There are different ways to use Spip to create and manage a multilingual site.

This sample database (one section in French and one in English, each containing 4 articles within 2 sub-sections) shows just one way to create a site which is simple and multilingual.

The home page offers a choice of languages. On subsequent pages, you can easily navigate to the corresponding section or article in another language by using a drop-down menu.

This structure should prove a useful starting point for those who are trying to use Spip to build a multilingual site for the first time.

An online demo of this site is available (for a limited time, at least) at http://www.taize.ch/spip172/. The three "template" files are: accueil.html, rubrique.html and article.html.

Howto

1) Perform a new installation of Spip 1.8.2, 1.8 or 1.7.2. [1]

2) Overwrite the files contained in the file SpipMultilingueExemple.zip offered below.

3) In your Private space, activate the Complete interface.

4) Go to
.../ecrire/config-lang.php3
and change the character set for the site to Universal alphabet (utf-8)

5) Go to
.../ecrire/config-multilang.php3
and select:
Enable the language menu for the articles? [No]
Enable the language menu for the sections? [Yes]
and click on Submit

Next:
... only for the sections located at the root? [Yes]
Managing translation links? [Yes]

6) On the page
.../ecrire/admin_tech.php3
click on "Restore the database" and follow the instructions.

Attention! The file to be restored is:
dump172.xml.gz if you are using Spip 1.7.2
dump18.xml.gz if you are using Spip 1.8
dump182.xml.gz if you are using Spip 1.8.2

7) Once the database is restored, the codes for accessing the private area are:
Login: admin
Password: spipdemo

8) Visit the site, and also take a look at the code of these files: accueil.html, rubrique.html and article.html.