Table of Contents
Introduction
Our connector with Joomla! aims to bring speed and agility to the future of localization. This innovative connector redefines automation, effortlessly orchestrating translation workflows between all the languages in your system. Connect your Joomla! instance to Locale and in no time you’ll be receiving consistent and accurate localization content for every page or article in your system, right when you need it.
What you’ll need to get started
The Login link for Locale (https://app.locale.to/en/)
The login link for your Joomla! instance.
Note: This is provided to you by your Joomla! account manager, support team, or contact person. If you are unsure of this information, please contact your system administrator or your Joomla! representative.
User login information for both your Locale instance, and your Joomla! instance
A trial account of Locale can also be taken for free by going to locale.to and selecting the “Get Started” button
Technical Prerequisites
There are just a few things that need to be setup and configured within your Joomla! instance beore we get started. The first is related to API authentication options, simply making sure the Super Admin user in the system has the ability to create the necessary API token. Then, adding and enabling the necessary languages you’ll need for translation. Each of these steps only need to be done once in order for the connector to work properly. Only the language section may require a revisit, should you decide to add additional / new language offerings to your Joomla! instance.
Enable the API authentication
To ensure the Super Admin on the account has the rights and ability to create the necessary API token, there are just a few clicks to go through:
Start by accessing your Joomla backend instance, and navigate to the System > Manage > Plugin area.
Then, in the search bar at the top of the page, search for Token and enable the two options that appear: API Authentication - Joomla Token and User - Joomla API Token. This can be done by making sure a green checkmark appears in the circle under Status
To check that this has been enabled properly, navigate to the Users > Manage menu, and select the Super User you want to use for Authentication.
On the user editing screen go to the Joomla API Token Tab and you should see a screen with an API option similar to this:
Note: If you don’t see the API Token tab, you likely did not enable the User – Token plugin, go back to the Plugin Manager page and make sure the plugin is enabled
Click save on the top left corner and the token for your user will be created. This process only needs to be enabled once, as it applies globally/on a system level. This API token can then be used as part of the Connector Configuration process in Locale.
Enabling languages in your Joomla! instance
Before Locale can translate content into any of the languages you require for your projects, these languages must first be enabled in your Joomla! instance, in order to properly receive the translated content. If they are not enabled first, Locale will not be able to process your translation request.
Enabling the languages in your system is quite simple though, so let’s take a look at that process:
Start by accessing your Joomla! instance backend, preferably as a Super User.
Access the System > Languages menu to see any languages which are already activated in your Joomla! instance.
To add additional languages, click the Install Languages button at the top of the page
And install the language packages for the languages you’d like to add to your instance. You can even use the search bar at the top of the page to quickly find the languages you need.
Now that these languages have been added to your Joomla! instance, there’s just one more step to make sure these languages are available for content publication, and not just existing in your Joomla! instance. Start by accessing the System > Content Languages menu
And simply activate the languages you require for content in your Joomla instance, by selecting the circle under Status and you should see a green checkmark. Note that the red box shows an X, meaning that while German has been added to our Joomla! instance, it is currently not set to receive translated content. A user may choose this option for various reasons, but just make sure that any languages which require translation have a green checkmark in the Status column.
And this concludes the necessary technical pre-requisites for using the Joomla! connector with Locale! To get started with your first project, head over to your Locale instance, and follow the steps for Configuring the Connector and Creating a Joomla! project for translation in Locale