About the TranslateThis Button
The TranslateThis Button is a Javascript translation widget written by Jon Raasch. The script leverages the Google language API and is very lightweight, running well on any website.
The widget provides an accessible Javascript interface for translating up to 52 languages (and counting). The user interface has been carefully designed to work well in all environments on both PCs and mobile devices.
Detailed Info for Nerds
The TranslateThis Button has a number of technical advantages for developers.
First the script is very lightweight, weighing in at just over 5 Kb (under 12kb including all the imagery). And since it doesn't depend on a JavaScript library, TranslateThis loads quickly and can be easily plugged into any site.
The script has undergone cross-browser testing, and works in IE 6-8, Firefox 2-3.6, Safari 3-5, Chrome, and Opera 9-10.5. Furthermore it is designed to degrade gracefully into earlier versions of these browsers.
Additionally, attention has been paid to Javascript optimization at every point. The codebase is optimized, object oriented and compressed.
Google Language API requests run asynchronously and have been consolidated as much as is efficient. Finally, HTTP requests have been limited as much as possible for the widget assets (the flag imagery is in an image sprite).
Advanced Options
The TranslateThis Button provides a number of customizable options
- Tracking with Google Analytics
- The ability to restrict the translation by ID so the widget only translates a portion of the page
- A callback function for when the translation completes
- Control over which languages appear in the flag list, drop down and overall listing
- Various styling options including the ability to use your own flag imagery
- Change the text of the widget to suit your site's language
- And more... Read the docs for more info
