Magento URL Language Switch Problem

[thezey]

Hello, I am running under magento 1.9.1.0 version and have multi-language stores activated. My base url is http://www.safegripcontrol.com 

When I am on a product page in English (i.e. http://www.safegripcontrol.com/en/safety-security/susino-compact-3-fold-umbrella.html) and switch to German, magento displays a 404 error page with the url http://www.safegripcontrol.com/de/safety-security/susino-compact-3-fold-umbrella.html?store=. This is due to the fact that in German, I customized the url as http://www.safegripcontrol.com/de/schutz-sicherheit/regenschirm-susino-kompact.html. So, magento doesn't translate the customized category name nor the product. As a result, it gives http://www.safegripcontrol.com/de/safety-security/susino-compact-3-fold-umbrella.html?store= as a url redirect, which doesn't exist. Basically, I want magento to understand that I made translation for categories and products. Therefore, when switched from english to german, I need magento to redirect to the german page, which is http://www.safegripcontrol.com/de/schutz-sicherheit/regenschirm-susino-kompact.html. 

On the site note, I tried to get rid of the url extension ?store=, which is really bad for seo purposes because it creates duplicate pages, but didn't figure out how to remove it permanently. If you have any idea on how to remove this extension, it'd great if you could share it. 

I'd like to know how to fix the issue so that Magento redirects and translates to the correct urls. 

Please let me know. 

Thank you very much.

[thezey]

Does anybody have an idea on how to fix the magento url language switch issue?

[Mboulliung]

When you switch the language, Magento is basicall looking for the same URL in that language.
One way to solve your issue is to create custome redirects.
So in your example :
- One redirect for the german store view, redirecting : /safety-security/susino-compact-3-fold-umbrella.html to /schutz-sicherheit/regenschirm-susino-kompact.html.
And for it to work the other way around :
- One redirect on the English store view, redirecting :/schutz-sicherheit/regenschirm-susino-kompact.html. to /safety-security/susino-compact-3-fold-umbrella.html 

This will work however i'm not saying its the best practice as multilanguage + fully localized url keys is always tricky.

[thezey]

Thanks for your comment. The problem is that I already have custom redirects under URL Rewrite Management, as when you "translate" urls to other language urls, Magento automatically create custom redirects. However, those custom redirects don't work when you click on the flag to switch to another language. It's like if it doesnt redirect properly.

Is there any solution to fix this issue?

[thezey]

I'm unable to solve this issue. Could anybody point me to the right direction so it languague switch links redirect properly?

Thanks in advance

[thezey]

up

[FuZZbaLL]

I am having the same issue, i have a default store view and a storeview in an other language. From what i have read, the rewrite module has some bugs in it. I would like to check out this fix, but it is only tested on magento 1.8. And i have 1.9.2

https://github.com/Vinai/VinaiKopp_StoreUrlRewrites

for static pages, the ones without products, the following method works. but once you add products the the category and do a reindex, the custom rewrite rules are overwritten 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV72F2HH5mM

Greetings,
FuZZbaLL

[MageWorxTeam]

Hi @thezey

As an option, you may check our Store and Currency Switcher --

http://www.mageworx.com/store-and-currency-auto-switcher-magento-extension-new.html

According to users' location, the extension will automatically direct them to the URLs of the localized stores. Also, it will automatically switch the store currency.

Hope it works for you. 

[MagestyApps]

GeoIP Store and Currency Switcher - Our extension using MaxMind's GeoIP2 database and automatically update the database from MaxMind's official website once a day so our extension will always right automatically switch language, store, currency and tax based on visitor's location, and block separate countries and IPs. And it all for one price.

[FMEExtensions]

You can try Magento Language & Currency switcher that allows merchants to automatically change the language and currency of the store based on the visitors location. The users can also change the language and currency from a drop down displayed in header/footer of the your store. 

You can also download Magento 2 version this store switcher extension:

https://www.fmeextensions.com/geo-ip-default-language-currency-magento-2.html

This extension is also available at Magento Marketplace:

https://marketplace.magento.com/fme-geoipdefaultlanguage.html