Most of the software Solution Grove uses have support for internationalization.  We can offer to present webpages in the user's chosen language using translated message keys.  The current limitation is that internationalization usually apply to those strings which are present in the platform used itself.  It usually doesn't cover any user provided content.  And this also means that any new string that you want to use needs to be properly translated to the different languages that your site supports.

If you don't have the resources to translate everything used in your own sites, you can opt to use the Google translator tool in your site.  What it does is to add a small widget where the visitor can choose from a dropdown list of different languages and have the Google translator do the work for you.  Some of the advantages and disadvantages are listed below.

The advantages:

• You are not redirected to an external site.  Google instead adds a frame at the top of your page and keeps you at your current URL.
• Google intercepts the a href links so that if you click on one it gets translated as well.
• You can easily switch between the translated page and the original page using one click of a button (Google adds the button to the frame).

Depending on how you look at it, you might consider some of the following as the disadvantages.  Personally, I think it's done that way for security purposes.

• It won't intercept dynamically created links.
• It won't intercept form submissions.
• You are limited to Google translator's engine.  You can't specifically display the translation as how you want it to be.

If you want to try it out all you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Visit http://translate.google.com/translate_tools
2. You'll be presented with a screen similar to the one below where you can choose the options for the widget (e.g. your site's language, the languages you want to appear in the dropdown).  Customize these settings.
   
   
3. A javascript code will be generated for you.  Copy the snippet and add it to your site's template.
4. Test. That's it. It's that simple.

You can take a look at this screencast to see a quick demo of how it's done or you can visit http://www.solutiongrove.net for a live demo (button is at bottom right of page).