How to move from Falang to Speedy Translate

Speedy Translate stores translations the way Falang does, one item with its translations beside it, so a Falang site moves across without redoing its content. The import copies Falang's translations; it never changes Falang's data.

Before you start

• Back up the site. The import writes to Speedy Translate's table only, but a backup is the right habit before any large change.
• Joomla 6. Speedy Translate 3 needs Joomla 6.0 or later and PHP 8.3. Update Joomla first if your Falang site is on Joomla 5.
• Try it on a copy first if the site is busy: you can compare both on the copy before touching the live site.

Import step by step

1. Install Speedy Translate (Lite or Pro) from System → Install → Extensions. Falang can stay installed for now: once Speedy Translate runs in its own mode, it keeps Falang's database driver and custom fields plugins from loading, so the two do not translate the same page twice. If Falang is installed or updated after Speedy Translate, the first page after it is still Falang's: Speedy Translate then moves its plugin ahead of Falang's, and the pages after are its own.
2. Check the multilingual mode. In Speedy Translate → Options, Multilingual mode must be Speedy (Recommended), the default. A site that ran Speedy Translate 2 in its Falang mode imports from that mode: see the note below.
3. Open Migrate from Falang on the dashboard, under Content translation. It is listed whenever Falang's translation table is in the database, even after Falang is uninstalled, for users who can configure Speedy Translate.
4. Read the preview. For each content type it shows how many translations it will import, how many Speedy Translate already has, and how many it leaves out, with the reason.
5. Choose what happens to existing translations. By default, a translation Speedy Translate already has is kept. Tick Replace the translations Speedy Translate has already with Falang's to let Falang's win.
6. Press Import. The report lists what was imported, replaced and kept. On 100,000 translations it takes a couple of seconds.

Because Falang's tables are left as they were, you can run the import again, for example after more translations were added in Falang meanwhile.

What is imported, and what is left out

• Imported: the published translations of every table Falang translated, including articles, categories, menus, modules, tags, contacts and the tables of Solidres and other extensions.
• Custom fields: Falang keeps all custom field translations of an item together; the import turns them into one translation per custom field.
• The originals come too. Falang's copy of the original text is kept with each translation, so Speedy Translate can tell when an original changed later and mark the translation outdated.
• Tables without an adapter yet are imported and flagged in the preview. Their translations show once an adapter for that extension is installed.
• Left out: unpublished and empty translations, custom fields that no longer exist, and the few tables Speedy Translate keys by several columns.

After the import

1. Check the site in each language: the home page, a category, a few articles, the menus and modules.
2. Publish the Speedy Languages switcher in place of Falang's, or let the dashboard's setup do it, and unpublish Falang's switcher module.
3. Check the hreflang setting. Speedy Translate follows the Add Alternate Meta Tags option of Joomla's Language Filter plugin, which the dashboard's setup can turn on.
4. Uninstall Falang when you are satisfied, from System → Manage → Extensions. Its backlink goes with it.