[TYPO3] Special localization need

[Xavier Perseguers]

Hello,

Question as summary
-------------------

How can I change the master language for part of my website?



Full description of the problem
-------------------------------

The website I design is kind of a multi-domain site where multiple 
editors will edit page only for their "domain" (editor A will edit 
http://domain.tld/domainA pages, editor B will edit 
http://domain.tld/domainB pages, and so on).

The problem I'm facing is that I need to have the whole website with all 
these "domains" multilingual as generic content will have their labels 
translated automatically. For instance a plugin for events will have 
"date, time, subject, ..." labels translated. The content itself will 
not be translated in all cases. I would bet that actually it won't often 
be translated. This is the reason why I'll implement the fallback mode 
of localization with TYPO3.

The problem I'm facing is to know whether it is possible to setup a 
"default" or master language that is domain-dependant. For instance 
domain A might be "French-based" while domain-B is "German-based". With 
TYPO3 and its localization mechanism, AFAIK, you need to first type text 
in the master language before being able to translate it.

That is, if I understand well and I'll have this scenario (I assume 
master language is English):

- Editor A types French content into master language. No problem, this 
is the only available localized content and browsing the website in 
English, French or German always shows French content with localized 
labels as explained above

- After a few months, he decides to translate content into English. He 
cannot create an English translation. He has to:

   - create a French translation
   - copy the content from the master language (actually it's copied 
automatically), remove "Copy from" prefix (I know I could deactivate 
this feature with TS)
   - modify "master" text with the English translation
   - go back to French content and save content again to remove the fact 
that the master content changed and that the translation might need to 
be adapt to reflect change

This was a "simple" case but if he first chooses to translate content in 
German and later translate it the the master language, then this will be 
a bit trickier.

-- 
Xavier Perseguers
http://xavier.perseguers.ch/en