Best Practices for Handling Translations in a Multilingual Website

[lorenzrabs]

Summary

Discussing best practices for managing translations in a website with multiple languages. This includes handling cases where pages might exist or be published in only one language, and the implications for data structure and status management.

Basic Example

We have a pages collection with fields: id, status, translations. Inside translations, we store the slug, title, and seo fields. A potential issue arises when a page exists or is published in only one language. Should we add a status field inside the translations?

Motivation

To ensure a robust and maintainable approach to managing translations, especially in cases where not all content is available in all languages. This discussion aims to gather insights and best practices to handle these scenarios effectively.

Detailed Design

• Pages Collection Fields:
  • id
  • status
  • translations: Array of objects containing:
    • slug
    • title
    • [...] (other fields)
    • seo (m2o relationship)

Requirements List

I would greatly appreciate more detailed documentation on building multilingual websites, particularly focusing on search engine optimization.

Drawbacks

• Redundancy: By creating a separate status field inside each translation object, we introduce redundancy. Each translation now carries its own status, which can lead to inconsistencies if not managed properly. For instance, the main page status might be 'published' while some translations could still be in 'draft' status, causing confusion and potential errors in content management.

• Increased Complexity: Managing multiple status fields increases the complexity of the data model.

• SEO Implications: Inconsistent statuses across translations can negatively impact SEO.

Alternatives

I really liked how Strapi handles the internationalization.

Adoption Strategy

• Establish a clear workflow for content translation, including guidelines for translation status management and synchronization with the main content.

• Provide detailed documentation and training for developers and content managers to ensure smooth adoption and adherence to the new standardized practices.

Unresolved Questions

No response