Forum:Multi-Language Wikia...How to?

I am setting up a new wikia and was wondering what the best way to handle multilanguage support? I have researched this already on my own and so far i think this is the best way (please tell me if i'm wrong):


 * 1 wiki
 * Seperate language pages for each page in the wiki
 * Some kind of template element at the bottom providing links to the other language versions of whatever page you are on. (is there a pre-built template like this? What would be really nice is if it auto-populates the links).

So for example:

You have the page: Page1 in English.

At the bottom of Page1 you have a template that says "View this page in: English | French | German | Italian | Turkish"

Those would link to Page1, Page1_FR, Page1_DE, Page1_IT, Page1_TR respectively. Ideally the template could just be added within the page edit as a custom template or something and would dynamically take Pagename and add _Language code on its own so I dont have to manually do it for each page.

The other way I see would be to create entire seperate wikias for each language. But is that overkill? ie. MyWiki.wikia.com, MyWiki_DE.wikia.com, MyWiki_FR.wikia.com etc.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I have already searched the forums as well and have not found what I am looking for on this subject yet. Wooga ml 14:08, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks!

If I'm not wrong you can pick language for your wiki when you create one. A French wiki would result in fr.mywiki.wikia.com, English wiki's don't have a prefix en though. -- Light Daxter - User - Talk 13:53, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

So it is better to create an entirely seperate wiki with the same exact name but select a different language? Then just link to that wiki, or a page on that wiki? Wooga ml 14:08, March 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * In most cases, this is better. Then you can use Interlanguage links to link them all up on each article. Some wikis have tried true multilingual support though. The 888th Avatar   (talk)  23:17, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, getting interlanguage links setup now. Will see how this works. The interlanguage links box on the lower left is a bit hidden though! Does anyone have a template, or snippet they put at the bottom of the page? or something more prevalent? 77.23.101.23 09:24, March 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, most wikis just use that box on the lower left. Personally, I think that's probably enough. If you want something a bit more visible, you'll need to create a template for it. The 888th Avatar   (talk)  09:56, March 17, 2010 (UTC)

OK, thanks alot for the feedback. I am a beginner to wiki development/administration. But now I have a bit more "advanced" question. I know now that I want to create a template. I have read about creating templates and I think I understand pretty well how this works. Now I just need to know one thing. What is the variable/parameter to insert the CURRENT PAGE name into a template? So no matter which page the template is inserted into, the variable will always write/be replaced with the name of the page it is inserted into. Hope the wording is not too confusing, it seems this would be rather simple and just be something like de.blah.wikia.com/wiki/<> or something. Thanks! 77.23.101.23 10:48, March 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * That would be magic words. The magic word for this is  , for example used thus: ""  The 888th Avatar   (talk)  11:13, March 17, 2010 (UTC)