A javascript powered dropdown is convenient and widely used (although not very accessible).  If there are only two languages I usually just write out two standard links to the homepages of each language.

Like

<select id="lang-select">
    <xsl:for-each select="$currentPage/ancestor::root/node [@nodeTypeAlias = 'HomePage' and string(./data [@alias='umbracoNaviHide']) != '1']">
     <option value="{umbraco.library:NiceUrl(@id)}"><xsl:value-of select="data [@alias = 'Language']"/></option>      
   </xsl:for-each>
</select>

then

$("select#lang-select").change(function() {
  window.location = $(this).find("option:selected").val();
})

(js is untested!)

Dan

Seems to make good sense. Thanks for that.

However, I do not have a field on this page for Language.  I was instructed to do this using the Manage Hostnames dialog, where I then choose a language and a subdomain with which to associated the page/site.  How do I dynamically get the assigned language from the node as described above?  Because

<xsl:value-of select="data [@alias = 'Language']"/>

isn't returning anything.

Thanks again,

Garrett

I used a field on the document so I could have a human-readable language option.  People didn't want to see "en-GB" or even "english - united kingdom", so I created a field to allow people to name the language, so we got:

"English"
"Francais"
"US English"

etc.

Ok. Gotcha.  Thanks again.  Now, a couple of remaining issues:

1. How can I get the select box to "auto-select" based on which language was/is selected?  I don't know how to perform this comparison in the XSLT.  I mean, without hard-coding the subdomain(s). Any ideas?
2. Is there a way to modify the <xsl:for-each> in such a way that the URL in the <option> isn't ALWAYS the home page?  In other words, when you change the language, it would stay ion the same page, just changing the subdomain.  Eg., "http://fr.localhost/about.aspx" to "http://en.localhost/about.aspx".  Any way?

I very appreciate your time, @dandrayne.

//Garrett

This is fantastic, Chriztian!  Thank you so much!  However, I DO still have one problem-- the currentLanguage variable returns as English no matter what.  In other words, the redirect is working great but even when I'm on the Spanish or French sites, "English" is selected.  Any idea why this would be?  My @language fields are definitely populated correctly.

Thanks,

Garrett

Hey Garrett,

'couple of possibilities for currentLanguage not changing:

1. The actual property on the document is not called language
2. The property is not on the Document at level 1 (do you have the roots of the different sites at level 1?)
3. Can't think of a third option... :-) 

(You could also look for a specific DocumentType instead of going to level 1, that was just easiest in my scenario)

/Chriztian

Oh - remember to check the generated HTML source — another reason "English" would be selected regardless of actual language, could be that English is the first language, and that no options are explicitly selected... does the HTML actually contain <option selected="selected">English</option> ?

/Chriztian 

Yes.  Below is my output:

<select onchange="window.location='/about-gtp.aspx'">
     <option value="http://en.localhost" selected="selected">English</option>
     <option value="http://fr.localhost">Spanish</option>
</select>

I copied code exactly.  What do you think is going on here?

Thanks in advance,

Garrett

The answer, Chriztian, is that I AM NOT *IN* the site I THINK I am!  I was told that if I set the subdomains and associate a language with them under the Manage Hostnames doalog, that Umbraco would take care of the rest in terms of separating the sites.  Why, no matter what subdomain I am browsing, am I always looking at the same site?  I tried changing some content in my Spanish site and I am on http://ES.localhost/, and my changes are not there.  I am ALWAYS looking at the English site.  What am I doing wrong here? 

//Garrett

Hi Garrett,

This was caused by the issue with top-level nodes being named the same, from this thread, right?

(Just making sure future Umbraco-Ninja-Padawans will find an explanation for this.)

/Chriztian

Yes, this was the reason-- good lookin' out :)  That problem is a thing of the past.  NOW-- glad I have you back, Chriztian, because I'm using your XSLT code snippet for toggling the language, and although it seems to be working great in Some places, I am getting somewhat inconsistent results from it.  To refresh your memory, here's what we've got:

<select onchange="window.location=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;">
    <xsl:if test="$relatedNode/relations[relation]">
            <xsl:attribute name="onchange">
             <xsl:text>window.location='</xsl:text>
                    <xsl:value-of select="umbraco.library:NiceUrl($relatedNode/relations/relation/node/@id)" />
         <xsl:text>';</xsl:text>
           </xsl:attribute>
    </xsl:if>

 <xsl:for-each select="$currentPage/ancestor-or-self::root/node">
            <option value="{umbraco.library:NiceUrl(@id)}">
             <xsl:if test="data[@alias = 'language'] = $currentLanguage">
                    <xsl:attribute name="selected">selected</xsl:attribute>
                       </xsl:if>
                   <xsl:value-of select="data[@alias = 'language']"/>
              </option>
   </xsl:for-each>
</select>

What's happening is that on 2nd-tier pages (eg., Home > About), it's writing out the FULL path in the onchange call, eg.:

http://es.localhost/about-gtp.aspx

And so the toggle works-- the language is switched because of the inclusion of the subdomain.  However, this first part of the URL is left out on 3rd-tier, and moreover, any nth-tier page greater than the 2nd level.  Why is this? Can you please give me some advice on how to fix this in the XSLT? 

Thanks again,

Garrett

Hi again Garrett - we meet again :-)

I'm afraid I can't give you any great explanation here, because the culprit lies within the NiceUrl() method - as you can see, the actual URL is generated from the id of the related node — if you're curious about the XML returned from GetRelatedNodesAsXml(), it looks similar to this example:

<relations>
    <relation typeId="1" typeName="Relate Document On Copy" createDate="1/18/2010 3:01:59 PM" parentId="1047" childId="1062">
        <comment></comment>
        <node id="1062" parentID="1060" level="2" writerID="0" sortOrder="2" createDate="2010-01-18T15:01:59" nodeName="Dokumentation" path="-1,1060,1062" />
    </relation>
</relations>

Maybe someone closer to Core can shed some light on this peculiarity...

/Chriztian

Perhaps this issue is related to your niceUrl() problem with the 3rd level? Includes proposed workaround:

http://our.umbraco.org/forum/getting-started/installing-umbraco/6449-Umbraco-NiceUrls-not-returning-with-full-domain

cheers,
doug.

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