How to link article on different languages

Question

I need to make a connection between articles on different languages in Joomla, like in the menu manager. Can anybody tell me how to implement it and if it's possible without using additional plug-ins?

Update: I already have a multilingual, but only for categories and I need configure it for articles. There is an example below: http://clip2net.com/s/6SElBt

Article for "Solar Energy" category and when I change the language I move to the description of this category in another language, but not in the same article. http://clip2net.com/s/6SEkD1

How do I configure the language switching and stay on the same article?

Answer 1

Joomla 2.5 and later have core support for multilingual content. But there are some extra steps involved, in order to set it up properly. There are plenty of tutorials out there: http://multilingual-joomla-demo.cloudaccess.net/multi-lingual-steps-by-steps.html

Briefly the process involves the following steps:

• Enable and configure the core language plugins
• Install the additional translation packs
  
• Add the corresponding content languages
  
• Prepare your categories structure to reflect your multilingual content. - Note that you will have a root category for all languages and then a root category for each language.
  
• Set the main language for your homepage
  
• Create the corresponding Menu Structure for all your languages
  
• Start writing content for each language
  
• Configure and Publish the Language Switcher module.

Answer 2

I think what you are looking for is menu items/article associations.

If the article you want to connect to another is linked to your site through a menu item, go to the menu item in question and see the association tab. There you can select what other menu item you want to connect it to.

You can also associate articles with each other by doing the same thing. Go to article manager->the article in question->association tab and choose what article you would like to link it to.

Answer 3

With Joomla 2.5 you can associate menu items, but not individual articles. So the best you can do is if a menu item links to a specic article, then you link the articles at the menu level.

Joomla 3 has more options, and you can indeed associate individual articles in different languages (at the article level) ... it works like a charm.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I've been trying to find a solution for the same issue on Joomla 2.5 but couldn't.

Today I found this link that describes how the solve the issue on Joomla 3.0: http://www.slideshare.net/erictiggeler/creating-a-multilingual-site-in-joomla-joomla-3-beginners-guide-eric-tiggeler

I didn't try it yet but it looks like the feature is supported in Joomla 3.0.