We are developing a portal with dynamic localization - i.e. content is available in two or more languages. It is important that the solution is as user friendly as possible. Currently we have two proposed solutions:

1. Create 2 portals under the same host, and in one portal have a language selector that just is a linke to the other portal, and vice versa.

2. One portal where each language is root in the portal sitemap. We then have a menu, that loads the sitemap from the correct language root.

The problem with solution 1 is that the administrator must log on to each site independently. The problem with solution 2 is that a lot of work has to be done in order to only show relevant pages for the selected language. Search has to be modified to only search in pages that are below the selected root, i.e. the selected language. And so on.

What is the best solution for dynamic localization? Are there other solutions than the two stated above? Is there a way to circumvent the problems that come with each solutions?

Marjus,

there is a third alternative: use multilingual (ML) solutions from Locopon or Apollo to create real portal support for multiple languages. This is preferable, if the portal structure and most of the content shall be available in all supported languages - have a look at DeutschNetNuke.de for example. Your other solutions have difficulties with either user management (your first solution) or menu handling (your second solution) and IMO are only recommended, if they are either run completely independently (e.g. by nationally based departments --> solution 1) or contain only few pages in the additional languages that can be displayed using a sitemap module or sth. like this (solution 2).

MLAnnouncements, MLAdvAnnouncements, MLSurvey and MLHTML all have support for multilingual content, I use some of them on www.DeutschNetNuke.de.

MLPageLocalization is used to provide page name, title and description in multiple languages while MLmoduleLocalization is used to provide module attributes in multiple languages.