DLE Multi-Language

Full multilingual support for DLE — without duplicating the engine

DLE Multi-Language is a professional solution that makes your site truly multilingual within a single DLE installation, with one database and full support for search engine SEO requirements.

Add an unlimited number of languages, translate content by hand or with artificial intelligence (GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek), and give developers a flexible set of template tags for building any multilingual interface.

Features

1. URL structure and routing

• Prefix-based URLs — every language gets its own prefix: site.com/en/, site.com/es/, site.com/de/. The default language lives on the root domain without a prefix, which matters for SEO.
• Automatic URL rewriting — every internal link in the template gets the language prefix automatically. Developers don’t have to rewrite hrefs by hand.
• Static resources are protected — /uploads/, /templates/, /engine/, /language/ and the favicon never get a language prefix, so there are no 404 errors on images and CSS.
• Any ISO code — a built-in database of more than 90 language codes (ISO 639-1) and 90+ country codes (ISO 3166-1), with reference tables right in the admin panel.
• Translated SEO-friendly URL for every language — each item can have its own URL (alt_name) in each language. When a page is viewed in that language, the translated URL is used automatically in links, canonical, hreflang and the Sitemap.
• Remembers the chosen language — the visitor’s language is stored in a cookie, and the site opens in that language on the next visit.
• Browser language detection — on the first visit the site can open in the visitor’s language automatically, if it is on the list.

2. SEO for international search engines

• Automatic hreflang — the module generates correct <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags for all active languages, including the x-default that Google requires.
• Localised site meta tags — home_title, description, short_title and keywords can be set separately for each language in the system settings.
• Four strategies for untranslated pages:
  • Fallback — show the original content
  • Strict Mode — clear the fields and show empty values
  • 404 Not Found — return an error to the search engine
  • Redirect — a 301 redirect to the home page
• Hide untranslated content in lists — exclude news without a translation from the home page, categories and search results for a given language.
• Your own translation criteria — the administrator decides which fields (Title / Short Story / Full Story) must be filled in for an item to count as translated.

3. Language files (.lng) and the translation editor

• A visual .lng editor — no more editing files over FTP. All keys are shown in a clear table with the original and the translation side by side.
• Missing translations are highlighted — untranslated keys show up in red, and a counter tells you how many lines are left.
• Instant search — a live filter by key and by text, with no page reload.
• Your own .lng files — add custom files (for example my_design.lng) to translate elements of your design.
• Import translations from other languages — a two-step wizard copies the contents of a .lng file between any language folders.
• DLE system files are protected — keys from adminpanel.lng, website.lng and other original DLE files cannot be deleted by accident.

4. Automatic AI translation

• Four AI providers — OpenAI (GPT), Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini and DeepSeek. The module loads the model list from the provider with the "Refresh models" button, so new models are available as soon as they are released.
• Switch providers on the fly — compare the translation quality of different models without touching the code.
• One key, one button — for pinpoint edits.
• Batch AI translation of a whole file — with a progress bar, smart batching of 5 keys per request and automatic retries on network errors.
• Skip Existing mode — translate only empty keys and leave finished translations alone.
• Technical elements stay intact — the AI gets special instructions to leave variables like {user}, HTML tags and DLE markup untouched.
• News content translation — a separate mechanism translates the title, short description and full text of news, keeping every HTML tag, style and the structure of the document.
• Bulk news translation — the "Bulk translation" tab translates the whole site, or selected categories and dates, into the chosen languages: titles, texts, meta tags, tags and multilingual additional fields. It runs in an open tab or in the background by cron — with progress, pause, retry of errors and an automatic stop if the AI balance runs out or the key is wrong.
• Your own instructions for the AI — set the style, tone and what must not be translated. By default the names of games, apps, brands and people, as well as facts — languages, versions, numbers — stay as in the original.
• Do not overwrite filled fields — the AI translates only empty fields: correct names and values that you or a parser have already filled in are not overwritten.

5. Template tags for developers

The module adds a powerful set of tags that work in any DLE .tpl template:

• {lang=key} — output any string from a .lng file directly in the template.
• {lang-code} — the two-letter ISO code of the current language (handy for <html lang="...">).
• {home-url} — the absolute home page URL, including the current language prefix.
• {site-title}, {site-description}, {site-name} — localised site metadata.
• [if_lang=en,ru]...[/if_lang] — show a block only for the listed languages.
• [not_lang=en]...[/not_lang] — show a block to everyone except the listed languages.

6. The language switcher — {lang-select}

One tag — dozens of design options, no JavaScript to write:

• Four display types:
  • links — a horizontal or vertical list of links
  • dropdown — an animated drop-down list
  • select — a native HTML select (great on mobile)
  • auto — switches automatically: dropdown on desktop, select or links on mobile
• Choose what to show — flag, name, native name and code, in any combination, through the show parameter.
• Themes and sizes — light/dark and sm/md/lg through CSS variables.
• Animations — fade, slide and other dropdown effects.
• Positioning — bottom-left, bottom-right, top-left, top-right.
• Open on — click or hover.
• Order control — the order parameter sets any language order, exclude hides the ones you don’t need.
• Custom names — the names parameter sets your own labels for any language.
• Responsive breakpoint — a configurable point where the desktop version switches to mobile.
• Full accessibility — ARIA attributes, keyboard support and hreflang attributes on every link.

7. Custom switchers with {lang-select-loop}

For developers who want full control over the switcher’s HTML, the module offers a loop tag with its own templating:

• Loop variables: {ls-url}, {ls-code}, {ls-CODE}, {ls-name}, {ls-name-native}, {ls-flag}, {ls-flag-url}, {ls-active}, {ls-selected}, {ls-index}, {ls-count}, {ls-odd}, {ls-even}.
• Conditional blocks: [if_ls_active], [if_ls_inactive], [if_ls_first], [if_ls_last], [if_ls_odd], [if_ls_even].
• Build any custom interface — language cards with flags, tab switchers, grouped mega menus — all within a regular HTML template.

8. DLE XFields (additional fields) support

• A multilingual field with one checkbox — in the settings of any DLE additional field, turn on "Use as a multilingual field (Multi-Language)" and set default values for each language.
• Translations in the language tab — the values for each language are filled in on the language tab when editing a news item, including lists, images and files.
• The same template tags — [xfvalue_name] outputs the value in the page language by itself, with no copies of fields with language suffixes.

9. Safe installation and removal of languages via AJAX

• Step-by-step installation with a progress bar — every operation (creating the folder, copying files, adding database columns, setting up XFields) runs in stages.
• Resilient to 504 timeouts — the module reconnects automatically after network errors and continues from the same step.
• Clone from an existing language — when creating a new language, copy all .lng files from any existing folder to speed up localisation.
• Flag icons installed automatically — the module picks the right country icon from its built-in database even when the language ISO code differs from the country code (for example, en → the gb flag).
• Safe change of the default language — a step-by-step background migration moves content between the main and language fields in the database without losing data, so you can change the site’s main language even after it has been filled.

10. A professional admin panel

• A dashboard with statistics — module status, number of active languages and the default language on one screen.
• A built-in ISO code reference — pop-ups with every language and country code, flag and name. Click a row and the code is inserted into the form.
• ISO code validation — the module warns you immediately if you try to use a country code instead of a language code (a common SEO mistake).
• Update checks — automatic and manual checks for new versions, with the changelog shown right in the admin panel.
• A multilingual admin interface — the whole module is built on .lng files and can be translated into any language.

11. Compatibility and performance

• DataLife Engine — versions 19.0 — 21.0.
• PHP — compatible with PHP 7.4 – 8.x.
• One database — no duplicated records, only extra columns.
• Minimal performance impact — the module works at the template engine level and does not affect DLE’s main queries.
• DLE cache, Memcache and Redis — cached blocks (calendar, archive, tag cloud and others) are stored separately for each language, and saving the module settings clears the whole cache.

Who it is for

• News sites reaching an international audience.
• Corporate portals that need localisation for different regions.
• Blogs and information projects that need SEO visibility in several countries.
• Travel and event sites that simply must work in several languages.
• Any DLE project that wants to go multilingual without moving to another CMS.

What you get

• Full multilingual support within a single DLE installation.
• Bulk translation of the whole site into new languages — in the background, without manual work on each news item.
• Automatic translation of content and interface with the leading AI models of 2026.
• Correct SEO for Google, Yandex and other search engines.
• A flexible toolkit for building language switchers without writing JavaScript.
• An intuitive translation editor that saves dozens of hours of work with .lng files.
• Professional technical support and regular updates.

DLE Multi-Language turns your single-language site into a full international publication in a few clicks — painlessly, without duplicating the engine and without losing SEO.