 540-18-00<br />
		E-mail:
		<a href="mailto:store@artlebedev.com">store@artlebedev.com</a>
	</p>
</div>

So, if there is such an attribute, XSLT will select the proper text fragment. And if the attribute is absent, all versions will display the same text.

<xsl:template match="div">
	<xsl:if test="not (@lang) or @lang = $lang">
		<div>
			<xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
			<xsl:apply-templates/>
		</div>
	</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

Related articles
If my suggestions are not enough for you, here are some useful links:

Internationalization / localization of XSLT output
Stylus Studio. — 24 August 2000

An XSLT style sheet and an XML dictionary approach to internationalization
IBM. — 1 April 2001

Tip: Localization within a document format
IBM. — 1 September 2002

Localizing XML documents through XSLT (pdf)
IASTED international conference. — 10 February 2003

Language support
Sagehill Enterprises. DocBook XSL: The Complete Guide. — 28 February 2005

Simple (external XML) internationalization with XSLT?
XSLT.com. — 5 October 2005