Implementing different default languages in a multi-site/multi-language setup

Question

Assume the following requirements:

1. A TYPO3 install should host two sites (page trees) in different languages (English and German).

2. Both sites share translated records (that is with sys_language_uid equal to 0 and 1 respectively) from a data folder.

Requirement 1 could be solved by modifying the displayed language through mod.SHARED.defaultLanguageFlag/Label in PageTS for each site root and using appropriate frontent TypoScript. Both sites would languageField/sys_language_uid equal to 0 for all content.

Requirement 2 introduces a problem with this simple setup: All records on both sites refer to the default (english) language for the content in the data folder. This is problematic in the backend and frontend.

How does one get around that? Is it possible to have the german tree (pages and new content) handled by TYPO3 in BE with a default language id of 1?

An ugly solution that would probably work is to create english pages in the german tree, create german translations and add content only to these translations. Also, one would probably have to set TCAdefaults.[table].sys_language_uid = 1 for all tables in that page tree to avoid having to create english records first. Is that the only viable way?

Answer 1

The problem you mention is truly existing but only in the backend when editors have to work with the records.

For the frontend you're free to set any language as default language. In the root of each page just make a different language-setup and assign the language you need as default, together with the corresponding sys_language_uid.