Localizing a Drupal 7 Commerce site a step by step guide

This is going to be a step by step guide for localizing & translating a Drupal 7 commerce site. there are many ways and tools Drupal and its contributed modules support and this is just one of them. 

I will not go into too much explanations but will try and make sure I cover all the steps needed to translate a Drupal commerce site.

Note: commerce kickstart 2 comes with some of this but last time I checked it did not provide full localization and translations features.

Modules

1) Download the following modules

• Entity Translation
• Title
• Variable
• Internationalization

2) Enable the modules

enable: 

• Entity Translation
• Title
• Variable

For the i18n we will enable the following modules:

• Internationalization
• String translation
• Field translation
• Translation sets

If you are using drush here is a quick script you can run

drush dl entity_translation
drush en entity_translation -y
drush dl title
drush en title -y
drush dl variable
drush en variable -y
drush dl i18n
drush en i18n, i18n_translation, i18n_field, i18n_menu -y

Site configuration

1) Make sure your regional settings are correct

go to admin/config/regional/settings

set Default country & Default time zone

2) Set up your languages 

go to admin/config/regional/language

And add your languages, note that the Default language should correspond to the main language on your site and that includes the development of the site if you name your fields in English and your default language is French Drupal will think that the labels for those fields are in French.

3) Configure language detection

Go to admin/config/regional/language/configure

enable URL (or your preferred method)

4) Import language files

Download Drupal core translations

Download Drupal Commerce translations

Import the files you downloaded by going to admin/config/regional/translate/import and selecting a coresponding file and a language.

5) provide a Language selector for site visitors:

Go to the blocks section admin/structure/block and position the block "Language switcher (User interface text)" in one of the regions.

Configure content translation

1) Enable Content types for localization

Go to admin/config/regional/entity_translation

In the Translatable entity types section select the following

• Node
• Taxonomy term 
• Commerce Product 

2) Enable Multilingual support for each of your node types 

start by visiting all your node types (this should include the product display) and on the edit tab:

Under publishing options set Multilingual support to Enabled, with field translation

go to manage fields and do the following:

• Press "replace" next to the title this will convert the title into a translatable field
• Edit each field you want to translate and set it to Enable translation

3) Enable Multilingual support for each of your product types 

visit admin/commerce/products/types and edit each of the product types

Set set Multilingual support to Enabled, with field translation

go to manage fields and follow the same instructions as the node types above.

4) Enable Multilingual support for Taxonomies 

Visit the manage fields for each of the Taxonomies/vocabularies you want to localize and

Use the "Replace" link next to the Title and Description to convert those into translatable fields.

5) Set some sensible defaults

Go back to admin/config/regional/entity_translation and you will see a tab for each of the content types you enabled and their associated bundles (sub types).

Visit each one and set its Default language

You can set "Hide shared elements on translation forms" to stop translators from accidentally changing non translatable fields.

Translate content

you can now start translating content this will be divided into four tasks:

1) Translate the Built in interface 

visit the translate interface (admin/config/regional/translate/translate) and search for the strings you wish to translate

2) Translate content

visit each of the nodes, products or taxonomy terms and

• Edit to make sure a language is selected
• click the Translate tab and add translations to each of the languages. 

3) Translate field properties

This useful for most commerce product use cases. if you have added any Attribute fields using a list text you can translate their values as follows:

• Go to the Managed fields of you product
• Edit each of the Attribute fields (those are once that have Enable this field to function as an attribute field on Add to Cart forms)
• Click the Translate tab
• Add translations to each of your languages 
• Under field settings you will be able to translate each of the terms.

Note: The above method can also be used to translate the labels of fields but you can also use the standard translate interface (admin/config/regional/translate/translate) to do this.

4) Menu translation

• Edit your menu
• Under Multilingual options, Translation mode set the option "Translate and Localize. Menu items with language will allow translations. Menu items without language will be localized."

This will make the menu translatable and you can simply edit each of the items and use the "Translate" tab to add translations, don't change the Language of the item unless you want Language specific menu links. Optionally you can use the standard translate interface to translate menu items.

Note that nodes linked to a menu should use the node edit/translate interface to provide language native names to the menu links.