How to set up a multilingual Joomla site with Gridbox?

On the Internet, you can find a huge number of articles on how to create a multilingual Joomla site, they are all very similar to each other. Unlike others in this tutorial, we will show you step-by-step how to create a multilingual Joomla site using Gridbox.

Recommendations before starting

Before you start developing your first Joomla multilingual website, we recommend that you adhere to the following rules:

• No more than 2 languages for the first time
• Start with a 1-page.

Start simple so you can quickly understand the basic principles of creating multilingual Joomla sites. In this example, we will create 2 lingual websites: English-German. In the same way, you can build a 10x lingual website.

Step 1: Duplicate and rename the Gridbox theme

1. On the Gridbox dashboard, go to Extensions ➝ Themes ➝ select a theme that you are using ➝ duplicate it by clicking on the Duplicate button.

2. Click on the button Settings ➝ in the opened modal window, enter a Theme Title (for example, “German-Theme”) ➝ click the button Save.

3. Also, you need to rename your original theme to "English-Theme".

Step 2: Duplicate, rename, and assign Gridbox pages

1. Right-click on the Home page ➝ select Duplicate from the context menu.

2. On the newly duplicated Home page, right-click ➝ select Settings.

3. In the opened window, enter the Title (for example, German-Home) ➝ change the Alias (for example, home-de).

4. Click Theme ➝ in the dropdown list, assign German-Theme ➝ click the button Save.

5. Click the icon Publish Item.

• All the next pages for the German language should be assigned to the Gridbox Theme “German-Theme”

Step 3: Install additional language

1. In the Joomla admin panel, go to System ➝ Languages.

2. Using the Search, enter the name of the language (in our case, German) ➝ click Install.

3. Click Content Languages ➝ Publish Item next to German.

Step 4: Enable Language Filter

1. Go to System ➝ Plugins ➝ in the search, enter the Language Filter ➝ click Enable Plugin.

Step 5: Create a menu for each language

On the experimental site, we configure two languages, English (default) and German. Therefore, we need to create two Menus. As a result, we should get:

• Main Menu
• Menu English
• Menu German

1. To do this in the Joomla admin panel, go to Menus ➝ Manage ➝ New.

2. Enter the title Menu German ➝ fill in the remaining fields ➝ click Save & Close.

3. The same procedure should be done for the English language.

Step 6: Create menu items

1. From the Joomla admin panel, go to Menus ➝ Menu German ➝ New.

2. Enter Menu Title and Alias ➝ select Menu Item Type ➝ click Gridbox ➝ Page.

3. In the App field, select Pages ➝ in the Page field, select the Gridbox Page “German-Home”.

4. Open the Language list ➝ select German ➝ click Save & Close.

5. Click on the Set as Home icon to set the default page in the Menu German.

6. Repeat step 6 for English.

Step 7: Create Menu module

1. Go to Content ➝ Site Modules ➝ New.

2. In the search, enter Menu ➝ click New.

3. Enter Title ➝ in the Menu field, select Menu German ➝ click the button Save & Close.

4. The same procedure should be done for the English language.

Step 8: Create multilingual associations

1. In the Gridbox admin panel, mouse over the Content icon ➝ click Pages.
2. Right-click on the Home page ➝ Settings ➝ the Publishing tab ➝ in the Language field, select English ➝ Save. 
3. Right-click on the German-Home page ➝ Settings ➝ the Publishing tab ➝ in the Language field, select German ➝ in the Associations field, set Home ➝ Save.

Step 9: Assign Menu modules to Gridbox theme

1. Open the page German-Home ➝ click Edit Menu ➝ select the Menu German ➝ click the Save​ button.

Step 10: Display language flags

1. Add the Language Switcher plugin ➝ click the Save button.

At first glance, this looks very difficult. Yes, it's not very easy for a beginner because it includes a lot of steps. But by following the recommendations above, you will be able to create a multilingual Joomla site.